Open 2nd Merchant Account Under Same LLC?

[olimits7]

Hi,

Is it possible to open up a 2nd merchant account under the same LLC?

Or can I use my current merchant account and use it on a 2nd website?

Thank you,

olimits7

[Mike McKnight]

we have a standard merchant account through Transfirst
and another one through PayPal both in the same company name.

We do all CC processing manually instead of realtime
however, that may make a difference, I don't know.
Mike

[D_Blackwell]

My current merchant account(s) is through my local bank. Got a great deal. I have a separate account and terms for every website, but all funds go directly into primary company checking account, and all fees come out of same account. Fees are taken monthly - NOT on the fly, so accountant is happy.

Advantages: I have no fees for anything, just a straight discount rate based on average ticket for each website. The rates are excellent, the best I've ever had. The higher the average ticket, the better the rate, but even on low average sites I've no complaints.

Long relationship, checking accounts, savings accounts, CDs, business CC, et cetera make me a prime customer even though I am a long, long way from being a big dollar player.

In fact, with this bank, running one account through multiple websites is a MAJOR violation. Each website must pass their scans and inspections (no charge to me) and no problem to pass, because I already know all of the requirements and build them into new sites. Each website MUST have its own merchant account. No problem for me. I already have each website setup as a separate company in QB to separate customers, inventory.....and my accountant just dumps it all into one hopper for pass-through tax purposes. Although I treat each website as its own enterprise, and even though the bank treats each website as its own enterprise - the bank still recognizes the LLC as THE company and cash flows in and out of those accounts.

My accountant dumps most everything into the hopper because my LLC is one company to him. The separate websites have minimal effect on pass-through taxes. It is one company to him. How I choose to 'sub-divide' does not much affect what he does right now. We may be making too much money to remain an LLC and need to incorporate, but that doesn't affect the question at hand and should not be a problem when we make that move. Just hassle that I will delegate.

The 'separate' accounts also show up on the customers' statements with the correct website name, so no confusion over charges that people forget about. The source of the charge is obvious.

[Trucker]

We have two merchant accounts. One is under the business name and the other is under the name of our website domain.

[brandyace]

How about using the same legal entity and a different dba

[D_Blackwell]

That is essentially what we have. There is THE company. Every ecommerce site is, for practical purposes, a dba, though we don't call it that. All cash flow, liabilities, etc., ultimately are associated with THE company. Bank is happy, accountant is happy, lawyer is happy. Nobody sees a need (in our case), to have multiple companies or incorporations. That would probably change if we hit the jackpot and one enterprise was raking in cash or had an exceptionally high liability issue with a specific product/niche.

[Conard]

I've had multiple merchant accounts under the same business name for years.
We currently only have two.

In the past, if you took cards in person and sold on-line 2 separate accounts were required by some providers. I just left some open when I switched providers, just in case.

[MrHard]

Our provider could care less what website we are using, it's all about the numbers.

[scrony]

in the past we had a problem when our processing volume spiked, so now we keep two merchant (from different banks) accounts and use them both equally so that we are not entirely dependent upon one bank for many number of different reasons.