11th November 2009

Special Considerations For Offshore Credit Card Processing

Because of the Internet, we have become a society that is able to do business with people in countries around the world.

Because of the Internet, we have become a society that is able to do

business with people in countries around the world - as long as those

people are located in 'acceptable' countries. Many credit card

processors do not consider many countries to be acceptable, and do not

allow for offshore credit card processing. This not only makes it

harder for the people in those countries to get the items that they

want and need, but it also cuts into your profits - in a very big way.

In

today's global economy, you need to accept credit cards worldwide.

Unfortunately, because of the rules set by most processing companies,

this isn't easy to do. You must find a processor that will allow you to

accept credit cards worldwide. In the past, this wasn't possible at

all, and eventually, when it became possible, it was such an expensive

service that most small businesses could not afford it.

Offshore

credit card processing isn't allowed by so many processing companies

for several reasons. Those reasons include a higher number of charge

backs and fraudulent charges. However, with the use of real time

technology, this isn't as much of a problem today as it was in the

past. Regardless of this fact, there are still many processing

companies that will not accept payments from these types of customers.

This

discrimination by the processing companies works two ways. Not only are

consumers in those 'unacceptable' countries discriminated against, but

business owners located in those countries are also discriminated

against by the processing companies for the same reasons - higher

instances of fraudulent charges and charge backs.

Thankfully,

there are processing companies that do allow for offshore credit card

processing for consumers and businesses. While they charged extremely

high rates in the past, this is no longer the case today, although they

may charge slightly higher rates than usual for this service because

there are still risks to consider.

Typically, these risks are

addressed by having a larger hold back requirement. Any time that you

work with a processing company, when the company sends you the payment

for your credit card transactions, they hold back a certain percentage

to allow for charge backs that may occur. That money is released after

a certain period of time has passed.

The hold back may occur with

each purchase, or with each payment that the processing company sends

you, depending on your arrangement for receiving your money from the

processing company. Again, if you are collecting what are considered

high risk payments, or you are in a high risk country, you can expect

this hold back percentage to be higher, and the amount of time it takes

for those funds to be released to you may also be longer.

If you

need to collect payments from other countries, or accept payments from

countries that are considered high risk, you can get Offshore Credit Card Processing. It is just a matter of finding a company that will

work with you, and a company that will not charge you exorbitant fees

for the processing service.

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