With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, glassware and other hemp and cannabis smoking paraphernalia have also seen an unprecedented rise in sales. Unfortunately, all this growth isn’t enough to convince banks just yet. So, despite the industry being valued at close to $1B dollars, these glassware paraphernalia merchants still struggle to obtain merchant account services.
On the upside, there are providers that are more than willing to on-board these hard-to-place merchants. Here, we’re naming three of the best glass merchant account providers to streamline your cashless payments.
Maverick BankCard has been around since 2000, and they claim to be a family-run and owned operation. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, they provide their merchant services to low, moderate, and high risk merchants operating across a range of industries. Of course, their bread and butter remain to be their high risk merchant solutions that openly cater to glassware and paraphernalia vendors.
One thing that gives Merchant BankCard an edge over their competition is their dedication to providing their partner merchants the latest and greatest in both physical and virtual payment processing tools. Their point-of-sales systems — whether in-store or online — use cutting edge technology to help you process payments faster than ever, and with fewer hiccups.
For glass merchants, their security and fraud protection features are particularly beneficial. They also provide comprehensive merchant account and payment processing solutions to help you get everything you need in one convenient, holistic package.
Having worked with a number of reputable high risk merchants, Leap Payments is perhaps one of the more trusted, well-known providers on our list. They cater mainly to high risk merchants and provide a range of comprehensive solutions that combine merchant accounts and payment solutions so you can get everything you need with one application.
Typically praised for their impressive customer support services, Leap Payments offers intensive, dedicated after-sales assistance that allows merchants to resolve and troubleshoot issues as they come. Their 24/7 hotline accommodate calls and concerns any time of the day, so merchants won’t have to worry about losing revenue to downtime and errors.
With zero set-up fees, Leap Payments is considerably more affordable compared to other merchant service providers in the segment. And although they might impose an early termination fee of $295, their impressive range of payment solutions might make you stick around long enough to the end of your contract.
If compatibility and integration was your main concern, then Soar Payments is the way to go. Focused on making sure they can cater to clients across the entire spectrum of high risk industries, Soar Payments works with a variety of financial service providers, payment gateways, and shopping carts so that you can easily and effortlessly integrate their solutions to existing software you might already have.
But the perks don’t end there. Soar Payments is one of the few merchant account providers that use an automated application and custom price quoting process. For you, that means a shorter waiting time to get your application approved. They also have one of the fastest underwriting processes, even for high risk glass merchants. Nonetheless, they do ensure an accurate, detailed evaluation to give you solutions that truly match your needs.
Soar Payments has previously worked with a number of glass merchants and paraphernalia businesses, which gives them an edge if you were hoping to partner up with someone who understands your plight. But as with most other merchant account service providers, if you want to know how much their services will cost, you’re going to have to reach out to them directly.
You would think that something as simple as glassware would be pretty low risk, but that’s not the case. Unfortunately, glassware paraphernalia will always be associated with tobacco, hemp, and even cannabis. And because banks take a conservative stance on these regulated markets, they also try to distance themselves from industries that might be related to them.
Another reason is chargebacks. While some buyers might actually enact a chargeback because of a real dissatisfaction with what they received or because of unauthorized use of their funds, others just want to have their cake and eat it too.
Chargeback has often been called friendly fraud because it allows buyers to reverse transactions with no questions asked. After all, the chargeback feature was put in place to protect buyers and make them more comfortable using their credit cards when they were first introduced.
Because of the stigma attached to glassware paraphernalia, some buyers don’t want the purchase reflected in their account — especially if others might have access to it. The worst part? When a buyer initiates a chargeback, they’re not obligated to return what they purchased.
What can you do to reduce your risk and limit the chances of getting slapped with a chargeback? Here are some things you can try:
Some merchants restructure their refund and return processes to make it easier and more practical for buyers to opt for that route as opposed to heading straight to a chargeback. Offering free replacements, a satisfaction guarantee, and fast refund and return processing can make buyers more likely to work with you.
The right merchant account service provider can offer a tool that detects a potential chargeback before it happens. This gives businesses the opportunity to resolve the issue at their level before the buyer decides to take it to the next step.
Unauthorized credit card use can increase your risk of chargebacks. Updated payment processing software that flags a potentially fraudulent transaction before it pushes through can help protect you from the risk and prevent the incident from happening all together.
Today, it’s not hard to find a provider that can cater to your high risk glass merchant account. But the real struggle is in finding one that’s actually cut out for the challenge. Consider our choices for the best glass merchant account providers available and find the perfect partner to support your business and mitigate the unique challenges that surround it.
