POINTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE TERMINATING A
HIGH RISK MERCHANT ACCOUNT
Terminating your credit card merchant
account can be done by a simple phone
call or an email to your provider,
requesting him to terminate your
merchant account. For security and
safety reasons, most merchant account
providers require that you submit some
information to authenticate your
identity in your request application
before they begin to process your
termination request. Though, the account
termination process is so simple, if you
had been careless while signing the fine
print during account opening then you
will be in for a shock in the form of a
large termination fee.
This “Early Termination Fee” can range
from fifty dollars to five hundred
dollars or more depending on the
merchant account provider and the type
of account. This fees is applicable only
if you want to close the account before
a specified period of time that is
mentioned in the agreement document.
Having to pay a huge fee for terminating
your merchant account is very
frustrating. But with a little care you
can lessen the pain or even get rid of
it completely.
The first and the most obvious thing you
can do is, to check your agreement
document to see if the termination fees
are still applicable. Most of the
agreements makes the termination fees
invalid if the rates of processing are
raised before the contract is over. For
example, suppose the discount rates
increased in the first year, you will
not have to pay any termination fee
without considering the term of
contract.
This loop hole will not be exposed by
the account provider or the bank. You
should check the agreement to see if it
is there. If such a condition does not
exist then it is better for you to keep
the account open till the expiry of the
contract. This calculation is for you to
make. You should calculate the
difference in cost for keeping the
account open till the expiry and the
termination fees. If it is positive then
keep the account open.
One last thing to remember is: if you
are a merchant who is closing this
merchant account to open another account
due to low fees and rates then the first
choice should be to negotiate with the
existing provider. Service providers
hate the idea of losing a client to
their competitor and therefore, they
will try their best to retain you. The
first information they will need is “why
you want to cancel the account” and the
second one will be “how can be retain
you”. The answer should be: lower your
fees and rates to be equivalent to your
competitor. Many merchants fail to do
this and when they find out it will lead
to a lot of frustration. Just a phone
call would have done the trick.
The primary lesson for you is call your
provider periodically to let them know
that you are up to date with the
merchant account fees and rates of the
competitors.
Contact
one of our helpful account
representatives to assist you in the
setup of
a
high risk merchant account or
offshore merchant account for a
high risk merchant.
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