Frequently Asked Questions –
US Merchant Accounts

What is a US Merchant Account?

How are US Merchant Accounts different from International Merchant Accounts?
With US Merchant Accounts, the transactions are processed through and acquired by a bank in the United States.  US banks tend to accept lower risk accounts while international banks are willing to take on more risk.  Because of this however, the US banks have a very easy underwriting process, and as long as the account is considered to fall within their risk thresholds, it makes the US Merchant Accounts easier to acquire than International Merchant Accounts.  This is not to say that US banks will only take lower risk merchant accounts, but they will consider a certain merchant to be high risk before an international bank would and simply rule out those merchants known to transact with higher risks.  Being in an industry with a negative history in processing or an industry that is illegal is the most common reason for US banks to rule out certain merchants from the get go.  They also consider processing large monthly volumes to be risky, but in that case, they will still approve the merchant and simply limit their allowed monthly processing volume.  Being a startup business without processing history is also something that US banks would consider high risk.  However, in most cases, an international bank would consider the same risk with a startup, and then it comes down to how the transactions are taking place from beginning to end.
Daily payouts, address verification, approval ratios.  However, limited volume, being subjected to v/mc chargeback limits per MID.