Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Merchant Account- What Is It And How To Obtain One?

A certain sort of bank account that lets business people to accept payments with the help of credit or debit cards is known as a merchant account. In other words, it is an agreement that takes place between the payment processor and the merchant bank to settle the transactions related to debit card or credit card.

When there is payment made through a credit card by a product or service by any customer, initially the funds go into the merchant account and thereafter are transferred to the business account. Such transfers typically take place on a weekly or day-to-day basis.

If you are planning to run an e-commerce venture and the means of accepting online payments would be through credit card, then you are required to have a minimum of one internet merchant account.

How to obtain a merchant account

Getting the best internet merchant account is not as easy as pie even though this business is getting increasingly competitive nowadays. For reducing the risks, vendors utilize certain aspects and criteria for figuring out the approval of an application.

  • What is the business owner’s individual credit history
  • For how long he is in the business
  • What is the amount of risk in the business
  • Is there any history of defaults, bankruptcies in the business
  • Whether there is already a merchant account of the applicant

It is likely that majority of the new businessmen will get a favorable review on their application from the bank that is holding their other individual/business accounts.