Business-to-business merchants stand the chance to make large amounts off of single transactions, but there is a catch. High average ticket sales, especially when completed through card-not-present payments, make a business high risk in the sight of traditional banks and financial institutions. That’s why B2B merchants might struggle to find merchant account providers that are willing to partner up with them.
If you’re looking for the best B2B merchant account provider to accommodate and optimize cashless payments for your business, one of these three tried and tested companies might be exactly what you’re looking for.
If you operate a large B2B that processes more than $10,000 of payments each month, then Dharma Merchant Services might be for you. Dharma has been around for several years and is perhaps one of the most trusted merchant account and service providers in the sphere of B2B. Their clean track record and spotless feedback history gives them the obvious upper hand versus providers with significant public complaint volumes.
With most of their solutions tailored specifically for B2B merchants, Dharma looks favorably on these merchants by providing discounted rates for B2B applicants. This applies to merchants with monthly processing volumes exceeding $10,000. For those that exceed $100,000 a month, they offer to lower your rates even further.
Dharma tailors their plans to match each individual client, so depending on the features you want, you can expect to pay more or less than the price quoted on their website. Things like ACH payment processing calls for an additional $25 a month, while interchange plus pricing for debit and credit card payments calls for another extra $25 ever month.
And while added monthlies might not always seem such a great deal for most merchants, it’s worth remembering that Dharma offers some of the lowest prices around, especially for sizeable B2Bs.
For B2B merchants that might be particularly risk-prone, there’s Payment Cloud. Having been around for the best part of seven years, Payment Cloud’s polished services and low prices have made them the ultimate choice for high risk merchants who want to guarantee their approval. This is made possible with the provider’s scrubbing process.
Payment Cloud is well known for its meticulous applications process that ‘scrubs’ each applicant’s documents, social media and web presence, and bank histories to tag red flags that could lead to application rejection. They then coach their clients to resolve these issues and therefore increase the chances of their merchant account application getting approved. (Strattera)
Perhaps the only downside with working with Payment Cloud if you’re a B2B is that their payment options may be initially limited. But as you grow your reputation and improve your relationship with the provider, they can offer to expand available payment methods to include ACH and credit and debit card payments.
If you’re willing to work at your partnership and grow the provider’s trust in your brand, you can expect to get the best rates from Payment Cloud especially if you’re operating in a high risk industry.
Penny pinching B2B’s would do well to consider Payment Depot. These guys have one of the cleanest, easiest-to-understand payment structures that also help B2Bs cut down on what they pay for payment processing fees. Monthly fees at Payment Depot max out at $199 but can go as low as $79. Processing fees per transaction cost between $0.15 and $0.7, which is probably the lowest you’ll find.
Of course, it still isn’t the perfect merchant account provider. If anything, Payment Depot’s limitation is that they only cater to US-based businesses. What’s more, they can’t provide international or multi-currency solutions to their merchants as of writing. So their B2B clients are limited to those that conduct business in the US with only US-based businesses and in USD.
On the plus side, Payment Depot offers free virtual terminals and payment gateway services regardless of what plan you opt to get. The brand has been known to shine in the arena of customer support. So in case there are any hiccups during your use of their services, you can expect to get prompt assistance anytime, anywhere.
For the record — not all B2B merchants are high risk. It all really depends on the average ticket sales that your business receives. While large transactions might bid well for your business in terms of revenue, banks tend to feel differently about their partners undertaking such monumental sales in one go.
The reason? Well, in case your buyers decide to back out of the transaction and opt for a chargeback, all of the banks, financial service providers, and card brands involved will have to incur losses for the money already paid to process those transactions. For small ticket items, that might not be such a big deal. But if your B2B deals with thousands of dollars worth of services or products, then it becomes a major liability.
On top of that, there’s no way you can erase the threat of money laundering from the minds of traditional banks and financial service providers. Usually, businesses that see large volumes of expensive transactions over a short period of time automatically trigger these suspicions in providers, and you can’t really blame them for it.
And then finally, there’s the specific industry you might be operating in. Being a B2B alone increases your risk. If you operate in industries like adult entertainment, cannabis, kratom, digital goods, and travel, to name a few, then you become even more risk-prone.
It’s true that B2Bs often face unique challenges when attempting to acquire merchant account and payment processing services. But just because of the risk stigma associated with your industry, doesn’t mean you can’t get a good deal.
Let go of the desperation and don’t fall for just any provider’s flower catchphrases and baseless promises. Get the best B2B merchant account services for your venture by checking out these three vetted choices and their polished solutions that are tailored specifically for the unique context of B2Bs.
