Continuity/Subscription Merchants

Your Business Needs to Accept Credit Cards

In this day and age, you can miss tons of business if you don't have a continuity/subscription merchants account that accepts credit cards. The banks don't consider this a traditional category, which has created some problems for business owners that simply want to accept credit cards. To secure the merchant processing, you have to understand how this has been classified as high risk. That means that you will have a harder time getting a continuity subscription merchants account. The Southern Institute has the knowledge and experience to make this process much easier to understand.

Why are These Accounts Hard to Get

As we said before, this type of pricing structure carries some level of risk to it to the banks. You have a risk that there will be chargebacks. The chargeback levels can't exceed two percent, or they will shut down your account. Chargebacks mean that there's nothing to cover the customer, and as a result, the bank has to refund the customer the money. One person is fine, but when you have many chargebacks, this can add up to a lot of cash that the bank needs to cover. For that reason, they've set a limit on it not to exceed two percent. Higher volumes in sales and the higher possibilities for fraud have all contributed to this being a high-risk area.

How Do Subscriptions Work

Under this system, the individual's credit card will continue to be charged until they take action to unsubscribe from it. That offers a lot of business opportunities for entrepreneurs, but it can turn into a headache for the banks because of the scams that are rife in this field that lead to chargebacks. Bottom line: The banks see this type of service as a risk.

What Types of Businesses Can Benefit from This Service?

You have a couple of different types of businesses that can get a lot from this. These types of businesses include:

• Clothing subscription boxes
• Streaming services
• Subscription to magazines and newspapers

How High Risk Can Impact Your Chances

Being a continuity subscription merchant, you have a high risk of experiencing problems. In some cases, customers don't even need to have a legitimate reason to dispute a chargeback. They can file a claim, at any time and for any reason, and this will lead to huge headaches for you even if it isn't a legitimate reason. Not only does it become a headache, but you run into many technical problems with it as well. Many times, the customer wins based on a simple technicality on your part.

For that reason, you want to partner with subscription merchant services that will be reputable because you can easily lose out on money as they begin the process of a chargeback. In addition, the credit card processor will likely add fees, and you will lose money from the business on it. Hands down, however, the biggest added insult to injury comes from the fact that you can have your merchant account terminated, and you may not have done anything to deserve it. That's what makes this a high-risk field.

You Must Partner with Someone You Can Trust

You want someone who has the framework and the scale to support subscription merchant services. Not to mention, you want security and PCI compliance when your customers go to type in their credit card information into the database. In business, reputation is everything, and you can't afford to partner with someone who won't take this as seriously as what you do. At the Southern Institute, we have the ability to assist you, and we will do everything in our power to help your business. When you partner with us, we have the knowledge to keep your business in good standing. Knowing that our customers trust us with helping them to do recurring billing is one of the greatest sources of pride that we have in our business.

Support for Many Kinds of Businesses

The Southern Institute has been in operation since 1995, and we have proudly supported businesses ever since. We have a specialization in supporting businesses with a high risk. Some of the continuity-style businesses that we have helped to support over the years include:

• Education
• Healthcare
• Access to content
• Replenishment

We have helped many business owners to monetize and make more money from their businesses than what they were ever previously able to do. The advantage of subscriptions is how they make it easy on the budget. They may be viewed as high risk, but they do have a lot of advantages for entrepreneurs who want to make more money off of them.

Maybe You Were Shutdown in the Past

Here at the Southern Institute, we have found that direct marketing - continuity/subscription merchants were sometimes shut down in the past. They had their account terminated for reasons that weren't even their fault. That's the danger when it comes to high-risk accounts. You have a risk of excessive chargebacks that can lead to account termination. Here at the Southern Institute, we will do our best to work with you, and we will try not to let these things interfere with your business. Losing your ability to take credit cards can be a huge hit for your business that can even derail you if you have a business that depends on this type of thing.

Integration with the Right Tools

Having seamless integration becomes one of the most important aspects to consider. To start growing your subscription continuity business, you will need the right set up to make it happen. We can integrate with many of the CRM software choices like:

• Easycart
• Shopify
• Fishbowl
• 3dcart
• Zuora
• Formsite
• Opencart