I just got an merchant account set up via Modern Authorize a few days ago. As they requested I faxed them a copy of my previous 3 months from my current processor. A day after I sent the fax I got a call from my previous/current merchant account iPayment asking me to call back at my earliest convienence. It's now Saturday and they are closed for the weekend.

My question to you is, can we have 2 merchant accounts set up under one name? and if not, does signing up for a new one automatically terminate the other?

Just a little concerned because I am still taking payements via iPayment with my offline biz and want to use Modern Authorize online.

Thanks,

I wouldn't forsee any issues with it. Just review your contracts with them and make sure your not in breach but I can't imagine you would be.

If your existing merchant account provider has a clause that restricts you to only using their service (I have found this in some merchant account providers terms), you could be in violation of that and that is why they contacted you. You would certainly want to clarify (if they do have that clause) whether the clause applies to you personally or the business. If it is the latter, you would also need to see how it applies if the accounts are for two seperate legal entities.

Who knows though, they may only be calling you to try and save the account (not knowing that you are not leaving, just getting a second account). I would definatley check the agreement though and see if it has an exclusivity clause in it.

Some providers view having more than one account has an additional risk to them because they are providing service based on a set amount of monthly sales. Your current provider may be ok with you processing $10K/month, but feel like there is higher risk if you are processing an additional $10K/month elsewhere (on the theory that overextention could have a negative impact on your ability to pay them, if either account goes negative).

Yes it is possible to have two merchant accounts.
We have two merchant accounts (seperate merchant numbers). One is used for our USD currency processing, and the other for our CAD currency processing. Both of the merchant accounts are with the same provider (Moneris)

It does cost about twice the price though.

Thanks guys for your help. I Just got off the phone with iPayment, and turns out they just wanted to make sure that I wasn't leaving. So all this worry was over nothing, just glad it worked out this way honestly.

-Jeff