A merchant account allows a businessperson to accept payment for goods or services by credit cards. Three types account are available for the merchant to establish. For businesses that do not charge on the spot such as a restaurant or department store a “Retail merchant” account will probably be started. A “MOTO” account is where consumers will buy a product over the phone and the merchant will enter the credit card information manually into a fax or computer. The final account type is the “Internet” account whereby a consumer will buy a service usually computer related and enter his credit card information by himself. Although merchant accounts are very convenient to the merchant as well as the provider there are three plagues which may occasionally occur.

What’s the Hold Up?

A merchant account hold is the lesser of the three evils. It is where the service provider will no longer accept new credit card payment requests and open authorizations may or may not be paid for an undisclosed amount of time. This will usually happen if the merchant is thought to be using the account fraudulently or his account looks suspicious. When signing the agreement with the (more…)