Recognized as one of the most powerful herbal medicines of the modern age, kratom has taken a seat alongside other prominent neutraceuticals such as hemp. Today, the use of kratom is widespread throughout the United States, but the FDA remains ever cautious of the hip, new, miracle herb. And with such controversy surrounding kratom, it comes as no surprise that businesses involved in the industry struggle to find services to support their operations. That includes payment processing.
Any business in the here and now knows that in order to compete with others in the market, it’s imperative to provide customers a well-rounded shopping experience — from browsing to check-out. Unfortunately, most traditional payment processors that handle the tail-end of the transaction aren’t really willing to take on the risk that kratom businesses pose. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have any option.
In the realm of financial products, there’s an annoying little concept called ‘risk.’ Banks and other financial institutions measure a business’s risk by considering a number of factors. Essentially, these factors determine how many chargebacks a business might get over a period of time.
Basically, a chargeback occurs when a buyer disputes a transaction for whatever reason, forcing the bank to reverse their payment. It’s different from a traditional refund in that the merchant has no say in the chargeback, and the bank bypasses the merchant in performing the transaction reversal.
Banks generally try to steer clear of businesses with a reputation of frequent chargebacks because the process costs money. In the event that a financial institution does take on the risk, they impose expensive fees and penalties on each chargeback and threaten to close down an account that just gets way too many chargebacks at a time.
There are industries that are perceived as high risk right off the bat. These include, but aren’t limited to:
Based on statistics, businesses that involve themselves with these industries are simply more prone to chargebacks because of the kind of products and services they offer. That means that financial service providers — like payment processors — might not scratch up a contract with these merchants as quickly or as willingly as they would with businesses that sell things like furniture, apparel, and appliances.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t actually leave kratom businesses without a choice. There are a number of high risk payment processors out there that take on the risk and happily work with kratom businesses, albeit charging slightly more than you would expect.
Generally speaking, there are actually quite a lot of choices for kratom businesses looking for a qualified payment processor to handle their transactions. But that doesn’t mean that they’re all going to provide quality service.
If you’re looking for a payment processor that won’t give you headaches, here are the four top choices for kratom businesses:
If there’s a provider out there that doesn’t get a lot of complaints from past customers, it would have to be Payment Cloud. Based in Woodland Hills, California, this payment processor caters mainly to high risk merchants but also deals with low risk businesses. This gives them the expertise and knowledge on how to safely and properly handle transactions for hard-to-place merchants.
Payment Cloud offers a range of services for both card-not-present and card-present transactions. So if you’re a kratom store with both an eCommerce storefront and a brick-and-mortar, they offer a wide array of solutions that can fit your needs. For online transactions, they offer payment gateway solutions, virtual terminals, shopping cart integration, and eCheck processing.
What’s especially interesting about Payment Cloud’s services is that they offer a dedicated account rep for new accounts. That means you get sort of like a direct line to Payment Cloud, providing you prompt customer support and assistance when you might need it most.
Located in Thousand Oaks, California, eMerchant Broker has been around since 2011, mainly offering their payment processing solutions to high risk businesses. While their solutions might be slightly more expensive than other providers, eMerchant Broker promises seamless features for both on and offline businesses.
Do keep in mind though that since they maintain their focus mainly on eCommerce solutions, you won’t find a lot of hardware options through eMerchant Broker. Nonetheless, they cover all of the basics for start-ups, providing excellent solutions that address all of the essentials of the tail-end of the transaction.
eMerchant Broker offers high risk merchant accounts, payment gateways, chargeback protection, eCheck processing, business funding, international merchant support, integration partnerships, and cryptocurrency payments. Keep in mind though that their rates are exclusively tiered, so you’re not going to find any estimates of their charges online. To get a better idea of how much you should expect to pay, it would be best to reach out to them directly.
These guys are located in Phoenix, Arizona, and are pretty new to the business. Even then, they’ve amassed quite a substantial number of clients with their services that focus mainly on providing solutions for high risk merchants. Kratom businesses are one of their biggest markets, offering highly customized solutions that focus on fraud and chargeback protection.
Their risk management feature provides merchants the tools to reduce fraud, avoid chargeback problems, and protect their merchant account from potential closure. They also provide in-store solutions for brick-and-mortars, including POS terminals and other hardware features that hope to streamline payments and expand options for buyers.
Their rates are displayed on their website to give clients a better idea of what they can expect to pay if they decide to sign on with American Merchant Broker. They offer a rate of 14%, $0.55 to $0.6 transaction fees, and require a 10% 6-month rolling reserve. Of course, these aren’t the cheapest rates you’ll find, but they don’t charge early termination fees, which might do you well in the long run.
Another big kahuna in the payment processing realm, Host Merchant Services effortlessly competes against big names like Payment Cloud and Easy Pay Direct. They’re incredibly efficient at providing customer support, so you can get easy resolve for most of your processing concerns.
Albeit their limited list of clients (including just 6,000 businesses), Host Merchant Services manages to battle it out with tough competition through their comprehensive list of solutions. Credit card and virtual terminals, payment gateways, mobile processing, POS systems, shopping cart integration, gift and loyalty cards, partnering and referral programs, merchant cash advance, and PCI compliance are just some of their services.
And while they might offer top-of-the-line solutions, Host Merchant Services makes their payment processing options available to most clients with their reasonable fees. Perhaps the only downside is that their services tend to be slightly on the expensive side for low volume merchants that make less than $10,000 a month.
There’s a lot more to choosing the right payment processor than just the fees. For kratom businesses, it’s imperative to look into the nitty-gritty to determine just how well a provider can meet your needs and keep your merchant account safe and sound.
Here are some important qualities to look for when choosing a kratom payment processor:
Although kratom might be a high risk industry, there are still service providers out there that can cater to your payment processing needs. Of course, it still pays to do your research and compare providers since there are some serious differences between each one.
Our four recommendations for the best kratom payment processors have established themselves as some of the most reliable available. Offering excellent solutions, prompt customer support, and reasonable prices, these kratom payment processors might just be what you need to move your business forward whether on or offline.
Need processing that allows kratom and cbd
Hi Greg. We can certainly help you. Please call us