Merchant-Accounts.ca: The Demystifying Payments Blog

Some businesses are harder than others when it comes to establishing a credit card processing solution. Surprisingly, construction and contracting businesses can sometimes have a problem with banks and processors holding onto their cash. In this video David explains why construction companies can sometimes run into a problem when opening a merchant account with a payment processor, and what you can do about it.

Merchants can get declined for a number of reasons like bad credit, a high risk product or service, or the risk of chargebacks to the credit card processor is too high. However, you should always be able to get a clear explanation of why you were declined. A good strategy is to always find out why you were declined, and specifically: what you should work on improving in the future. If your credit card processor can't tell you why you were declined this is a sign of a bad credit card processor.

How long of a contract should you be willing to sign when setting up credit card processing for your business? In almost all cases the answer should be monthly. Long term contracts should be avoided. David explains how to get a monthly agreement, and a few exceptions to the rule when long-term contracts can be beneficial.

If you sell expensive products or services you'll find that many payment processors want to hold back some of your funds in a reserve, or may even decline your merchant account application altogether. In this video David explains why this happens, and what you can do about it.

Canadian merchants are protected by the Code of Conduct for the credit card processing industry. It's a set of rules that credit card processors must follow with the intent of protecting business owners from unfair pricing and contract practices. For example, it protects merchants from unfair price increases. In this video David explains the most important things that business owners should know about the code of conduct.

Travel is a fun and exciting part of life that we all look forward to. (Or at least we did pre-COVID). Why do travel companies so often have a hard time getting a merchant account? Further to that, how much harder has COVID-19 made it to get approved?

What should you do if your merchant account application is declined? David explains why payment processors decline some merchants, and how to turn it around and get an approval.

David explains what to do if your payment processor suddenly starts holding onto your funds, or implements a larger holdback or reserve.

It's common for merchants to have security reserves, rolling reserves, or holdbacks from the credit card processor. In this discussion we explore how to reduce or eliminate them. Learn how to eliminate your security reserve...

Why do payment processors have holdbacks or reserves on your merchant account? In this discussion we explain the concept of future delivery chargeback risk, and explore how to reduce the collateral held on your merchant account.

Establishing credit card processing for an airline can be very difficult, especially for young airlines, but also even for well established carriers.

One of the worst situations to find yourself in is being stuck in an unfair credit card processing agreement. They can be costly and difficult to get out of. In this article we'll explore ways to get out of the agreement at painlessly as is possible.