Offshore High Risk Merchants
Domestic and International Merchant accounts

Frequent Asked Questions

 Here is a list of most frequently asked questions:

We accept all types of businesses – retail, professionals, trade shows, mail order, telephone order, Internet based, and home based businesses. We process for Canadian, United States and International merchants.

 It depends on where we place your account and how risky your account is in relation to the credit card association rules.  If we are able to place your account domestically; you do not have to incorporate.

The fees vary depending on the risk the acquirer is going to take on the business.

We follow Visa Operating Regulation by observing the 6 month rolling reserve. The reserves are based on the FIFO method – first in first out. After the 7th month, the first month reserves are released and so on. The reserves are normally 5% to 10% on net deposits and it is dependent on how risky the business model is.

We have a 98% approval rate and even if your credit is bad, you will likely get approved.

We process your transactions in real time and you receive your payments twice a week for high risk merchants and daily for retail merchants.

Our SLA is 48 hour turn around with all merchant applications we receive. The more information we have on your business, the faster it will take us to underwrite your merchant account

We accept all brands. The most common brands are Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and ATM debit cards.  We also do checks by phone and ACH checks.

ACH stands for American Clearing House and it is govern by the NACHA (National Automated Clearing House Association) rules. Majority of Americans have either a checking or savings account that can be used as a form of payment through the ACH network.

Yes, merchant activity statements are available electronically.

 Yes, you get to choose your own merchant descriptor and we provide you with your own merchant account. We do not do any aggregation.

Yes, Offshore High Risk Merchant Services can work with you regardless where your site is hosted.

 A payment gateway connects securely with a merchant’s web site to transmit credit card and debit card payment information for authorization and settlement through various credit card and payment networks.

 A payment gateway is necessary to transmit the customer credit card data between the merchant site, the third-party processor and the acquiring bank.  A merchant web site cannot integrate directly with the third-party processor or the bank without the use of a payment gateway.

Yes, we provide 128 bit SSL encryption on our browser and we adhere to PCI (Payment Card Industry Security Standard). The payment card industry requires all members, merchants, and service providers that store, process or transmit cardholder data to comply with this standard.

Yes. We require your bank account and the legal name of your company must be the legal name on your check. We abide by the Patriot Act, Money Laundering Act and the recommendations by the FATF (Financial Action Task Force).

 Offshore High Risk Merchant Services takes into consideration the business model, what types of products or services sold and method of marketing and the history of the business for existing businesses.