My web hosting company has just gotten a merchant account. We are in the U.S. but have quite a few Canadian clients, and would like to serve clients all over the world. So, I asked our merchant company whether I could process any credit cards from non-U.S. clients.

Their response was, basically, "at your own risk." The reason, as I'm sure most of you know, is that we can't do address verification for those outside of the United States.

So, should I just continue to ask for a money order or similar payment for our overseas customers? Would you suggest that I accept credit cards from those overseas clients that have built up some level of trust (say, 6 months hosting with us)? Should I do my own address verification of sorts by mailing them, say, a code number and asking them to e-mail me the code number to confirm they received it?

I hope I'm not being silly :rolleyes: , but I'm really, really new at the whole merchant thing, and am hoping to be able to accommodate clients from all over the world (or at least Canada, for starters.... :) ).

There are few ways you can try to have an idea..
When your Canadian clients (or others) submit the order form, you can get the originating IP address where you can match (general area) with the address of the Credit card. Also, you can call them and ask them to fax you a copy of the CC (front and back)..

I am sure there are more ways..
:cool:

After being hit with a few fraud attempts from places like vanatau and whatnot, I switched to just accepting US/Canadian customers via CC. Others are accepted via paypal

With the former, if something looks suspicious, I can give the person a phone call.

you too???.

It seems the guy from vanatau wanted to try all of us here in the US.
I just hope he did not succeed with someone else.

I was just commenting about paypal on another thread..
you could use a service like paypal to process international orders.. where they need to be paypal verified to buy.. just a thought..;)

As an FYI, Business/Premier Accounts can set their preferences t receive only certain kinds of payments (such as from confirmed addresses only, verified users only,etc.)

We also release the billing address on file with the credit card company to the recipient of a credit card payment. This can help identify fraud if the user provides entirely different contact information.

thanks for clarifying damon..

laterz all,
raqworld

Thanks PayPalDamon!! But I thought that international buyers couldn't be PayPal verified :confused: ?

I do have a PayPal account, and I like the service very much. However, for a more professional appearence I've gotten a merchant account but do plan on keeping PayPal as an option. So I'll probably just require clients outside of North America to use PayPal. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover all countries, and many countries have reported a lot of problems using it. :crap:

You are correct about international users---they can't be verified. The verification process is different than the confirmation process (credit cards). The international product team is looking at these options.