Cannot get a merchant account....

[Toni]

I want to sell hydrponics equipemt but no bank will give a me a merchant account because its deemed as being paraphernalia......

.....so how on Earth am I suppose to sell the stuff adn how are other people selling hydro equipement?

Thanks

 

[laguna]

Funnily enough I've been trying to get onto barclaycardbusiness to check this out but the site is down!

also,

We have developed a hydroponics (soil-less) growth medium. Our trials will start in the new year but our research suggests its also useful for house plants but without the need for messy compost or soil spillages.

 

[akirk]

no idea why hydroponics equipment would cause an issue - banks will usually look at other factors before deciding on credit facilities, such as merchant accounts - maybe start with paypal and once you have a track record then move to something else?

Alasdair

 

[shopintegrator]

Hi,

Have you tried going through a payment gateway provider who will help you set up a merchant account rather than going direct to the banks for a merchant account. You may find that you will be able to get a merchant account this way.

Try eWay: http://www.eway.co.uk/ and PayPoint http://www.paypoint.net/

 

[Naughty Vend]

It's a newly enforced policy they have always had, self-riteous gits... probably out at the weekend themselves smoking weed wearing bondage gear snorting viagra by the kilo.

Very recently the RBS turned me down for a new bank account because one of my products was a pill / capsule, even though it's a supplement and in the past we've had Streamline and Worldpay asking us to ammend images on our website because you could kinda see a nipple through the underwear etc. Unfortunately you'll need to place on your application form that you are a "Garden Centre Online Retailer" and take all the items which some plonker could decide from the relative safety of hiding behind their keyboard, might be used to do something illegal. It's a nightmare I know when you consider what these bankers are up to themselves, those whom live in glass houses... Change your site back a few weeks later and / or set-up a shadow site and apply for your merchant account via that channel then merge the two gateways at your store when it's approved, it can get monitored but generally once past the approval stage nobody really cares.

PayPal are worse by the way, we had a full investigation from them a few years ago because the word "Naughty" was in our business name. I mean for the love of the wee man.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Naughty Vends approach is spot on - gardening equipment and supplies!!!

Also use Paypal and, maybe, NoChex!

 

[benjamin_c]

Don't use paypal!!! use sage pay, its much better and cheaper than paypal. the link is here. http://www.sagepay.com/products_services/bolt_ons/merchant_services
also as the others have said say "gardening equipment and supplies"

 

[Toni]

Lets say I already got a merchant account for another business and then need to process payments on my new fishy site, can I not just get a new payment gateway which then send the money to the merchant account that I already have?

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Hi Toni,

There are free lines if you want to try again? Alternatively, drop me a PM with your number and I will call you back.

Thanks,

Simon

 

[Toni]

Hi Toni,

There are free lines if you want to try again? Alternatively, drop me a PM with your number and I will call you back.

Thanks,

Simon

Okay your mateys said that its up to the merchant account guys if they want to take on my type of business..... so your maety will find out in the morning but I doubt I will get an account for selling hydro......

I think you have to rig the api and divert payemnts through several websites and thats how to do it....

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Lets say I already got a merchant account for another business and then need to process payments on my new fishy site, can I not just get a new payment gateway which then send the money to the merchant account that I already have?

Hi Toni,

The acquiring bank who provides the merchant account would have to approve its use on another website. Usually, the bank will not allow this unless the second site is of the same business nature withe the same registered address etc.

We have known merchants who have tried to run two sites without permission but our software picks it up the first time a card is attempted as it realises the url is different to the one integrated with the customer ID. In some cases the merchant account could be removed by the acquiring bank as a result.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

I actually spoke to Toni shortly after he called, when a line became free. The Sales office line is open until 5:30pm Mon-Fri and Technical Support is also open 9am-12pm on Saturdays. We have never had any problems with this setup, otherwise we would have been forced to change our hours if we were losing vast sums of customers as a result. We have been operating this way since we were established in 1995...

It is clearly shown on our terms and conditions that there will be a cease charge if we have to place a physical cease with BT - as it doesn't make sense to absorb a cost for a customer that is leaving us. If you weren't happy with the terms & conditions when you signed up then why sign up? Granted, we operate support during office hours only but our staff are on paged response and we have redundancy options should there be a problem with the network. We have a large customer base in terms of broadband and we plan to offer high speed (20Meg) connections at a very low cost in the coming months.

In this particular case, we offered the customer several upgrade options but none were taken and instead he wanted us to absorb a cost for him leaving us and took his business elsewhere. We have several speed options available and will always look to improve service with a co-operative customer.

You can't please all customers all of the time but we have achieved over 90% customer satisfaction for the last 5 years at least. Here is what just a few of our customers have to say about us Reviews

 

[kulture]

You don't get through the audit process of PCI-DSS Level 1 each year without knowing what you are doing. In the case of running a PSP, customer interaction is all front-end loaded - you spend the time talking to the customers when they are asking about your service and then integrating.

After that, they just run...

Absolutely true. There are pros and cons using a less well known gateway.

As they are smaller, they can offer a more personnal service. If they are technically good, and have the proper infrastructure, then their up time is likely to exceed a larger player. As they have less customers, they probably can handle peak seasonal overloads better.

The down side is that there are probably less carts they will integrate with. This can limit your choices when/if you want to move carts. Bigger players like SagePay seem to have interfaces with everything. As lots of people use them these interfaces tend to be kept up to date.

Large gateways can afford 24/7 support. BUT the initial support can be less technically expert and may not be of use.

Its not a straightforward choice. I have never used Totalwebsolutions so have no idea about their performance, but I have used a smaller operation in the past and now use sage pay. I would probably have stayed with the smaller operation BUT they did not support my new cart, and I have had no real trouble with sage.

 

[mattharris1986]

I started using Nochex, but it put some cusotmers off and it wasnt great.

Like you I continually ran into walls trying to get a merchant account but STREAMLINE where really really helpful! I use streamline and sage and its excellent. The best thing you can do is go talk to your relationship manager at your bank.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

How many companies do you know of that can offer 100% customer satisfaction? The award is made up of many areas including website content etc so a customer could be very pleased with service but had not visited our website. Therefore, they get marked as zero for website content as default which marks against us. As a consumer I would say 90% would be very good.

However, as another user on here has pointed out this thread is a discussion on merchant accounts and so I think we should stick to the subject at hand...

 

[kulture]

This thread is about how to get a merchant account. One of the bast ways is to approach a payment gateway and ask their help. The payment gateway will know the right people to talk to, and if they can help get you a merchant account then they have gained you as a customer too.

Sometimes it is easier this way than trying the direct approach and filling in the forms and not knowing what phrases or terms to avoid/re-state differently.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

The down side is that there are probably less carts they will integrate with. This can limit your choices when/if you want to move carts.

This is something we are focusing on at the moment. We have a fairly comprehensive list of carts already integrated but we are keen to add as many as possible. The next one we are doing will be Magento as this seems to be the one most talked about on UKBF and other ecommerce forums. We are currently in discussion with several developers about getting a module done.