I live in Holland where marijuana, marijuana seeds ect. is perfectly legal to prosess and to trade. Still it seems impossible for me to find a creditcard processor to process online payments for my website! :confused:

Im sure there must be a way ( there are many online shops like this - all located in my country) and many of them offer CC payments on their site.

Can anyone recommend a reliable processor/merchant?

Have you spoken to your bank to see if they can provide it?

I live in Holland where marijuana, marijuana seeds ect. is perfectly legal to prosess and to trade.

I believe only if deemed to be a "collector"

Regards

you are misinformed SLDhosting. This is legal for consumption. My country is full of coffeeshops, seedshops, headshops ect. and they are all legal businesses. A good online example is grasscity.com they sell seeds, pipes ect.
Ofcourse there are some regulations, but these do not apply to seeds, pipes, growing equipment ect. but to marijuana itself: your allowed to have only 5grams of it, and legal business selling it can have no more then 200 grams in stock.

I would recommend you to buy marijuana online somewhere in Holland and see what you will see in your CC statement

you are misinformed SLDhosting. This is legal for consumption. My country is full of coffeeshops, seedshops, headshops ect. and they are all legal businesses. A good online example is grasscity.com they sell seeds, pipes ect.
Ofcourse there are some regulations, but these do not apply to seeds, pipes, growing equipment ect. but to marijuana itself: your allowed to have only 5grams of it, and legal business selling it can have no more then 200 grams in stock.

I wouldnt know as this is highly illegal in the uk...

I would imagine that is the problem.. It IS illegal in a lot of countries, therefore, international payment processors won't touch it. Short of becoming your own payment gateway, or asking your bank to support it, you probably won't have much luck

Not only that, but the site you referenced, grasscity.com, doesn't have anything on it that is illegal, even in the US. There is no Marijuana, or anything like that. The closest I see to an illegal drug is the poppy seed, but even those are legal in the US, it's what's MADE from the seeds that isn't :)

OOPS. meant to edit, not reply

I wont be selling marijuana! Im looking to sell the seeds only.
They are legal in most EU countries actually ( unlike marijuana)

Im basicly looking to start a similar shop as grasscity.com!


SLD hosting: your misinformed: even in the UK it is legal to own and trade marijuana seeds, so nothing highly illegal about it

I wont be selling marijuana! Im looking to sell the seeds only.
They are legal in most EU countries actually ( unlike marijuana)

Im basicly looking to start a similar shop as grasscity.com!


SLD hosting: your misinformed: even in the UK it is legal to own and trade marijuana seeds, so nothing highly illegal about it
Try contacting grasscity.com and see where they get their merchant account from

Your best bet would be to use something like Western Union with some sort of bankwire / check by mail.

I don't think any CC processor will touch that as they'd be in trouble in their corporate HQ.

Try contacting grasscity.com and see where they get their merchant account from

Not so sure that phone call will go well:

(ring, ring)

"Hi, you don't know me, but I'm planning on directly competing with you by selling the same product you do, to the same clientele you do. Only, I'm having a little trouble getting started - can you tell me how you..."

(click)

"...hello? Helloooo?"

:stickout:

Ah, the marijuana seed business. Out of curiosity, you a breeder or simply a wholesaler?

Seems like the competition would be stiff over there, unless you have created some magical strains! ;)


Eh er, regarding the payment processing. I can't offer much insight. I would imagine that checking out the shopping cart systems on similar sites might offer some clues as to what they use and accept as payments.

Good luck

Just doing a quick search on the terms through Google, it looks like plenty of them accept PayPal. Whether or not PayPal actually allows this is a different story.

Why not go into a shop that sells it and takes credit cards and ask them who they use?

Actually most CC terminals have stickers on them that actually tell you how manufactures them, but honestly with a bit of social engineering you could get this information from your competition.

Example:
Hey I am looking to resell your products but I am having trouble finding a credit card merchant willing to work with these products, can you help me out?

Hey I am starting a business selling (some related product that they dont sell) and I was wondering who you guys use for a credit card merchant.

Just put yourself in their shoes in order to come up with a suitable conversation that would set them at ease and go for it.

If it's an online site just tell them you need to know who they process credit cards through before you make a purchase.

All you need to do is find a shop offline that sells it using cc, then contact the cc provider to see if they have an online option. I suspect if they do, the fees might be "high" - pun intended.

I already found out who the payment company is for grass city is ( docdata) and contacted all payment providers that i could find who are processing for other seed sites and headshops. All with the same results: Yes we process for them, but our policy is not to take any new merchants :-(

I would also try approaching your bank. If it's legal I'd imagine they'd be happy to provide a merchant account.

I would also try approaching your bank. If it's legal I'd imagine they'd be happy to provide a merchant account.

It would make sense, but you can safely say that Dutch rules and regulations make absolutely no sense. Just an example: coffeeshops are allowed to sell marijuana, but they aren't allowed to buy it, nor are they allowed to grow it themselves. So they can only sell marijuana that magically appears when nobody's watching. The rules and regulations of banks make just about as much sense.

All with the same results: Yes we process for them, but our policy is not to take any new merchants :-(

That probably means they either don't want to deal with the hassle, or they may only accept these kind of shops when you talk to the right people. So find the right people ;) There's thousands of people doing the same thing as what you're planning to do, and I'm sure you'll be able to meet up with some. You should do some networking and I'm sure you'll find someone that can point you in the right direction.

Also, something you could try is to contact some merchants that process payments for porn websites. Most creditcard merchants disallow porn websites completely (just like seeds), so if you approach one that does allow porn sites, there's a fair chance they might also allow selling seeds.

I like Apocs comments if they process credit cards for filth why not for smokes.

Alternatively, perhaps someone on Overgrow (Is that still around?) or on ICMag can shed better light on the issue as many breeders and seed distributors frequent there.

EDIT: Overgrow is gone! Back when I was a 'young and dumb' (Little older and little less dumb now ;) ) I used to lurk there a lot. Hundreds of thousands of members and a super active community.

I'd give ICMag a look through, as you may find something useful there.

Why not just have them mail you a check or a money order?

Do you currently have a website and sell those seeds ?
Do you have any volumes by chance ?

Not so sure that phone call will go well:

(ring, ring)

"Hi, you don't know me, but I'm planning on directly competing with you by selling the same product you do, to the same clientele you do. Only, I'm having a little trouble getting started - can you tell me how you..."

(click)

"...hello? Helloooo?"

:stickout:

Ha ha. that was my first thought. But you did it with so much wit and aplomb.

<rant>
Just for the record. I like the payment processor's policy just the way it is. It keeps marijuana off the market. And that is why you are having so much trouble finding one that will allow trade in the seed that may ultimately become a gateway drug to stronger substances such as heroin and crack cocaine.

Sorry to be such a party pooper, but that's how I feel since I have seen the damage and what it leads to.
</rant>

As far as you problem: try to buy through someone that uses a processor in a jurisdiction that has similar silly laws as yours.