Friday, November 27, 2009

Online Pharmacy Credit Card Processing

High risk management accounts by their very name will always be treated with a degree of caution by the banks and other financial institutions but they are manageable nonetheless. As evidence shows however where the identity of customers cannot be verified banks will be extremely cautious and may refuse applications as a result to minimize those risks. The primary risk factors which are taken into account tend to be the potential of fraudulent transactions and charge backs. Furthermore banks and financial institutions will classify merchant accounts based on the risk factors involved.

Nowadays, online offshore businesses have become widely acceptable as a profitable source of income. The concept of online offshore business is quite simple. A commodity that is expensive and rare in a particular country might be cheap and abundantly available in another country. So, an online merchant arranges for the transfer of this commodity to customers who are in need of this product. Thereby, the customer is able to obtain the product easily and rather inexpensively than that he could have purchased from his own country.

The US and the UK governments have imposed restrictions on the trade of pharmaceutical products considering security reasons. This has resulted in inflated prices of pharmaceuticals within these respective countries. Online pharmacy merchants have identified the potential profit that is hidden in these countries. They have pharmacies based on countries where the cost of manufacture and trade is rather less compared to the US and the UK. So, all they have to do is arrange for proper transfer of the pharmaceuticals from these countries to potential customers in the US and the UK.

But this online offshore business poses an eminent flaw. In these transactions there is no security that the customers are dealing with legitimate suppliers and vice versa. Hence, the quality of the products obtained is always a concern for the customer. The World Wide Web is filled with money thirsty hyenas who will stoop to any extent to get a chunk out of your hard earned money. Also, there is the possibility that some frauds might pose as a potential customer and acquire the pharmaceuticals and sell them in the market illegally.

All these risk factors included have made banks and financial institutions to classify online pharmacy credit card processing as high risk merchant accounts. Therefore, these online pharmacy merchants find themselves in a hard position to find a credit card processor to look after their online transactions. If they go ahead with the wrong international bank or credit card processor, they will see themselves out of the business very soon. So, this is a delicate area which requires much attention and research.

Today there are many high risk merchant acquiring banks that provide merchant accounts for online pharmacy credit card processing. If you can convince these banks that you are a legitimate online pharmacy merchant, setting up and online pharmacy credit card processing account is very easy. In cases where the merchants conduct an inbound or outbound telemarketing business that sells pharmaceuticals over the phone, acquiring a merchant account can get a bit difficult, but is not impossible. Summing up, things have improved now enabling an online pharmacy merchant to run his business hassle free in terms of establishing his merchant account.