/24-7PressRelease/ - May 03, 2008 - The Travel Industry is a very lucrative business. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to get a merchant account for this business. There are a few merchant account providers that will take a chance, but for the most part, the majority is not interested. Getting a merchant account for this category is considered high risk.
When you do find a merchant account that will cater to you, they probably will have restrictions on what they will do for your business. For instance, the ones that will work with you will only approve charges for commissions, car rentals and hotel stays. They won't approve charges for cruises, tours or airplane tickets.
The unfortunate part about this is that you may not find out that the latter isn't covered until some of your customers notice and start to complain because the funds are being held up. That's not a good way for providers to do business. Merchants should know up front what they're going to pay for.
Prior to a transaction, the merchant should be approved for the amount specified. There are some providers who will approve the merchant, but the catch is there is a limit to the amount merchants can get.
When getting a merchant account in the travel industry, merchants find out after the fact about hidden fees. These fees include monthly gateway fees, annual fees, batch fees and other fees that are not listed until such time.
Another downside is that if the merchant does not meet the minimum amount of monthly sales each month, they're subject to a service fee.
Beware of merchant providers trying to sell you merchandise that you don't need. They'll try to sell merchants expensive equipment or a lease that you can't cancel after you've signed on the dotted line. Since the more legitimate merchant providers do their business over the phone, the equipment is nothing but a waste and not needed.
There is also something called "teaser rates". Some merchant account providers will offer special rates in order to get merchants to sign up with their company, only to raise the price again after a few months. Offers like these usually have another catch. Since the rates initially offered are supposedly low, look out for any penalties that may be attached to the offer.
Hidden fees alone can cost merchants from three to four digits in any given period. This usually happens when a merchant account provider omits certain fees. Check this out before you sign on the dotted line.
Merchants should also check out their customer service. Merchants should see how they operate and how they treat them. Merchants should look and see if they do what they say they're going to do.
When looking for a merchant account provider, they should be able to provide great service. After all, merchants do paying money to them for assistance. If they can't provide or do the work, then it's time to look for someone else.
Merchants need to remember to be prudent when looking for merchant providers that will meet their needs.
Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited an international merchant service provider. Stradafee is a retail and an electronic payments company specializing in global eCommerce and Internet merchant accounts. Merchant accounts make it possible for businesses to provide credit card processing for card present and card-not-present transactions. For more information on credit card processing visit http://www.stradafee.com
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