What is difference between US and European Merchant Accounts?

US Merchant Account

Initially, only US banks were providing the credit card processing services to the e-commerce merchants or other stores. After seeing the successful growth in online selling, the banks also started providing e-commerce merchant services for online selling to the merchants.

Now, there are several US banks that offer E-commerce Merchant Accounts, credit card processing services, and other transaction services. And this rise in the number of banks affected the prices and grew to be bargain-able or competitive. Also, if the merchant is not a resident of the US then he cannot get a Merchant account. But, all this comes to an end when European e-commerce merchant accounts came into existence and became available for Merchants.

European Merchant Account

In order to have a European Merchant Account or credit card processing services, a merchant does not require to be a US citizen, which means you could get a Merchant account from anywhere in the world. The European Merchant Account provides an award-winning gateway to the merchants. Now the Merchants have two options, which are the US and the European Merchant Accounts, to choose either one of them according to their convenience.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE US AND THE EUROPEAN MERCHANT ACCOUNTS

Pricing

There is a huge difference in the prices between the US and the European Merchant Accounts in terms of the gateway, setup fees, and discount rates etc. The European merchant accounts are way higher in prices than the US Merchant Accounts. The cost of the US Merchant Accounts decreased due to the high competition among the US banks. Unlike US banks, there is no such competition for the European Merchant accounts which leads to a higher cost. European Banks offer their services all over the world while the US banks provide their services in the US only.

Quality

In terms of the quality of the services, both the banks are equal. Both the US and European Merchant Accounts offering the same credit card processing services like VISA and MasterCard etc. Even though the banks are using the best credit card processing services and security services there also be a possibility of scams. The quality can be checked in terms of the time of approval, safety, and security etc. As we are all aware that a different gateway technique is used by every credit card processing service, which helps to keep the data safe. Also, there is no difference in the time of approval between both the US and the European Merchant Accounts.

Account Setup and Monitoring:

Availability

Merchant Stronghold Provide Debt Collection Merchant Account in USA

OFFSHORE DEBT COLLECTION MERCHANT ACCOUNT SERVICE

Merchant Stronghold works with a number of processors and gateway providers with sponsor financial institution relationships that offer both domestic and offshore debt collection merchant accounts. we are able to offer credit card processing for debt collection companies under the following two options:

Debt collection is High-Risk 

Fact is, debt collection enterprise is at extraordinarily high Risk, due to the enterprise’s traditionally high chargeback rate. The purpose for this is fold: (1) the inherent nature of the business is that humans are paying cash they’d like an alternative now not be paying. some of the ones people will always initiate a chargeback, and (2) a few debt collection corporations who didn’t recognize the way to manage chargebacks, or who weren’t operating with a informed high-risk processor and payment gateway that would assist them manage and avoid chargebacks, have given the complete industry a bad reputation. no matter all this, however, thankfully, there are nevertheless a few true alternatives.

Necessary Document for US Debt Collection Merchant Account:

• US-based- company representative.
• US-based- Company Entity
• US bank account
• Business operations can be global

Benefits of Debt Collection Business:

Through our processing partners, we can also offer debt collection businesses the following additional benefits:

• Expert in underwriting
• Same day approvals
• Compatible with E-commerce portal and major payment gateways
• Acceptance Visa / MasterCard / American Express etc.
• MOTO (phone / mail), eCommerce, and swipe accepted.

Cross-Checking the Authenticity of Online Credit Card Payments

As a result of advancements in technology, e-Commerce platforms exist that allow businesses to sell products and services globally. But, along with the positive aspects of selling online comes a negative factor. That has the potential to lead an online business down the road to disappointing growth and lost revenue.

The issue of fraudulent online transactions, which has been increasing exponentially with e-Commerce growth, is a problem for merchants. Thus, online merchants need to be vigilant about detecting the use of stolen credit card details and misuse of the chargeback system. Monetary losses due to chargebacks alone can have serious consequences for merchants.

So, how does an online merchant protect itself from fraudulent transactions? The best way is to cross-check orders. Cross-checking involves verifying cardholder information provided by the buyer according to the basic rules prescribed by The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and keeping watch for unusual or suspicious activity.

CAREFULLY OBSERVE BUYER BEHAVIOR

It’s not as easy to observe buyer behavior online as it is when purchases take place in-person; however, it can clear effectively. The first step is automatically taken when cardholder information is verified by a payment processor at the time an order is placed. Merchants need to take this a step further by scrutinizing orders for signs of suspicious activity during the fulfillment process.

Signs of suspicious activity include anything out of the ordinary. Such as unusual order sizes, the frequency of orders from the same buyer, different billing and shipping addresses, subsequent attempts to resubmit an order using different cardholder details after the decline, and multiple orders to the same delivery address using different credit cards. Sometimes a call given to the buyer is all that’s just to clear up any questions and confirm an order.

Cross-checking means it will take a little more time to process some orders. But, considering the consequences of a possible fraudulent transaction, it can be worthwhile.

How to start selling the products from any eCommerce Platform?

The technicalities discussed below are some of the crucial points that will decide if the customer will stay on the website and will order products or service or not:

The website should have an SSL certificate: The full form of SSL is “Secure Socket Layer”, one of the essential certificates that should be purchased and incorporated into the website. The working of the SSL is to provide a secure connection between web-browser and the website. This enables the customer to share the private data that is card details or net banking password with reliability and trust while purchasing the product or services.}

The website design should be user-friendly: Now the term “User-friendly”, carries a lot of aspects about the website design. The website should not contain the flashy elements on the front page that affects the vision of the buyer in the first place and also affects the performance of the website. The website should be easy to access, that means the website should clearly show the products and services on the screen. The website should easily load on all the browsing platforms without delay.

The business vision and the policies should be invisibility: According to the observations and researches, shoppers have developed the tendency of looking at all types of pages that define the working of the organization. These pages include “About Us”,” Refund and return policies”, “Contact Us”, “Disclaimer”, “Sponsors and collaborations”, and any other page that specifies the working of the company. The visibility of these pages will help the business to develop the satisfaction of the customers and grow effectively.

Electronic payment acceptance rules to be followed: The eCommerce website should display all the electronic payment acceptance collaboration symbols in the visibility of the user. The website should be well-developed that it should collect the authority from the buyer before deducting the amount from the buyers account that is an electronic invoice that should be displayed on the website page at the time of collecting payment details, an e-mail should be sent to the buyer when the buyer places the order. These are the evidence that proves that the merchant collected the payment with buyers consent. If the product is a subscription, the amount of recurring should be mentioned specifically at each point of sale.

Payment Checkout page essentials: The websites many times don’t mention the terms and conditions related to website or product. This can lead to some kind of trouble to the business as many times customer starts to presume the things that are not mentioned. So, while collecting the payment information, the website should have the policies and tentative disclaimers regarding the product that helps buyers to know what they have to take care before placing the order.

MasterCard is Bringing New Cards with Fingerprint Sensors & Eye Scanning Features

Mastercard is holding converses with banks in the U.K. about offering biometric payment cards to market.

The Mastercard firm has been testing cards with inbuilt fingerprint scanners, which are utilized to check customers' identities.

This is expected to replace the use of passwords and accelerate the process of making payments online and contactless transactions in-store.

A representative for the organization affirmed to CNBC on Monday that it was talking with banks about launching the biometric cards.

"The utilization of passwords to authenticate somebody is woefully outdated, with consumers forgetting them and retailers facing abandoned shopping baskets," said Ajay Bhalla, leader of global enterprise risk and security at Mastercard.

"In payments technology, this is something we're surrounding as we move from cash to card, secret key to the thumbprint, and past to creative advances, for example, computerized reasoning. It's far less demanding to verify with a thumbprint or a selfie, and it's more secure as well."

The push toward biometrics echoes a more change occurring in the payments industry at this moment. In January, the European Union implemented the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), a regulation aimed at speeding up transactions and giving third-party firms access to banks' customer information so that they can build better products.

Under the new guidelines, customers are required to affirm their identity every five times after they have made a contactless payment. Mastercard said the biometric tech is at present being trialed in South Africa. Visa — Mastercard's main rival — is likewise trying biometric cards in Cyprus.

PSD2 has put banks and major money financial services providers under extreme strain to enhance their digital capacity and open up their information to outside developers. Banks are treasure troves with regards to financial data, compiling immense amounts on a regular basis.

Moving towards biometric types of payment like fingerprint sensors and eye-scanning tech — TSB, for example, said last year it wants to be the primary European bank to roll out iris authentication — to make payments less complex is likewise anticipated that would enhance money related security and handle extortion.