Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What kind of businesses/merchants do you accept?

We accept all legal businesses wanting to accept major credit cards on their websites and businesses who need a virtual terminal to process orders taken by phone/mail. With all our acquiring banks we can also place high risk merchants (high risk categories list).

Q: What are the basic requirements to apply for a merchant account?

First of all you will need to be incorporated or have a registered business activity (EU/UK sole traders) and a business bank account within one of the countries accepted by our acquiring banks. For example if we wish to place you with an EU based bank you will need to be incorporated within the EU. (Accepted countries list)

No matter if you're selling products or services through website or if you're a MOTO merchant (Mail/Phone Order), you will need a fully functional website with all the basic requirements such as:
- Products / services description
- Pricing and delivery information
- Terms & Conditions
- Refunds Policy
- Full contact details with your business address a contact phone number.

Once your pre-application is approved, you will need to provide the following basic and mandatory documents scans by email in order to start the due dilligence process:
- Certificate of Incorporation
- Memorandum/Articles of Association
- Company Bank Account Statement
- Owner's/Director's ID or Passport

Q: Is it really worth to accept credit cards?

Well, each business must decide for itself. However, merchants around the world rely on credit card acceptance to:

- Increase sales: In general, your customers can and will spend more with a credit card than with cash or checks.
- Increase credibility: Consumers recognize that a business that accepts credit cards is a legitimate business, one in whom the credit card associations have "endorsed" by allowing them to participate in the credit card system.
- Better customer service: Accepting a credit card is easy and fast, usually more efficient than virtually any other type of payment acceptance.

With our payment services, you can afford this additional credibility and increased sales. There is also the fact that we do not charge a minimum fee, nor do we charge you anything when you do not process transactions in a month.

Q: Is it safe to process credit cards over Internet?

Yes, these days it's perfectly safe for you and for your customers. All of our gateway partners have fully PCI compliant environments with latest encryption standards.

Q: Which credit/debit cards will I be able to accept?

Visa
Visa Electron
Visa Debit
Visa co-branded cards
V Pay
MasterCard
MasterCard Debit
Maestro International
JCB
Diners Club International (all Diners Club Cards with the MasterCard Mark and hologram on the front of the Card along with the 16-digits account number beginning with 5)
Discover (US)
Carte Bleue (France) (Cards starting with (4))
Dankort non-Visa and Visa branded (Cards starting with (4))
CartaSi (Italy) (Cards starting with (4))
Laser (Ireland) (Maestro International co-branded)

Q: What is a merchant account? Who is a merchant, and what is an acquring bank?

We see sometimes that a lot of beginners confuse these terms. In the world of credit card processing a merchant is a business/company that is accepting credit card payments. A merchant account is simply a dedicated account opened with an acquiring bank, this account is setup for a merchant for accepting credit card payments. The acquiring bank at which a merchant has a merchant account is paying out all settlements to the merchant to their business bank account.

Our main service is an arrangement of a merchant account in your company name on one of the western-EU based acquiring banks, or alternatively with a US or HK based bank if you have a company registered in those countries.

We also arrange 3rd party accounts for offshore and international business, as well as high risk businesses such as pharmacy.

Q: What is a credit card processor (payment processor or payment service provider)?

A payment processor is a service company that provides a payment gateway through which it performs charges for credit card transactions and routes them to the acquiring bank. Every credit card transaction eventually goes through a payment processor / gateway.

Q: What is a payment gateway?

A gateway is a technical service that will, in exchange for a transaction fee, accept and process credit card transactions from the merchant. Payment gateways generally provide additional services beyond payment processing such as transaction logging, statistics, real-time reporting as well as additional security and fraud prevention filters and risk management.

Q: What is the procedure of a typical credit card transaction?

Typically, a transaction will take place in two phases, a charge and a settlement. In the first phase a charge is made and money for the transaction is set aside from the cardholders account. In the second phase, that money is transferred from the cardholder to the merchant. In general, the first transaction takes place as soon as the card is submitted, allowing the merchant to quickly secure the funds for the transaction. The second phase takes place later, and is usually done in batches at the end of the business day. Settlements are done in batches because some processors limit the number of settlements that you can do during a certain period, and because it’s easier and more economical to void a transaction before funds are transferred, than to credit a cardholder account after the fact. If you have ever checked your bank statement to find that there is a separate total for what you have and what is available, this means that a charge has been placed on your account that has not been settled yet.

1. A cardholder provides their credit card information to a merchant. Cedit card information can be submitted in a number of ways, i.e. the cardholder types their card information on a website payment form which automatically continues the process. Or they can provide their card information over the phone or send a filled form over mail, in which case merchant manually puts this transaction by using a Virtual Terminal.
2. A merchant automatically or manually submits the credit card information to the payment service provider's gateway. When the merchant submits their information to the gateway it will in turn submit the cardholder’s information to the banking network for approval.
3. The bank network runs a check on the card, and will respond with an approval or rejection for the transaction to the gateway who then passes that information back to the merchant. The amount of funds requested will be held on the cardholder’s account, but will not be transferred out yet.
4. The merchant notifies the customer of the success or failure of the transaction. If the transaction is successful, then the merchant will ship products/provide services to the customer

Q: What is a high risk merchant account and can I still use your services?

High risk merchants sell products or provide services that tend to have an increased risk of fraud when accepting payments by credit cards by bringing in excessive chargebacks or carry extended fulfillment and delivery times. We can still accept most of the high risk categories but some additional documentation may be required. Minimum discount rate may be a bit higher than with low risk, starting at 2.40%. In many cases there's also a high risk registration fee charged by all banks which is 950 EUR annually.

Check the high risk categories list to see if your business type falls in this category.

Q: Do I need any extra software to start accepting credit cards?

No additional software is required on your behalf. Your online store is already programmed in one of the popupular programming languages (php, asp, cfm...), so you simply integrate it to our gateway system with the help of our integration manuals and dedicated support staff.

If you're not accepting payments through a website but using a Virtual Terminal instead then you don't need any integration work at all, you simply login to our Virtual Terminal software and process sales.

Once set up, you will also be able to safely login to our Reporter Software to manage your transactions in real-time.

Q: Are there any limitations to a monthly sales volume?

We do not have limitations regarding your monthly sales volume. High volume businesses are also accepted. Minimum we look for to open a merchant account is at least 3.000 GBP per month.

Q: What is a chargeback and is there any fee?

Every cardholder may dispute a credit card charge for many reasons, and when they do this it is "charged back" to the merchant by the acquiring bank. The cardholder is within their legal rights to begin procedures to dispute the charge within 180 days after the date of transaction. Most EU acquiring bank charge a fee of 24 EUR per chargeback. Also, Visa allows maximum of 2.00% and Mastercard maximum of 1.00% chargeback ratios, any ratios above that for 2 consecutive months will most likely cause the merchant account to be terminated.

Q: Can I accept payments and be payed in currencies other than GBP, EUR or USD?

Our main EU acquiring banks automatically accept the following currencies:

Processing currencies (currencies in which you can charge your customers):

AED, ARS, AUD, BGN, BRL, CAD, CHF, CLP, CNY, CZK, DKK , EEK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HRK, HUF, IDR, ILS, INR, ISK, JPY, KRW, LTL, LVL, MXN, MYR, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, RON, RUB, SEK, SGD, SKK, THB, TRY, TWD, UAH, USD, VND, ZAR. And more...

Settlement currencies (currencies in which you can receive payouts):

AUD, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HUF, HKD, ISK, JPY, NOK, PLN, SEK, SKK, THB, TRY, USD, ZAR

Q: What is your typical processing fee / dicsount rate?

The processing rates for direct merchant accounts vary from 1.50% to 3.50%, based on the geopraphical factors, procesisng volume and business type. For example the high volume merchants in retail e-commerce can get a discount rate of 1.50%-1.90% (depending on country where merchant is based and the issuing card's bank country). High risk merchant account rates start at 2.50%. All rates are final with all interchange fees already included.

The processing rates for 3rd party merchant accounts are typically around 5%.

For special categories like pharmacy rates are between 8-10%.

Q: Will I receive statements of all transactions?

Online transaction reporting is available 24/7, providing up to the minute, detailed information merchants can use to confirm payments, identify processing problems, and other issues. You will be able to login to our systems and print out statements yourself or see your entire history of transactions in real-time. You will also receive all statements on your email weekly.

Q: What is the difference between a direct merchant account and a 3rd party account?

The difference is huge. We do not arrange or provide any kind of 3rd party merchant accounts, but only direct accounts in your company name. This means the merchant account is yours and open directly with an acquiring bank and thus all payouts are coming to your business bank account directly from the acquiring bank, we do not keep money. With 3rd party merchant accounts (also known as iPSPs, processors) you do not have your own merchant account but use their master account instead, the acquiring bank first pays out to the processor which then pays you out (usually after holding your money for 2-3 weeks). 3rd party accounts pose potential risk, for example if the account provider accepts one bad merchants with high volume which brings in a lot of chargebacks, they may lose their license and concequently you are left without processing solution and what's even worse, without your money and held reserves.

Q: How often do I get paid?

Settlements are made by the acquiring bank directly to your business bank account every week. Daily settlements are possible with volumes above 1M EUR per month. Normally there's also a 7 day payout delay, meaning the current week payout is for the last week processed volume.

Q: Will my business name appear on my customer's credit card statement?

Yes, with your own merchant account you also choose your own billing descriptor which is 100% yours (every character). This is a short text describing your business, usually a website or a DBA and a phone number, so the cardholder can easily recognize the transaction has come from you.

Q: I want to apply for your services. How long does the whole proccess take?

Please see the merchant account application procedure and timeline.