Becoming an ISO

Is that a realistic Option?

[mickydfw]

Hi - all, this looks like an incredible forum.

I am wanting to offer ACH to my community of users as part of several other back office functions. We're just starting but target is several hundred merchant accounts with thousands of check transactions each.

These are regular as clockwork transactions and while the odd one does bounce, for the most part its one in 200 that does, and the amount is usually less than $500, so the risk is low.

Every reseller/sales agent contract i've seen leaves me cold as does the pricing. Its also not clear sometimes how many ISO's are in the chain.

Is it conceivable that I could apply to be an ISO directly only for ACH processing in the beginning? The risks for credit card processing are obviously high and I could work up to it. If yes - how should I go about it?

If the answer is no - then does anyone have any suggestions on how I should be approaching the search for an ethical and reasonable ISO I could resell through?

thanks in advance.

[CreditCardGuy]

Usually these deals are negotiated on a sliding scale. The more deals you can consistently bring in the more revenue you can claim per deal.

You probably could get an ISO relationship for ACH processing only but if you have the contacts to bring in merchant service accounts you can negotiate a deal where you take no risk.

[edited by: tedster at 7:46 pm (utc) on Mar. 15, 2009]