What Is a Merchant Account?

• Industry and MCC, plus any licence the category requires.
• Company registration country and the markets you sell to.
• Monthly volume, average ticket and largest expected transaction.
• Trading history, chargeback ratio and refund rate.
• Delivery lag between payment and fulfilment.
• Ownership, KYC and source-of-funds documentation.

• Reserve type, percentage and release schedule.
• Settlement frequency and currency, plus FX margin.
• Chargeback fees and monitoring thresholds.
• Volume caps and what happens when you exceed them.
• Notice period and termination conditions.

Every merchant account carries a merchant category code: a four-digit code describing what you sell. It is not an administrative detail. Permitted-category policy, interchange, and in some cases scheme rules and monitoring are applied through that code, so a code that does not match the business is a recurring source of surprise limits and declines.

• The code should describe the activity carrying most of your card volume.
• Selling several distinct things through one entity often means more than one account, rather than one broad code.
• Changing a code later is a re-underwriting conversation, so check it matches what you sell before you apply.

Accounts are closed far more often than they are declined outright, and the reasons are consistent. Knowing them is the practical way to keep one open, because in most cases the account holder saw the cause coming.

• A dispute ratio that stays above the acquirer's or scheme's threshold for consecutive months.
• Volume or average ticket well beyond what was underwritten, without telling the acquirer first.
• Selling something outside the approved category, including a new product line added quietly.
• A change of ownership, entity or website content that was not disclosed.
• Refunds that cannot be funded, which is exactly the exposure the acquirer underwrote.
• Unanswered requests for documents or information during a periodic review.

Pricing on a merchant account is rarely one number. A percentage fee and a fixed fee per transaction combine differently depending on your average transaction value, and the monthly, gateway, chargeback and payout fees sit on top of that. The figure to compare between two offers is the effective rate on your own volume and transaction count, not the headline percentage.

Work it out with your real average ticket. A low percentage with a high fixed fee is expensive on small baskets, and the reverse is true on large ones, which is why the cheaper-looking quote often is not.

Ecompayer matches your business with an acquirer that accepts it and prepares your own merchant account, through one online application.

• Add your business, markets, volumes and history once.
• We match you with an acquirer that accepts your profile.
• Your merchant account is prepared so you can start taking payments.

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