Thread: The economy and merchant accounts

I'm interested in people insights into the economy and merchant accounts. Are new merchants finding it harder to be approved? Has your individual or business credit rating been analyzed more closely?

I know when I have setup new businesses and applied for merchant accounts, different banks/gateways have had different policies. Some were more than happy to setup the merchant account immediately while others wanted to see a few months of trading first.

Amex imposed a restriction which I thought was odd on a new merchant account of mine. Any chargebacks against the account will be automatically debited and there will be no opportunity to dispute the chargeback from a merchant point of view.

It's always been standard that if the client issues a chargeback, as a merchant you have 'x' amount of days to dispute the chargeback and provide proof that the client actually received the goods/service in question. This was only with Amex, nothing out of the ordinary noticed with the bank directly or Visa/MC/Discover.

I completely agree with MattR about the problems we face while opening up a new merchant account..As for merchants based in the UK, there are a very limited number of merchant account providers I can use. What's more, for startup Internet ventures finding a provider that won't double over with laughter when you make your application is even harder.


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Abby Nelson
[URL="http://www.seymourdirect.com/merchant_account_services.htm"]merchant account[/URL]

I certainly agree with you. Your advice is really very helpful for us.Thanks a lot!