Starting a business is a lot of hard work. A solid business plan will get you going and keep you moving towards goals. With a plan in place, you need to invest a lot of ‘sweat equity’ into getting the business rolling. You also need to find funding, whether it be taking out a loan or using money you’ve saved up over the years.

As you develop and grow the business, you will meet challenges and frustrations. However, if you run a ‘high risk’ business, these seem to multiply. One of the potential challenges you could face is finding viable payment processing options for high risk businesses.

If you operate a brick and mortar store, of course you can accept cash for goods and services. Yet with so many people using credit cards and debit cards these days, even traditional stores need point of sale (POS) systems to handle these payments. Yet if your high risk business is either mostly online or totally online, you certainly need a solid way to process credit cards and all types of electronic payments.

Why Does My Business Need a Credit Card Processor?

According to the US Census Bureau, over 180 million Americans have credit cards. These card owners don’t only have one card, but multiple cards from the big companies like American Express, Visa and Mastercard, but also store credit cards and gas credit cards. Because of this, in the United States today, there are over one and a quarter billion cards in use!

Swiping the card or entering the number is easy, but what really happens behind the scenes with a customer’s credit card account? Contrary to what you might think, using a credit card is not a direct transaction between your customers and their credit card company. When your customers use their card, they receive goods or services and you receive payment, but the payment does not happen immediately. The account information from their card is sent from your business to the credit card processor who then validates the transaction. Eventually, the credit card processor releases payment to your business.

Because of this indirect way of processing credit card payments, every business that accepts cards uses a credit card processing company. These companies offer a range of merchant services to businesses of all types and sizes, from online and mobile solutions to POS systems, which allow enterprises to collect money via credit card transactions.

Why is My Business Considered High Risk?

High risk businesses who wish to accept credit cards deal with issues that other businesses don’t. These issues produce the need for specially designed payment processing options for high risk businesses.

A number of factors might cause your business to be labeled high risk, not all of them having to do with you, your business or the products and services you offer. Below are some reasons why traditional payment processing won’t work for your business leading you to seek payment processing options for high risk businesses:

• In some industries, it is difficult to establish a consistent customer base. An occasional or inconsistent relationship with customers could cause your business to be labeled high risk.
• When introduced, new, innovative or experimental products and services can produce lack of customer satisfaction or distrust in what you offer. This lack of trust can lead to returned merchandise and chargebacks (payments being returned to customers) and can mark a business as high risk.
• Businesses that offer controversial goods or services may be labeled high risk. The things being offered are not illegal, just controversial in some people’s eyes. Replica goods, nutritional supplements, tobacco products and online gambling are some products which could be deemed controversial
• Certain types of businesses might require a long period of time between the initial payment and the services they provide causing them to be considered high risk.

If your business gets the ‘high risk’ label, some processing companies will avoid you, refusing to even consider your application. At the same time, some companies, like Shark Processing specialize in payment processing options for high risk businesses.

Choosing Shark for your Merchant Account

At Shark Processing, we care about high risk merchants and offer payment processing options for high risk businesses like yours. Our team has over 15 years of combined experience working in the high risk payments industry, so we understand the hardships and frustrations that accompany high risk businesses. We have high standards and want to assist legitimate businesses and help them to succeed. Because of our high standards, we don’t work with fly-by-night or fraudulent businesses. Some of the highlights of what we offer include:

• Approvals within 24 to 72 hours
• Processing rates starting at 5.49%
• Domestic and offshore solutions
• Round-the-clock chargeback and fraud protection

At Shark Processing, we work hard to set you up with a high risk business account. Our partnerships with both domestic and offshore banks allow us to get you the best rates. If you have been turned down for payment processing options for high risk businesses elsewhere, submit an application to us today. We will set you up with a high-risk merchant account and help you start making money!.