PLEASE HELP!! Merchant account nightmare?

Supermumzy

So ive recently set up an online store selling products... I was using paypal but they cut me off and by what ive read they always seem to do this. I put through an application with elavon after gathering up loads of info they refused my application and i just dont know where to go from here or who else to try???


Any advice would be great or if anyone starting off went to a certain bank who were helpful?

mneylon

In order for anyone to give you advice you'd need to provide more information.

Are you a sole trader or a limited company?

Are you selling physical goods or virtual ones or services?

Why did Paypal close your account?

Did Evalon tell you why your application was refused?

Supermumzy

Sorry, Im a sole trader and im selling physical goods beauty cosmetics.

Paypal said that I was high risk and i havent received a reason from elavon yet as i was doing my application through sagepay so maybe its the same reason and now my fear is i might never be able to get a payment gateway set up.... and i have customers trying to order and emailing my website.

mneylon

The "high risk" factor can be mitigated partially (I *think*) if you have a largish deposit with them, but to be honest you really should talk to your bank and see what they can do for you.

Supermumzy

yeah im with aib for personal and have my business bank account there only problem is my website is completely on hold now so im not advertising anymore until its sorted which means basically everything is on hold and i really want to get it up and running.. I only need it for the payment gateway.. Hopefully will sort something thanks for the reply anyways

Peterdalkey

Supermumzy wrote: »

Sorry, Im a sole trader and im selling physical goods beauty cosmetics.

Paypal said that I was high risk and i havent received a reason from elavon yet as i was doing my application through sagepay so maybe its the same reason and now my fear is i might never be able to get a payment gateway set up.... and i have customers trying to order and emailing my website.

What a terrible conundrum you find yourself in. I assume you have a clean personal credit history. PayPal have funny system where they stop your account after you reach about Euro1000 in sales quickly. I have had it happen and we are in business over 150 years! We did get it sorted.

Don't panic just yet. I would suggest you contact the Credit Review Office by email with full details. Copy your email to as many business journalists as you can get contact details for. PM me with your email address and I will give you a list of their email addresses. I will help you draft the letter if you wish.

Ireland is supposed to be the land of the SME, new online and digital business etc etc. Your experience is enough to make me cry.

Keep the chin up and nail the buggers where it hurts... In the media.

Peter

Supermumzy

I had only made 180e on paypal before they "reviewed" my account and could no longer offer me services even though i have never received not one complaint from any of my customers... highly frustrating!!

Just need to find a helpful bank or else another way to set up a payment gateway

TsuDhoNimh

Supermumzy wrote: »

.... and i have customers trying to order and emailing my website.

This is the important point to focus on for the immediate short term.

Aside from the obvious damage in lost sales, this could end up causing an impact on the trust in your business and the brand so something you want cleared up ASAP (even if it's an expensive short term solution).

There are a number of suppliers on the market that provide all in one solutions (payment gateway and merchant services) that might help to work around your current problem. It's a rapidly changing market so I couldn't even begin to list them all or suggest which one(s) work best, but if you look at the likes of worldpay.com you'll get an idea of what some providers offer and how much they might charge (last I knew of worldpay required a 12 month contract, so might not be ideal for a 'stop gap' solution... they're just the only one I know of offering it off the top of my head).

You normally end up paying a premium for the all in one solutions, but in your current situation this is a trade off that might be more than worth it. In the mean time keep working away with the various merchant providers and see if you can come to an agreement that provides a better value for money solution in the long term, but do see what you can do to get an immediate fix in place to ensure you can serve your existing customers.

(Hopefully someone on boards will have recent experience with some of the newer all in one offerings on the market and can give some personal feedback on some/any of them)

The Apprentice

I havent tried them personally but you could check both sagepay or realex

They may perhaps get you sorted.. best of luck

Supermumzy

Thanks all, sagepay was who tried for me with elavon thats who they use for their merchant accounts so they went out the window currently in touch with aib merchant services with realex heard these are quite good with great service so fingers crossed something gets sorted soon!

maps and atlas

Supermumzy wrote: »

Thanks all, sagepay was who tried for me with elavon thats who they use for their merchant accounts so they went out the window currently in touch with aib merchant services with realex heard these are quite good with great service so fingers crossed something gets sorted soon!

You should considering trying a company called Wirecard, who are based in the IFSC. They act as both merchant service provider and payment gateway provider.

sandin

Supermumzy wrote: »

yeah im with aib for personal and have my business bank account there only problem is my website is completely on hold now so im not advertising anymore until its sorted which means basically everything is on hold and i really want to get it up and running.. I only need it for the payment gateway.. Hopefully will sort something thanks for the reply anyways

If AIB is for business and personal banking, why not go with AIB for merchant services?

I've never had any issue with paypal and turnover via paypal is excess 20k a month (would prefer if they all used realex for the cheaper commission though).

How legit are the products you are selling - could they be seen as passing off on major brands or are they grey market goods.

With both Paypal and Elavon declining you, it suggests that its the goods you are selling that are the issue,

Buttercake

Go to AIB and ask for a referral to their merchant services, they will put you in touch with someone there

Banks dont hand out merchant ids willy nilly, there are certain requirements that you must have and others that will help your application

- Place of business, not a house or a flat
- Trading History, not a brand new business/online store
- PCI Compliancy

We started with Elavon who didn't ask for a deposit or downpayment becasue we have consistent trading history and i showed them the amounts we were putting through PayPal BUT they did keep the transactions for 4 weeks before it reached our account, after about 6-months we switched to Streamline (Ulsterbank) and now have a great setup with them. (We are with BOI for our business accounts)

HellFireClub

Supermumzy wrote: »

yeah im with aib for personal and have my business bank account there only problem is my website is completely on hold now so im not advertising anymore until its sorted which means basically everything is on hold and i really want to get it up and running.. I only need it for the payment gateway.. Hopefully will sort something thanks for the reply anyways

Why not try AIB Merchant Services? Seeing as you are banking with them for business & personal? I'm with AIBMS, (I HATE AIB but it does what it says on the tin when it comes to merchant services and their iBB online also works well which is great when you are trading online).

Also, I use Realex, I developed my own site from scratch and integrated it with Realex, don't have any hassles with payments... AIBMS will assign you a customer representative to go through the application process with you when you apply. It is a bit like a civil service designed process, but it does work when you get it set up...

Calif

If you're really having great difficulty and can't collect payment try using your bank account details and ask clients to reference online payments.

Not ideal but will get money in the door

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Are you trading from a residential address? Merchant banks use this a negative indicator so use a business address on applications if at all possible.

Whats your USP? Cosmetics and fragrances is a notoriously difficult sector with a high failure rate. Opening accounts costs them money so if they don't believe your story they will reject it. Paypal likewise might have closed down the account because of the number of businesses trying to flog fake or replica goods in this sector. So letters from the well known brands supporting your case would be useful.

The last major refusal issue is fraud prevention. Obviously there is a lot of fraud online, people steal things and use the credit cards to buy stuff online that is easy for them to resell on the likes of ebay, donedeal and amazon. What systems beyond 3D secure are you going to have in place? Merchant banks can ask for in excess of 100k to cover their liability. Remember they wont inform you if the card was stolen till up to 9 months later, even with 3D secure you are not fully protected (corporate cards etc). The card owner will get their money back, the bank will take it from you, you will be without the stock and the money, the police will probably not even investigate it unless the card holder makes a complaint, not you as the victim. If the merchant thinks you are not fully aware and capable of handling doing business online they won't take a risk on doing business with you. They are not in the business of taking risks or "supporting" startups.

dozy doctor

HellFireClub wrote: »

Why not try AIB Merchant Services? Seeing as you are banking with them for business & personal? I'm with AIBMS, (I HATE AIB but it does what it says on the tin when it comes to merchant services and their iBB online also works well which is great when you are trading online).

Also, I use Realex, I developed my own site from scratch and integrated it with Realex, don't have any hassles with payments... AIBMS will assign you a customer representative to go through the application process with you when you apply. It is a bit like a civil service designed process, but it does work when you get it set up...

I agree AIB Merchant services dowork and work well.... You could also approach SAGEPAY to collect online payments by means of collecting credit card information over the phone if you wish..... And they only charge €15 per month.....

AIB merchant services charge €185 to set up which is absolutely obscene... Have you thought about selling on ebay and simply use another email account for paypal ????

Liamo83

Peterdalkey wrote: »

What a terrible conundrum you find yourself in. I assume you have a clean personal credit history. PayPal have funny system where they stop your account after you reach about Euro1000 in sales quickly. I have had it happen and we are in business over 150 years! We did get it sorted.

Don't panic just yet. I would suggest you contact the Credit Review Office by email with full details. Copy your email to as many business journalists as you can get contact details for. PM me with your email address and I will give you a list of their email addresses. I will help you draft the letter if you wish.

Ireland is supposed to be the land of the SME, new online and digital business etc etc. Your experience is enough to make me cry.

Keep the chin up and nail the buggers where it hurts... In the media.

Peter

Hi Peter, would you please send me that list of business journalists' emails addresses... I would pm you but I am new to Boards and need 25 posts to do so.

Peterdalkey

Liamo83 wrote: »

Hi Peter, would you please send me that list of business journalists' emails addresses... I would pm you but I am new to Boards and need 25 posts to do so.

I made the offer to the OP to help with a specific problem which I understand. Some of these journalists are friends of mine, so I am certainly not prepared to give out their email addresses to some random requestor. Post your issues on a new thread, and I will review accordingly. If I feel it is meritorious, I will consider sending you the list.

Cheers

Peter

Liamo83

I understand completely Peter but I would rather not discuss the issue publicly right now. Maybe there is some other way that I can contact you? If not I can possibly post the issue later in the year or wait until I build up a few more posts!!