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Merchant Accounts being shut down?
 

I had a merchant account get shut down back in November for reasons i am still unsure about. i was approved for $15k a month $150 avg ticket, i used it on a new ebay account and started slow by selling $5 items. They shut me down and said i was a security risk?!?!? because i was selling $5 items when i out in for a $150 ticket. This account lasted a month.

So i said hell with them and opened a new one, just started using them a month ago, this time I sent a bit more money through them, got approved for the same exact amounts. I put $3500 through it this past month and BAM, this morning i was unable to accept payments! Im still waiting to hear back from them for their reasons.

Am I doing something wrong? I dont sell high risk vero items just Video Game System parts, accessories and games for the most part

I have never heard of anything like this. Something is obviously triggering this, I am not sure what. Mercahnt account providers will usually give you at least 30 days notice if they want to terminate the relationship.

Did you owe the first provider any money? You could be on the terminated merchant list.

The real answer here is to find out what their reason was for shutting you down.

No, the first provider actually still has $200 of my money which i will be calling them on monday about.

The current one has $300 of my money.


If i were on this list, wouldnt that have prevented me from being approved to begin with?

In THEORY, yes. But in practice, it sometimes is not discovered until later. But according to the Visa/Mastercard association rules, if you are on the list, they would have to close your account (or not open it in the first place).

Ok...My 2nd account got terminated because of too many declined credit card attempts.... Someone was trying to make a payment but their card kept getting declined. This person attempted it like 10x. And i lose my account because of this........awesome


FYI, this is the 2nd time ive dealt with people from the risk management dept for a processor, customer service is not exactly a strong suit of theirs. The only feeling i was getting from them was how quickly they wanted to get off the phone with me.

which merchant account is this so that we can avoid them

Unfortunately, since the start of the recession, it has become more difficult to obtain merchant accounts. The reason is that investors are gun shy about anything that carries risk. It has been this way since the mortgage meltdown.

Merchant banks normally use investor money to finance purchases. And investors do not want to invest in anything backed by paper that is risky, in any way.

In fact, it is now difficult for people with GOOD CREDIT to get mortgages, unless they can be insured by the FHA.

The tide will turn again, it always does. We may never get back to the "golden years" of 2001-2006, but it WILL get better. It is just a matter of how long it will take.

And, I have to believe that your merchant account provider is either lying to you, or at least not telling you the whole truth. I don't see how you can control whether or not someone else's card gets declined, or how many times they try to put it through. It doesn't make sense. Something else is coming into play here, although I have no idea what that might be.

You might try Charge.com. They are fairly liberal in their approvals. And, if they can't take you on as a customer, they have relationships with other processors that CAN. But the rate would be a little higher. Not astronomically so, but nobody wants to pay more than they have to. And there is no application fee. Disclosure - I am NOT affiliated with them in any way, so I do not benefit if you decide to use their services.