High Risk Processing

If your business or online business is considered high risk or you are processing credit cards at a high volume, getting approved with traditional processors may be a challenge. Agapay provides full service processing, including payments gateways, in high risk industries with the personal level of service that you deserve. Allow us to do all the lifting for your business!

If you are a merchant or entrepreneur, you should be aware that there are some high-risk factors that may hinder your growth process. And that’s simply the nature of business. No matter what industry you are in, you are bound to face your share of risks.

So, what exactly does it mean to be a high-risk merchant?

In payment processing, a business may be considered high risk for a number of reasons. Some reasons may be superficial, depending on the niche or type of clientele while others may be directly related to how a business operates and its practices.

Unless your business operates as a cash-only establishment, accepting and processing credit card payments has become the norm nowadays. If your business is considered high risk however, attempting to secure a standard merchant account for accepting electronic payments may be a hurdle that you need to overcome. In general, however, risk is usually calculated in terms of chargebacks and fraud; the more chargebacks a business experiences, the higher the risk.

Please note that just because your business has been labeled high risk, does not mean that it will fail. Instead, it simply means that you cannot work with a standard merchant account, which can make running a business difficult, but not impossible.

A high-risk merchant account is labelled so because it exhibits certain characteristics that make it risky to the processor and hence they have to assign the business this category to minimize their own risk. If you are wondering whether you are a high-risk merchant then the factor that most determines if you are is the type of business you operate. A high-risk merchant account is labelled so because it exhibits certain characteristics that make it risky to the processor and hence they have to assign the business this category to minimize their own risk. If you are wondering whether you are a high-risk merchant then the factor that most determines if you are is the type of business you operate.

Here are several reasons why you could be a high-risk merchant:

Recurring Payments. Subscription services are some of the biggest contributors to being considered a high-risk merchant. The type of business you run is the biggest determinant of the risk associated with your business and therefore, if your business model is based on recurring payments, you are most likely a high-risk merchant. This is because they provide a better avenue for customers to chargeback either because the customer is unaware the recurring payments are processed automatically and because they also have more time for a chargeback.

Large transaction amounts. If your business engages in huge transaction amounts than it can be classified as high risk because then this means that you would have to send back huge amounts to the customer in case of a chargeback.

Finally, if your account provider is not sure what to expect from your business such as in the case where you have no credit card processing history, or has some qualms about its legality such as in selling alcohol online in cases where domestic regulations are unclear, then you may be classified as a high risk merchant.