What is a Merchant Account?
A merchant account is a special type of business bank account that allows you to securely accept credit and debit payments. It acts as a middleman between your business's bank and the bank your customer uses to make their card purchases.
A merchant account is needed to facilitate the movement of money from your customer's bank account to your bank account so, if you want to take electronic payments, you need to get yourself a merchant account.
No Credit Check Merchant Accounts
Merchant accounts come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some are designed for small businesses and some for large businesses. Recently, some companies have emerged offering alternatives to conventional merchant accounts, whereby they process your payments and send the money to you without ever using one. Companies like Square and PayPal have dominated this area of the market and have become popular choices amongst small businesses across the country, this is largely due to their simplicity and lack of background checks.
While not merchant accounts in the traditional sense, companies like these do still operate like merchant accounts in that they process your payments and pass them along to you minus a transaction fee. Their lack of credit checks, or commitment to work with as many businesses as possible, makes them viable options for both businesses that are just starting out, and those that have a poor credit history.
Many of the traditional payment processors are likely to turn down applications that come from businesses with a bad credit history so, for these reasons and more, businesses often look to the alternatives available.
Does Your Business Have Poor Credit?
If your business has a poor credit history, you may be better off looking for a payment processor that won't do a credit check. There are, as you will see below, several providers who are happy to give you a merchant account like this, and choosing the best one for your business is an important decision.
The fees a payment processor charges will be your main consideration, but other factors like ease of use, trustworthiness, and suitability should also be high on your list of considerations. We've chosen just four payment processors for you to explore; these are by no means the best four available, they're just to give you an idea of what's available.