You are looking to open a business. You want to join the ranks of business owners who dictate their course through life. You want to be the one in charge.
That is a great outlook. Now the logistics.
What sort of business do you want to build from the ground up? What sort of business suits your personality? Maybe you are the type who wants to provide a service and help people fix past mistakes.
You have options in that business vein. Perhaps you could open a wellness spa, or maybe a small auto repair shop that works to help your community.
With a background in finances, those might not be up your alley. What about a credit repair business that helps other businesses and individuals get themselves on the right path?
There are lots of folks out there who have made bad financial decisions in the past and need help.
You could help people and use your talents to do it.
What is a Credit Repair Business?
Credit repair businesses help people who have had problems with their credit, who can’t make payments, or who have late payments on their credit records. If you’ve experienced these issues, you might have decided you want to help business owners like yourself repair their credit.
People and businesses across the country have fallen into the trap of bad credit. There are seemingly infinite ways to fall into the trap and only a couple of solid ways out.
Credit repair businesses operate similarly to a lawyer. The service they provide can be done by you, but a credit repair business knows target specifics.
By knowing what to look for and dispute on a credit report, they can more efficiently fight to remove tarnishing information from your credit report.
That information will naturally fall off your report in 7 – 10 years, but the credit repair business can do it much sooner.
Two different billing strategies are traditionally used, the bill per item removed and a monthly subscription. Often the manner of profit is dictated by the success rate and what is being asked of the company.
Things to Consider
If you are looking to open a credit repair business, you should be aware that credit repair is considered to be a high risk endeavor.
This is because credit repair companies often do business in the future, meaning that they provide future dates for services to be rendered. They do this, knowing that it will take time and energy to get the items removed from a credit report.
Now that you’ve decided this is your course, you have to make some other business decisions. Will you have a brick-and-mortar location? Will you be a local business or operate on a larger scale? Are you planning on accepting credit cards?
We all know that last one is a silly question. We live in the digital age. More than 70% of American consumers have at least one credit card and expect to use it.
Why would you want to eliminate 70% of your potential customer base?
That means you’ll want to accept credit card payment, either through an online gateway or on-site payment through your POS equipment.
In that case, you’ll need a merchant account.
Merchant accounts enable business owners to take credit cards for payment. And you’ll want to offer your clientele flexibility in their payment options.
But … since your credit repair operation is in the high risk category, you might have trouble getting a merchant account to use for that purpose.
Fortunately, there are many options when you are looking for a credit card processing company that works with high risk merchants.
What Does High Risk Mean?
In simple terms, a high risk merchant account is a processing account that ticks off one or more boxes that can increase the financial risk a processing company takes.
Just like you, a credit card processing company is in business to make money.
With a high risk account, they have weighed historical evidence and adjusted their pricing and rates to cover the possibility of chargebacks, disputes, and frozen accounts.
Usually, when a merchant account falls under the high risk umbrella the company maintains a larger cash reserve to ensure the funds cover any of the above occurrences.
Chargebacks
A chargeback occurs when a customer reaches out to the credit card company and wants their money back. The money is almost always refunded, leaving you holding the check.
This can happen for several reasons, but customer satisfaction is the prime reason.
You might wonder why this would happen to a company whose goal is to help fix a person or business’s credit, but remember we said they are getting paid for future services.
When a credit repair company fights an item on a credit report, it does not instantly disappear.
Each item can take months or even years to remove. It all depends on the willingness of each separate company to retract a statement on the report. This means a credit repair company could be in contact with dozens of separate entities, each operating on its own timetable.
Some customers don’t want to wait that long and want their money back.
It is a part of the business.
Understanding that you will have to work with unpleasant customers will help you keep a level head. And working with a veteran company will help as well
Disputes
Another way customers will express their frustration is by disputing a charge.
This is usually the front end of the chargeback but is a separate entity as it reflects on you and your business as a customer dissatisfied with your operation instead of just wanting their money back.
The upside is that you can fight a dispute. If you have documentation that the dispute is unjustly being assessed to your business you have every right to contest.
However, it is wise to go into that fight knowing you are in the right.
Too many disputes and too many chargebacks can lead to penalties and frozen accounts.
Frozen Accounts
Generally, with high risk accounts, a credit card processor will have a couple of accounts for each merchant. This allows the business to continue operating even when a dispute locks down the account.
If your account is frozen no transactions are allowed.
This can be remedied when the processing company and the credit card companies work the situation out.
High Risk Safeguards
To counter the possibilities of processing hiccups, processing companies categorize their merchant accounts.
High risk merchant accounts constitute a large percentage of the market.
The name high risk makes it sound like something out of the ordinary. However, that could not be more wrong. Airlines, pharmaceuticals, and hotels are just a few of the high risk merchant markets.
While there is a higher risk of dispute and chargeback, the profit margin helps the industries to keep moving forward.
Being high risk does not stop any of these industries, it simply means they are required to take some financial safeguards to protect themselves from the inevitable disputes.
The credit card processing company will establish a higher cash reserve to fit the actual business. This provides a financial cushion to counter chargebacks.
There may be higher rates involved, however, remember that every contract is negotiable.
Every processing company is different. They have different reputations and different strengths when it comes to working with specific industries. Each processing company will have a variable approach to the business you are bringing them.
And that is also a great point to remember. As a business, you are the commodity. You are bringing them the ability to make a profit.
Despite being a high risk business, credit repair companies will bring in money to the processing company. Shop your business around and see who makes the best offer.
In Conclusion
High risk is not a dead end. It is an obstacle to work around in the financial world.
That’s where Easy Pay Direct comes in! We specialize in setting up merchant accounts for high risk business owners.
Easy Pay Direct will work with its network of banks to make sure you get the right kind of merchant account. We’ll also integrate it with our online payment gateway, in the event you’ll be using your merchant account for card-not-present (CNP purchases, or for any kind of eCommerce).
And if you want your business to maintain a physical presence, we can set you up with high-quality credit card terminals, or even advanced point-of-sale systems.
Best of all, since Easy Pay Direct has the best approval rate in the industry, your high risk business is sure to get approved for a merchant account!
At the end of the day, it is your business. You need to do what puts you in the best position for success. There are countless options to help you move forward. Let Easy Pay Direct join you on that journey.
