Even though we’ve been in the internet merchant account processing industry right about since online shopping became a thing, we constantly marvel at the nuances of navigating the high risk processing ecosystem. Acquiring banks may offer merchant accounts for some high risk industries such as collectibles and antiques, but not for others such as online dating or adult content (we have solutions for each of them).
We suppose acquirers have their reasons.
For example, we just finished the paperwork on a partnership that’s enabling us access to merchant services for more than 40 high, medium, and low risk industries – a few for which we’ve never seen or been able to find solutions – which is a big deal for us.
- Having solutions for such industries creates new markets and possible revenue streams for us.
- Now that we’ve secured these high risk solutions, they’re also available to our network of partners.
For us, that’s how it works with high risk merchant processing: The key to offering more and more banking solutions is building your partner network, something we’ve done extremely well over the last 10 years.
Acquiring banks that embrace high risk industries are out there if one knows where to look.
New industries for internet merchant account processing
One industry on our partner’s list stood out like the Empire State Building: bail bondsmen. After doing a bit of research, is easy to understand why it is a high risk industry – very high risk. Bail bondsmen are taking financial risks with every client (criminal?), offering bonds into six figures, while trusting clients will remain in the country, will behave themselves and will appear at court dates and pretrial check-in meetings.
Alas, it is now in our wheelhouse along with a few more high risk types:
Warranties: Third party warranties come with plenty of risk. Fraudsters often use the warranty industry to ply their dubious trade (Google My Car Solutions or USfidelis). With a little research, consumers will find there are many legitimate third party warranty services available, and we’re pleased to offer internet merchant account services for them.
Negative renewal options: We fully admit it: this is a surprise to us. We’ve written several times on businesses that use the negative renewal or negative option billing model. Our latest report detailed how Mastercard is targeting negative option billing merchants: mandating enhanced transparency and communication as of Apr. 12 (Visa is taking a similar stance). We believe Mastercard and Visa’s new regulations will bring better practices to the model. Merchants must comply, or they will simply fail.
Financial aid counseling for college-bound students: If we had a short list of emerging small business industries, this would be included. Counseling for the winding road of choosing the best, affordable college for young adults and parents has blossomed into a very sought-after industry (we know one colleague who does very, very well). Such consulting services are risky in that many carry high ticket prices, which can lead to high figure chargebacks. There is no denying, however, it is a sought-after service.
Why high risk professionals should partner with us
Among other benefits, we feel we offer our partners more high risk resources that no other payment service provider or ISO has:
Our generous revenue shares
For leads for which Instabill is able to find a payment processing solution, Instabill will split the revenue shares as high as 70 percent in your favor:
- 70 percent splits on over $1 million per month in payment processing.
- 60 percent splits on up to $1 million each month in payment processing.
We’ll build you a co-branded page
Partners are immediately eligible for our co-branded landing page, to which we can complete and send the link within 24 hours upon receipt of a partnership agreement. Merchants then post the link to their co-branded page where high risk internet merchant account processing is advertised. In turn, prospective leads complete the form, which automatically comes to our account managers. Once the lead is processing transactions, the partner begins recouping 60-70 percent residual shares.
We service a wealth of high risk industries…
…and the list keeps growing. Visit our supported industries page to see the breadth of high risk internet merchant account business types for which we have solutions. If you don’t see your industry, contact us anyway. We prefer to open potential relationships with a conversation.
Find out about the possibilities today at 1-800-530-2444.
