A High Risk Merchant Account enables credit card processing for businesses of a high risk nature. Some high risk categories are obvious, such as online gaming, adult and pharmacy, which are either legally challenged or under moral scrutiny. Other business categories are mainly pointed and declared ‘high risk’ by the credit card associations, due to the accumulated experience with: transaction cancelations, returns, chargebacks and arbitrary procedures – all causing loss of time and money. Here’s a partial list of high risk categories: jewelry, replica products, travel, debt collection & credit repair, multi level marketing, electronics, herbal supplements, telemarketing, dating services, tickets, hosting services, online auctions, automobile rental, collections (coins, stamps, etc.), detective services, weight loss centers, fortune telling services, etc. Under certain conditions, new and high volume businesses might also fall into the high risk category. As high risk merchant accounts are usually directly related to higher processing fees, one should first seek a domestic merchant account or look into other alternatives, such as an International merchant account or an offshore merchant account.
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