How crucial is a merchant account provider to an offshore merchant account?
To discern their role, in this case, in an offshore merchant account, it's important to get a crystal-clear view of what a merchant account provider does. A merchant account provider is bank or a company that run merchant accounts. They own processing systems to process and validate transactions, but they also have reseller capabilities of third parties' processing systems.
Below are the main characteristics of a merchant account provider:
● Your business applies for an offshore merchant account on a direct basis with a merchant account provider
● Your business is personally liable for all the transactions that they process
● The customer's credit card statements contains the business name
● Merchant account providers use payment gateway
● Certain providers have fixed monthly fees exclusive of processing costs
● Can also have setup fees
● May provide long term contract requirements
Remember that an offshore merchant account allows you to accept credit card payments from your customers. You can also accept debit cards and electronic check payments depending on the merchant service you will opt for.
Since merchant account providers have a wide network of established banks internationally, you can be confident that you will have a quite a lot of banks to choose from. The list of contact banks range from those in the European banks, Carribean banking institutions, and yes, certain banks in the Asia Pacific region.
Now that you have information on what they do, how can you pick the right provider for your offshore merchant account needs? Presented are basic yet vital considerations:
● Analyze the fee setup thoroughly
● Contact their customer support to see of they are an established company.
● Check for the packages available. Always have options.
Take the time to do the math on the fee setup. If you feel you need accounting advise, never hesitate to do so. It may take long, painstaking hours to calculate but it's your hard-earned money on the line. Watch out for hidden fees. At the end of the day, if their costs suits your budget, then it's a first step.
It also always wise to call their customer service toll-free number. If they have competent and efficient phone representatives it signifies that they have the resources to actually setup your offshore merchant account. The customer support ideally should be open 24 hours everyday serving the clients' timezones for any concerns that may arise.
Merchant account providers for offshore merchant accounts have and will always offer programs set beforehand to suit your concerns. Know what you are signing up for. Ask if the program have upgraded levels. This is important so that you'll know what rewards, (if any), your offshore merchant account can enjoy once you go live.
Your offshore merchant account provider will setup a website with all the payment gateway programs and shopping cart options. They will also integrate the requirements such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate that is needed if you're setting up a payment gateway with an application program interface (API).
It is important to know what you are getting into. Your offshore merchant account is a valuable investment you need to look after with utmost care. Never settle, for there are quite a number of merchant account providers for you to choose from. Before putting your signature, be 101% confident. Your offshore merchant account, with your assets, is what's at stake.
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