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 - 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.