Okay, here it goes...

My acquiring bank (and merchant account holder) put a hold on all of my deposits because I’ve been running charges that are higher than my “ticket price”.

Originally, when I signed up with them, and only did web hosting, my average ticket price was $14.00, now that I offer co-location; I have a couple $600/mo tickets. They said that it was suspicious so they placed a hold on all my deposits and they are making me fax statements to justify the charges. Of course, this was for my protection. :)

Is this typical merchant behavior? Can anyone suggest any credit card merchant companies that are not stupid -- I spent 25 minutes explaining “what we do” and after all that, the woman’s mumbled response was “so, uhhh... you make interweb sites”!!!

HEEEEEEEELP!!!!

Try calling back and see if you can get a different representative. If it is the same representative, just explain it again and ask her what you need to do to take care of this problem. When she asks you to fax all of your statements, ask if there is another possibility. I guess that is what I would do.

We had a similar problem when we first started. Contact your rep who signed you up and ask for his/her assistance in clearing it up. Our problem was fixed within a couple hours.

Usually the merchants are reasonable to work with providing you have a good history with them. Many of them have been burned bad when it comes to Internet companies and they are very leery. Don't even bother to explain what you do unless your rep is industry knowledgeable, otherwise it is like explaining hosting to your Mom or Grandma. Keep it simple!

We've learned that an "average ticket" is actually a "ticket limit", it's not by definition an average. You will need to contact your merchant account provider and either have your "average ticket" amount increased, or unfortunately, you may need to apply for a whole new merchant account with a new adverage ticket. The higher the average ticket the more risk the bank is liable for, so be conservative.

Always ask questions, no matter how dumb they sound, "Is an average ticket an average or a limit?" is a good one.

Can anyone recommend any good merchants that work in this industry, have good 24 hour customer service and above all else, will not refer to co-location as interweb hosting? Maybe Brad@RackMy could just PM me their companies URL? :)

The company I'm using is real big in the retail swipe terminal business and they have succeeded in making me feel like the red headed step child because I use that damned Interweb thing.

They also complained about us having a short processing history - never mind that we required our customers to pay by check and paypal for 2 almost years.

We use Authorize.Net. Your agent will be as important as the actual company.

http://safesolutions.com

Michael Chamberlain is the guy we dealt with.

Good luck.

Originally posted by Idgaf
Maybe Brad@RackMy could just PM me their companies URL? :)


Sorry, didn't see the pm until I already posted.

Merchant banks set limits on both the average ticket and the monthly processing volume. Whatever monthly volume and average ticket price you put on your initial contract is what they are basing this decision on.

You can, however, call and have both of those limits raised without getting a new account. Depending on the level you need them raised to, you might have to submit some more documentation to the bank (photo id, site inspection of your business...etc) that you did not have to originally submit, but they will raise the limits.

Originally posted by 7out
Merchant banks set limits on both the average ticket and the monthly processing volume. Whatever monthly volume and average ticket price you put on your initial contract is what they are basing this decision on.

You can, however, call and have both of those limits raised without getting a new account. Depending on the level you need them raised to, you might have to submit some more documentation to the bank (photo id, site inspection of your business...etc) that you did not have to originally submit, but they will raise the limits.

I've heard cases where a whole new merchant account needed to be applied for, especially when the average ticket was more than $1,000.

That sounds like a bank that didn't want to underwrite the higher account passing it on to another bank, but I don't really know why that would be done. I just have to call my bank and they raise those limits. Unless of course I need them raised huge amounts, then I have to call and fax in whatever documents they need for me to get set up with the permenant higher limits.

we used to have authorize.net + cardservices merchant account with average ticket of $35. Then we posted a charge close to $2000 and it was automatically placed on-hold. After a couple of phone calls + faxed/signed order form, the payment was released without problems.