Cigarette companies are increasingly turning to electronic cigarettes and portable vaporizers (like www.Davincivaporizer.com) as a source of revenue. Unlike traditional paper cigarettes, which are loaded with nicotine and many other harmful chemicals, an electronic cigarette may have little to no nicotine, is often odorless, and may be a better choice for smokers who are conscientious about their health. From a business standpoint, selling electronic cigarettes is a great way to meet customer demand. But from a credit card processing company’s perspective, an electronic cigarette company poses a higher financial risk, simply due to the nature of the business.
Typically a credit card processing company, often referred to as a merchant account provider, will handle the responsibilities of processing credit card and debit card payments made by customers. The merchant account provider makes money by charging the merchant various fees (usually per-transaction percentage-based fees, account setup fees, and monthly or yearly maintenance fees). But with a high risk merchant comes higher financial risks – an increase in the number of refunds and disputes with credit cards, and even the possibility of litigation or other legal headaches.
But electronic cigarette merchants need to be able to accept credit cards. In this instance, these companies are often best served by merchant account providers who specialize in high risk businesses – in this case, an electronic cigarette merchant account would be ideal.
Merchant account services for electronic cigarette companies are identical to the credit card processing services offered by other merchants. The key difference here is that the merchant provider understands the increased amount of financial risk associated with this particular type of company, but is willing to offer credit card processing services anyway.
If you are in the business of selling electronic cigarettes, and you don’t already have a merchant account, look for providers who advertise their willingness to work with high risk merchants. If you are already accepting credit card payments, but have not yet begun to sell these types of cigarettes, check with your provider before you do so. If you don’t alert them to your potential business status change, they may charge you increased fees, or cancel your contract altogether.
Well, although it is true that electronic cigarettes are less harmful than traditional paper cigarettes, still they fall into the category of high risk businesses. Like all other high risk businesses, cigarette companies dealing in electronic cigarettes also face lots of problems when it comes to getting approved for a merchant account.
Thankfully, there are some selected companies there to help these merchants out! I am glad to know that these professionals are dedicated to enabling electronic cigarette merchants to accept credit cards. What I like the most about these companies is that they have flexible terms and approval criteria for virtually all types of high risk merchants. This helps them to get approved quickly and have their payment gateways up and running in no time!