For example, I had a client apply with charge.com which claims on their site they "use your SSN for verification purposes only", of course this is 100% false as the client was turned down and also saw the inquiring on their credit report.

Thus, looking for a merchant other than the obvious such as Worldpay, Instabill, ECS world, paypal, 2checkoput, alterpay, etc that allows US personal bank accounts and has a VT to process phone orders of tangible products. Client's business is fairly new(we did incorporation services for them)so they do not have much in the way of statements (just one).

Any assistance is appreciated -- btw I do not charge to give my clients this info, so I am not turning around and sell it

Hi offshoreprivacy,

Virtually all U.S. merchant processors require an SSN # and I will explain why.

They DO use it for verification purposes (as charge.com had told you) but in addition to that - it is also used to ensure compliance with the Patriot act, Visa/MC & sponsoring bank regs and also establish the creditworthiness of the applicant. The credit inquiry will show up on their credit report as a "soft inquiry."

By the way, what was the specific reason for decline with charge.com? If your client did have the SSN # and they saw the report pulled - were there any derogatory line items on it or other issues that concerned the underwriters?

If they are US based processor they will require SS#.

If they can't provide a social, they are going to have to go with a 3rd party solution like the ones you mentioned or go with an offshore processor.

A bigger question would be why they can't use social, as some companies may be more lenient than others on providing a merchant account depending on the exact credit history issue.

They look at your credit score, they want to know if you are worthyness.

Baiscly when you process a payment, the card holder has 6 months to dispute the charge. Therefor, the aquiring bank that lets you do merchant processing loans the money to you for 6 months. So there is many reasons.

Every merchants should require you an ssn number , if they don't they are scam definitely

I could be wrong, but here goes. If you are a Corporation and have a federal ID number and/or an employer’s ID number you do not have to share your SSN #.

The reason is because you are not personally liable for the company’s debt, public or private. The Corporation is.

That being said, many companies try to make the account holder personally liable, and sign papers to the contrary. You are not required to sign such papers under these conditions.

The other thing is; usually the person that “does not” want to provide their SSN# or Fed ID # is the scammer or has intentions that are not beneficial to the public because they do not want to be traced.

Because of the rise of Identity theft, many private companies just will not deal with them. Larger Companies are going to require a large deposit to assure payment and demand two years of verifiable proof of operation.