Adult Mercahant Account ...?

[amebb]

Hi there

I am looking for a company that can provide me with a merchant account to accept online payments.

The sites that i have contain adult content - toys, lingerie, sex aids etc

Does anyone know of any company that i can use which is reliable and cos effective..?


Thanks

 

[alanc]

A merchant account alone will not accept online payments, you also need a payment gateway (or payment service provider) for this. Alternatively, you can go the PayPal route as a startup business.

There is some discussion in this thread:
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=133941

 

[amebb]

I was aware that you will need a gateway for payment processing.

Lloyds bank has a merchant service and their gateway is sage pay and so on.

The thing with paypal is that its quiet expensive and does not like dealing with adult themes.

You can use paypal but if they find out you are selling adult goods such as toys, lingerie, dvd's etc your account can be suspended.

There are dedicated mercant account providers that allow you to deal with adult goods etc and they have no issues with that at all.

Not only that, i would only consider paypal for someone starting out in business. Anyone who has a serious business wouldnt consider paypal at all.
Its very easy for paypal to suspend your account if there are any disputes with the buyer. If your paypal account has lots of money in it - you wont be able to touch it until the dispute is sorted.

Thats why - paypal is not for me - sorry.

 

[alanc]

Lloyds bank has a merchant service and their gateway is sage pay

No true. You can use pretty much any PSP with any merchant account.

I take your point about PayPal.

Are you looking for a recommendation of a merchant account or a PSP?

 

[amebb]

hi there

I have found one company that offers a merchant acount (incding fully intergrated gteway) that is desgned for adult use (shops etc).

wwwaxcessms.com

They are UK based and can offer what i am looking for.

I am just waiting to price up the competition and also to see what else is out there that may work with our sites.

So, comming back to the last question i would be looking for recommendation and psp too.

Thanks

 

[mysterons]

I had a client who used these about a year ago. Whilst they do indeed work, you need to be careful as their technical documentation is confusing at best, and it took myself and a developer who does some part-time work specialising in payment gateways many hours to finally get the damn thing to work!

Good luck if you decide to go down that route!

Cheers

Ewan

 

[amebb]

Hi Ewan

Its worth a try i guess. Otherwise using another company like paypal may not work for us (as we sell adult things).

Thanks

 

[Naughty Vend]

So long as you don't show any nipples, crotch shots etc or anything which looks like a willy (there are clear guides upon this) you will be accepted by WorldPay whom I used for about five years at their standard rates for selling the Naughty Vend products, the master franchisee in England still does to this day...

Your adult accounts will charge you far higher rates and on debit cards a percentage not a flat fee, this is a big issue because 8% of a typical £50 transaction is much more than £0.28p for a debit card. A good nbo holds barred provider is Verotel whom are European and automatically give you an affiliate program with full tracking, http://www.verotel.com and I use that for CamHoo which has 18+ streaming content.

Decide between just how important the images without censorship are to your sales, if censored is ok then choose WorldPay just be careful to tone down everything before you apply.

 

[3cellhosting]

I agree with NVI's comments.

We used Worldpay for 7 years on our adult site and we used EROL as the shopping cart. Combination was good but our niche was SM gear. Once Ann Summers and all the Leather DIY merchants started selling with no overheads, tax, VAT etc. we ended up in a declining market so we packed up.

Be prepared that most providers will have higher rates and hold onto funds longer.

Regards

David

 

[unitedbusiness]

Thats why - paypal is not for me - sorry.

That right ...... Paypal is not vey helpful service for businesses....... It is more easy for personal use and / or making small payments.

 

[weareable]

If toys, lingerie and sex aids does not include porn I cant see any problems.
Ann summers sells all of the above and they are on the high street.

 

[Naughty Vend]

If toys, lingerie and sex aids does not include porn I cant see any problems.
Ann summers sells all of the above and they are on the high street.

Yes, one would think so...

The banks mostly have deep roots into "the church" and many are now government owned too, for example Worldpay are RBS and even a plastic product which could look like a willy isn't allowed as an image on the site... and it's not a debate they just pull your account until you fix it and then they review you. Of the mainstream providers Worldpay are at least willing to listen but not be associated to what they see as smut.

For the vending business both TSB and Bank of Scotland refused to lend to me commercially, as recently as 2008 Clydesdale refused to give me a business bank account because we sell little eleven cm vibes and other novelty products such as inflatable sheep, all be it from vending machines in pubs and do not use any nudity etc in our marketing. You have no idea what you are up against with the banks, our retail turnover at the time was just shy of £1m and we had proven sales figures to finance vending machines for a growing network of franchisees which proved a 2yr loan could be repaid in 6 mths... even at that, they would not associate.

Trust my advice here, get WorldPay on your side and save on your fees because those buying products which may need a more "descriptive" image already know what it looks like, some lingerie items perhaps which have crotchless undies or peep-hole can have wee stars to mask the naughty bits. I have been through the mill on this subject.

 

[Soho Secrets]

Hi guys,
Ive recently started a adult novelty toy business and having problems getting a business bank account. Although i dont sell Dvds or magazines most banks dont want to touch it. Does anyone know of the best bank for the job ?

 

[PayPoint net]

Hi guys,
Ive recently started a adult novelty toy business and having problems getting a business bank account. Although i dont sell Dvds or magazines most banks dont want to touch it. Does anyone know of the best bank for the job ?

Hi

We work with a range of leading banks (some more flexible than others) and support many business models like yourself with the payments facility and merchant account so we would be happy to discuss your payment requirements.

PM me your contact details and one of my colleagues who specialises in this can let help you out. otherwise you can call us on 0800 810 0133.

All the best
Siobhan

 

[trebor8]

Yes, one would think so...

The banks mostly have deep roots into "the church"

and the Vatican has inadvertently deep roots into porn - with there pensions investments

If Worldplay don't accept you, then the other route would be to use a 3rd party CC processor (gateway) - such as CCbil, whom are probably the safest and most respected CC processor for the adult industry but they've whopping charges, Verotel are also a safe bet with high fees

Tred carefully and do your homework, there's a lot of sharks out there!

Paypal won't accept Adult material

 

[buygifts]

2 Checkout may be able to help. Their fees are a bit cheaper than CCbil and are integrated into some open source shopping carts, although they do have a reputation for holding on to funds.

 

[CharityClear]

We would be happy to speak to anyone who's struggling to get a merchant account set up. We liaise and partner with many merchant account providers and some of these are prepared to look at traditionally more 'high risk' types of industries.