Merchant\Business Bank Account concerns

[Nickerz]

I've been doing a little bit of reading that recommends that when I apply for my merchant account I should be really careful in what I say. Its my first business and while my personal credit is fine, I don't have any credit built up in my business yet. It's home based and will be accepting credit cards over the internet. What are some recommendations you can give me to help me out?

[justgowithit]

When applying for a merchant account the business’s credit has nothing to do with it. As long as your personal credit is OK you will be fine. You don’t really need to be careful as to what you say when you set up a merchant account, more so, you need to make sure that the sales rep has a good idea of what you are doing and the allowances as far as average ticket and volumes that you will be needing.

In short, explain your business in detail and be honest. The worst thing you can do for your business is to have a merchant account set-up under false pretenses. This only opens the door for bad things to happen, I.E. terminated merchant file, held funds, etc.

[Corey Bryant]

justgowithit is right - most of the processors will not take your credit report into consideration unless you are requesting $30,000 or more a month in volume. They understand that running a business is different from your personal life.

So if you have bad or good credit - it does not really matter. I mean, if the processors did not support new businesses, the processors would have a difficult time staying in business as well.

-Corey