As a business, you know that the ability to process credit card payments is crucial to your sales and the success of your business as a whole. But it’s also not uncommon for a payment processor to suddenly cut your high risk merchant account off this service and it could hurt your business big time before you even know it.
So, what should you do if you’re dropped by a payment processor?
Keep calm.
Sure, you’re on the brink of yelling at the unlucky account representative that you get hold of on the phone, but don’t do that just yet. Your payment processor has its reasons for dropping you off, so you need to find that out first.
For instance, if your account was frozen due to an overwhelming amount of chargebacks, you need to talk calmly with your account representative and comply with any documentation that they need to reverse this action.
Keeping yourself calm will not only cut the time it takes to solve the problem, but it will also allow you to keep your good relationship with your payment processor.
Use more than just one payment processor.
Like everything else in business, you can’t just put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to payment processing. Don’t just rely on one payment processor to process all of your payments because if that processor cuts you off, then you’re instantly back to zero.
But if you have a backup plan in hand, you can easily switch to another payment processor if one kicks you off. Look into an alternate high risk merchant account, and keep it open in case of emergencies.
It’s actually more beneficial to have more than one payment processing partner because you can have more flexibility when it comes to expanding your business. Plus, you also get varying approval rates depending on where you are in the world.
Try to avoid the reasons you got blocked.
There are many reasons for a payment processor to block you. You could’ve violated your term of service with them, you used the same merchant account for different types of business transactions or you have a high fraud activity in your account. If this happens, you’ll need to prove that you didn’t consciously commit these violations to be able to get your account back and avoid further problems in the long run.
Chargeback prevention is still one of the best ways to avoid being dropped by your payment processor. For instance, you need to be mindful of your chargeback rates and invest in measures that will help reduce—or remove—any fraudulent activities in your business.
In most cases, you’ll get some warnings from your payment processor before your account gets terminated, so it’s best to take action right away to avoid the hassles of a frozen payment processing account just because you were not proactive to fix issues before they turn worse.
The bottomline
You already know that once you get dropped by a payment processor, it would be hard to find a new one. Worse, you could end up on the terminated merchant list, which will affect your business even further.
So before that happens, it is best that you take the necessary measures to prevent your business from being dropped by your payment processor.
