There are a variety of international merchant accounts available, but evaluating whether they are a good fit for your business and which account is the most suitable can prove to be a daunting task. In this article, we will outline some of the main features of a good offshore merchant account, and de-mystify some of the key terms.

Each business is unique

While most businesses will need to have domestic bank accounts in their own country, those that trade with customers in different locations around the world will also need flexibility to make and receive payments in a variety of currencies. Similarly, businesses in some industries prefer to process payments offshore for a variety of reasons, especially those handling high volumes of payments on a regular basis, or whose business falls into a high risk category.

When are offshore merchant accounts a good option?

One of the most common reasons businesses use offshore accounts in addition to domestic payment handling is to reduce processing risks. By setting up offshore merchant accounts, businesses are able to balance payment loads, while managing and reconciling them through a single dashboard.

For firms operating in businesses generally classified as high risk by onshore banks, international merchant accounts also offer more flexibility and likelihood of acceptance. These categories include gambling, certain financial services, and certain health and wellness products.

The benefits of offshore merchant accounts

In addition to the obvious benefits for certain types of business, merchant accounts can also significantly reduce expenses, and ensure continuity of payment processing. A well-structured diversification of merchant accounts is also a straightforward way of reducing risks normally associated with payment processing.

Here’s five top reasons to consider an international or European merchant account for your business.

1. High volume and high-risk merchants are much more likely to get accepted
2. More flexibility on chargebacks – this is especially useful if your business is in an industry where this is a relatively common occurrence
3. Greater transactional processing volumes help facilitate your business growth
4. Facilitate payments in multiple currencies – this is especially useful for international ecommerce companies looking to attract customers from every country
5. Reduce international forex fees and traditional bank charges

While these factors may sound simple, it is surprising how restricting domestic accounts can be for international or high risk businesses. From imposing limits on payment volumes that can be accepted, to excessive fees for making international payments, domestic accounts can quickly become unworkable and restricting for many businesses.

Give yourself the flexibility

Adding international merchant accounts to your banking architecture is a quick and simple method to give your business the additional processing power it needs.

Offshore accounts offer much higher limits on monthly processing volumes, meaning your business can focus on expansion instead of concerning itself with adhering to limits imposed by banks.

One of the most effective strategies for organizing your banking network is to combine domestic and offshore accounts. This kind of setup provides the best of both worlds, and through utilizing banks in key regions to align with your customer base, your business can benefit from reducing (or even eliminating) cross-border transaction fees, and reduce the risks and processing times normally associated with foreign currency transactions. Furthermore, this kind of arrangement gives you the competitive advantage of accessing lower intra-regional banking rates, and depending on the nature of your business and its stage of growth, these savings can either be passed on to your customers, or provide a boost for your bottom line.

Find out more

You can read more about our international and offshore merchant accounts, and apply online now via this link. 

If your business is a reputable one that happens to fall under a high risk classification with domestic banks, this can cause greater expense and limitations on your account than you would like. Whether this classification is imposed due to the number of chargebacks or fraudulent transactions associated with your industry, or the geographic markets you operate in, alternative banking solutions are often necessary in order for your business to grow.

How are you paid?

The need to have more flexibility with banking is also becoming more acute, because some business models that traditional banks consider to be risky are in fact becoming more and more popular with businesses and consumers.

One such example is recurring subscription models. In the digital age when monthly payments are much more desirable to many than annual bills, recurring and subscription payments are actually considered higher risk by banks than one-off sales. This is because the likelihood of customers initiating chargebacks is higher, and therefore of greater risk to the bank.

How your business sells products and services is also a risk factor for traditional banks, and modern approaches to this often fall into the more risky classification. Channels such as affiliate marketing, direct mails and banners, infomercials and in-app upsells are some examples of this, and these activities, while great for increasing sales volumes, represent higher risk classification for banks.

In short, there are many reputable industries, from subscription software to travel services, that are considered high risk by domestic banks.

What can a high risk merchant account do for my business?

High risk merchant accounts offer flexible and potentially game-changing alternatives for your business. But one of the first questions asked by business with obligations for protecting their customers’ data is how secure an account is.

This question is emphatically answered with the Level 1 PCI/DSS gateway on our high risk accounts. They also boast military-grade encryption which safeguards customers’ personal information and credit card details.

So with the security aspect in good hands, what other features do high risk merchant accounts offer to your business?

Removing risk from recurring billing

As we mentioned before, there is a distinctly conflicting interests between businesses and banks with regards to recurring payment plans. For businesses, these plans represent a regular, predictable source of revenue, and a manageable way for their customers to pay for a service. Yet for banks, this model is all risk.

On high risk merchant accounts, recurring billing is a standard feature. With them, you are able to create a variety of payment plans to suit your business, and encrypt these in the secure vault of the high risk payment gateway.

Don’t fall victim to fraud

Another way in which high risk merchant accounts are lower risk for your own business is their in-built vigilance for fraudsters.

Firstly, each payment is subject to hundreds of validation tests. Your business can implement rules and filters to easily define which transactions to accept and reject. The high risk merchant account also has built in fraud checks, and almost instantly identifies if a customer account has been identified as attempting fraud on other sites. These methods allow for automatic acceptance of legitimate orders, and provide the opportunity for manual review prior to accepting suspect orders.

It’s a win-win

For companies considered high risk by domestic banks, and for any business looking to reduce its own risk, high risk merchant accounts offer a number of benefits and allow firms to focus on sales rather than being held back by banking.

High risk accounts enable you to accept all global card brands and popular payment methods, in addition to providing more flexible billing options to your customers. In short, high risk accounts provide more flexibility and security for your business, while providing reassurance and multi-currency flexibility to your customers.

Find out more

Interested in finding out more about US, international and offshore merchant accounts?  Contact info@PaynetSecure.net today.  Or call 888-5-Paynet.   

Securing Reputational Risks

Every business needs security to ward against breaches and other crimes peculiar to electronic transactions.  Whether communication via emails, filling out profiles with personal information or the delivery of goods and services, ensuring that a company’s data is safe is the same as making sure that the doors are locked. 

For adult merchants, there is an added component of high risk that some other businesses do not have.  The delicate nature of adult merchant data and the product adult merchants provide requires total protection.  Adult merchants have what is known as “reputational risk” because the product they deliver is almost certainly requires complete discretion. 

Data breaches for adult merchants are disastrous for both the company and clientele.  Not only could financial transaction data be stolen but the anonymity of clientele has the potential of being absolutely destroyed, ruining reputations on so many levels.  A company with a history of data breach will be hard pressed to find anyone who wants to do business with them. And clientele lives could be ruined if the wrong facts came to light. The fallout of unprotected data is endless.

Now more than ever, high risk adult merchants need to make sure that their high risk merchant server provides the kind of protection they and their clients need to keep money, personal information and personal preferences as good as locked away in a virtual vault, where only the adult merchant and the high risk merchant server have combination.

Keepers of the Adult Merchant’s Gate: Encryption, Authentication and Authorization

·        Encryption

Encryption scrambles data so that it is unreadable to anyone but the adult merchant, the high-risk server and the client, as it pertains to him or her.  This feature prevents thieves from hijacking precious data while it is being transferred in the course of the adult merchant’s business.

Most companies today have some form of data protection, but not all companies are high-risk merchants with a reputational risk component.  So, is that protection cloaking company data truly state-of-the art? A high-risk merchant server should offer military-grade encryption, because some already do, and military-grade encryption is top of the line.  This means that the adult merchant’s high-risk merchant server should offer the best possible security protocols available to the public, to make sure that every piece of data transferred between business and client, is totally protected.

·        Authentication

Cyber protection in the form of authentication for the adult merchant requires that anyone trying to access adult merchant data is allowed to do so.  This is more than simply having the correct password. High risk merchant servers may require multi-factor authentication, liking having a code sent to an email or a phone for added proof those accessing data are who they say they are. 

Especially for adult merchants, this is key because the nature of their business often requires discretion and the last thing any client wants is for someone else who may have access to a computer with saved passwords, to take a peek in their account.

·        Authorization

This feature restricts view to content.  This means, for example, if a client is signed on to his or her account, that they cannot view anything they are not invited to see.  So, a person who makes a shell account which grants him or her access to the adult merchant’s store, cannot use it as a gateway to gather information on other clients or to perpetrate a data breach of any kind.

Conclusion

Adult merchant accounts are used by companies selling adult content to consumers.  Adult merchant accounts can be established for all types of adult merchants, including shippable products such as toys, devices, silicon dolls as well as digital content, videos, and downloads.

Interested in finding out more?  Contact info@PaynetSecure.net.  Or call 5-PAYNET today.

With sales having reached almost $12bn in 2019 and being fueled even further by the COVID-19 situation and ever-increasing smartphone adoption in 2020, the online gaming market is ripe for growth.

The key for gaming companies is to provide a seamless end-to-end experience for players, including being able to accept and process payments quickly for in-game purchases, and to send instant payouts to winners. This article looks at the benefits of a good payment gateway for gaming companies, and how this assists the user experience and increases revenues.

It’s All About the UX

Modern gamers expect speedy gameplay and features, so the user interface is what creates optimal user experience and ultimately makes or breaks a game. This expectation extends into payment flows, and overlooking the importance of these and ending up with a clunky process can negatively impact the gaming experience and make or break a company’s success. Think of your in-game purchase offerings as being part of the game itself – and design them to be as intuitive and seamless as possible.

Tech and Test

Put simply, the payment process is an integral part of the user’s experience, and selecting the right gateway is a crucial part of the entire game. Modern users expect a fast and secure checkout experience and having slick technology and a well-tested integration is crucial to satisfying those expectations.

Given that most games are played on-the-go on smartphones as opposed to other larger devices, in-game and single-click payments that don’t rely on redirecting users to external gateways are all the more vital.

Providing personalized offers to gamers using AI processes also increase the user experience, and your ability to maximize ad revenue and up-selling and cross-selling from your game. All of this also creates more of a ‘stickiness’ to the game.  And you’ll see increased customer loyalty as a result.

Choice and Peace of Mind

Whether in the real world or the digital world, people like choice. And the more payment options you offer to your users, the more convenience you’ll give them and the easier you make it for them to spend money with you.  Online gaming merchant accounts are the backbone of payment processing

In addition to user experience and ease of payment, security is another key consideration. Research shows that more than half of all gamers stop making purchases in or stop using altogether apps that have experienced a cyber attack or data breach. Needless to say that a secure, reputable online gaming payment gateway is the first step in building this user trust and confidence.

Tips for Choosing an Online Gaming Payment Gateway  

All-in-all, look for an online payment gateway that offers seamless usability and top-notch UX that will set your games apart from the rest of the pack. This includes in-app processing, and the ability to accept a variety of payment methods. This attention to detail can quickly manifest itself in increased revenue and higher review scores and recommendations from players.

With PaynetSecure, you’re in good hands. With over two decades’ experience providing merchant services to companies around the world, we assist you with the top priorities outlined in this article (UX, payment options and security) with the following credentials:

• Payment options:
  • Users can use all types of credit and debit cards, ACH payments (for BACS transfers instead of a card payment), and virtual debit cards.
• Security:
  • Level 1 PCI / DSS Certified Gateway with military-grade encryption for payment processing
  • Advanced fraud-fighting tools to safeguard your business and your users
• User experience:
  • Unlimited recurring billing plans allow you to offer seamless experience to your customers
  • This makes it easier for them to pay you, and more likely to stay with your game

Find out more

Interested in more information about payment processing for online gaming merchants?  Contact us today at info@paynetsecure.net  Or call 888-5-PAYNET

References

https://www.statista.com/study/72150/coronavirus-impact-on-the-video-game-industry-worldwide/

https://www.limelight.com/resources/white-paper/state-of-online-gaming-2020/