4 Factors to Consider When Choosing a High-Risk Payment Gateway for Your Business

If running a typical business isn’t stressful enough, being tagged as a high-risk merchant because of the nature of your business and the risks involved in it could be a lot of pressure on you as a business owner.

Since you need a stable and secure payment gateway to process transactions, choosing the right high-risk merchant provider is paramount to your success.

Here are four factors that you need to consider first:

1. Think about your needs first.

Evaluate your current business transactions. How many payments do you process in a month? What is the average amount for these transactions? Do you process these transactions mostly on your website or do you also have a physical store? Understanding your needs will make it easier to decide on the kind of payment gateway provider that will match those needs.

2. Think about your area of operations.

A payment gateway provider is a long-term partnership that you’d like to grow with you. Re-visit your goals for your business. Are you planning to concentrate on operating in a single city or do you have plans to expand to other cities or states in the future?

Are you currently catering to clients from other countries? Not all payment gateway providers cover all countries, so it’s a must that you look into your area of operations before deciding on the right partner for your needs.

It’s also beneficial to think about growth early on, so you wouldn’t need to find another provider if you decide to expand your network later.

3. Think about processing fees and charges.

Here’s the truth: being a high-risk merchant is more expensive than being a low-risk merchant. Most payment gateway providers will charge very high rates per transaction and even include extra fees for their services.

If this happens, you’ll likely end up paying more than what you’re earning, which isn’t what you want. To make sure that you’re working with a good payment gateway provider, you should compare fees and charges and read into the fine print of an offer before you jump in with a contract.

If you do your research well enough, you could find a merchant that will offer you reasonable rates to help you cut down costs without sacrificing the quality of your service or the safety of your customers.

4. Think about flexibility.

Finally, you should consider whether a payment gateway provider can offer mobile payments to cater to customers who use electronic wallets to pay for their transactions.

These days, a lot of customers already use Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and other mobile payment options because they’re more convenient to use and safer since they don’t have to swipe a card or reveal any card information when making payments.

So, if you want to keep up with the competition, you have to be able to cater to these transactions, which is why it’s a must that you find a merchant account provider that can provide you with this service.