Banks Hate Online Businesses
Daniel Tenner posted a great article on How to get a merchant account for your Software as a Service (SaaS) online business. I investigated this 2 years ago and found much of the same thing that Daniel did…it’s a pain in the ass.
His tips are golden and I recommend reading the entire post.
Getting your first merchant account can be a real nightmare, but it doesn’t need to be so. Following these tips will maximise your chance of looking back at this process and thinking “Heh, it wasn’t so hard after all”. Doing the opposite of these tips can practically guarantee you’ll never get a merchant account. Here they are again:
- Start the process early because it might take much longer than you think it should
- Apply to several banks to give yourself leverage in negotiations
- Exaggerate your volumes (realistically) to obtain good terms and good attention
- Know all about fraud to make the bank feel safe about doing business with you
- Be serious to ensure the bank feels you’re a trustworthy business
- Read the fine print and negotiate the terms, as you may be able to get much better terms than initially offered
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