High Risk Merchant Account

If you have been told that your business falls into the high-risk category, or if you have been placed on the MATCH LIST or TMF list (terminated merchant file), or if you have had a high number of chargebacks recently and no longer qualify for a low-risk credit card processing account until you re-build your processing history, then you are most likely wondering how this is going to affect your credit card processing services and what this means for your business.
Acquiring a high risk merchant account from one of these sources will facilitate easy processing of credit cards online for receiving payments due to the vendor rather quickly. In case a business is not considered as a high risk type it is rather easy to acquire a standard eCommerce merchant account, which can facilitate easy processing of credit cards and other such instruments.
Such an account can be obtained from a domestic merchant account provider such as a designated bank or a credit card processor or from any international/offshore agency engaged in similar activity. However, if a business has a high risk content, it is never possible to procure a standard eCommerce merchant account at all. A vendor operating a high risk business is never allowed to have his own high risk merchant account by bulk of the merchant account providers. Under such a condition the best course of action is to apply for a high risk merchant account from international or offshore sources.
The rates/fees chargeable for a high risk merchant account are relatively much more than a standard merchant account. A heavy setup fee is charged for the high risk merchant account whereas fees for the other type of accounts are very small, some of them with no setup fee at all. Similarly the credit card processing rates for high risk merchant accounts are also comparatively very high.