High Risk Payment Gateway

What is a high-risk payment gateway?

A payment gateway is the service tool that approves or declines any transaction via an online transaction to come into a business. For example, a high-risk payment gateway allows customers to submit their credit card information and then safely pass the sensitive financial data from the customer, the business, the company, and the bank.

High-risk payment gateways are two types of merchant account services available for companies that accept credit cards: low-risk or high-risk. The type you need depends on your company’s risk level. In general, a low-risk merchant account will be cheaper than a high-risk one because it has fewer liability protections in place if there’s an error made during processing. 

Low-risk payment gateways are not available for all companies; some businesses can’t get a low-risk account because of their industry type. For example, suppose you’re in the adult entertainment business (including webcam services) or involved in any product or service that is considered high risk. In that case, your business will have to use a high-risk merchant account.

If an online store accepts credit cards, it needs to have a high-risk payment gateway.

The fee structure for high-risk account services varies by company and industry type. They are higher than low-risk accounts because they provide more liability protection should something go wrong during the transaction process. And just like any other business service, you can expect to pay an enrollment fee and a monthly fee to use a merchant account. There will also likely be additional fees for gateway services.

How does online payment processing work?

When checking out, cardholder account information is encrypted using an SSL connection. The file sends through a secure link to the merchant’s gateway application and prevents outside attacks from occurring.

When a customer pays at a payment gateway, their card information is encrypted and sent to the bank through another secure SSL connection for authorization.

An authorization request is sent to the card issuer of a Visa or MasterCard. An American Express and Discover (including JCB) transaction is processed by that company, acting as processor and customer card issuer.

The card issuing bank determines whether the transaction is approved or denied. This response is sent to the customer’s shopping cart for approval or denial with a unique transaction ID.

Once the payment has been completed, merchants are given access to all of their pending authorizations. Merchants can make edits such as adding tips or voiding charges before finalizing them through a nightly process known as batching.

What is a high-risk industry?

High-risk industries have irregular, high-ticket sales and numerous chargebacks or work in highly controlled industries or the rules and regulations are unclear at best. This might be caused by poor credit ratings, being outside the United States, or simply not meeting specific standards.

Here are a few examples:

Tech Support companies

Tech support companies are high-risk merchants because they have irregular high-ticket sales, excessive chargebacks, and work in highly regulated industries, or the rules and regulations are unclear. As a result, banks refuse to give them merchant accounts unless they use a payment gateway designed specifically for this type of business.

Tobacco sales

Technically speaking, there’s no law against selling cigarettes online or through mail order, but it is illegal in many places because the buyer must be at least 18 years old. This means that any company who wants to sell tobacco products must register as an adult business with their local authority before starting up, which can sometimes take months or even years depending on how much red tape they have to cut through.

Offshore businesses

Offshore business owners may not be able to satisfy all customers or maintain long term relationships because they don’t have any power over how much they want to charge people for goods and services, which can result in price gouging if there is an emergency such as an earthquake or natural disaster where high demand for goods and services triggers high pricing. 

Call centers

Call center agents must handle high volumes of calls and provide quality customer service while adhering to the company’s policies and procedures to prevent fraud or other illegal activities from happening through their call center platform. These high-risk factors make call centers one of the most challenging customer care environments today.

Travel agents

The high-risk industry of travel agencies is a high-risk for payments because this industry attracts a high number of commercial disputes and legal restrictions.

Health and supplements

Health supplements are high risk because supplements can be used for medicinal purposes or recreational use. Many health supplement companies out there make claims about their product, but most of the time, these claims cannot be backed up with any scientific evidence. They can also cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, headache, diarrhea, etc., leading to hospitalization if it goes untreated. Drugs like steroids are high risk, too, because they carry serious health risks, including an increased chance of stroke or heart attack, high blood pressure, heart disease, and kidney problems.

Online gaming

This high-risk industry has a high number of commercial disputes and legal restrictions because it attracts so many players who have an opportunity to commit fraud or other crimes. Online gaming is high risk because it can be used for illegal activities like money laundering, drug trafficking, and tax evasion. 

Debt collection

Debt collectors collect money from delinquent accounts on behalf of creditors through phone calls, letters, emails, text messages, etc. Creditors may include banks that provide credit cards or lines of credit to consumers who then fail to repay their debts promptly; these companies would be considered corporate entities rather than individual persons. In addition, debtors often reside in different countries from their creditors, making high-risk debt collection a global industry.

There are two types of high-risk debt collectors: first-party and third-party high-risk debt collection companies. First-party high-risk debt collectors collect on their accounts and may charge a high interest rate. Third-party high-risk debt collectors generally operate as a subsidiary of a creditor or creditors. Therefore, they have no high-interest rates attached to the debts they purchase from the creditor.

In high-risk transactions, high-risk debt collectors collect money from delinquent accounts on behalf of creditors using high-risk methods such as phone calls, letters, emails, text messages, etc.

Pharmacies

Pharmacies are high-risk because they handle prescriptions. They also have to worry about credit card fraud, one of the most common types of online crime.

The high risk for pharmacies comes from handling high-risk medication and prescription fraud. 

Still, these can be mitigated with several security measures in place: such as requiring customers to show identification and sign for their purchase when using a debit or credit card in-store; storing medications under lock and key; protecting against malware by installing antivirus software on computers used to process transactions; monitoring access points like WiFi networks, USB ports, Bluetooth connections and more.

High ticket items

It’s a high-risk industry because high ticket items can be high-value and high-cost. That means that the financial institution has a lot of money on the line if something goes wrong. So they have to ensure that they are providing a sufficient level of protection for themselves, their customers, and other third parties involved in the transaction.

The high-risk nature of high ticket items stems from the high volumes of transactions taking place, making it harder to maintain high levels of security. The high volume combined with increased risk usually drives organizations to seek technological solutions to help with these challenges.

Adult entertainment

When cardholders aren’t present to sign for their purchases, merchants have a more challenging time verifying customers are who they claim to be. In addition, due to the nature of adult websites, banks may not want to process payments for businesses that deal with controversial content.

Payday loan companies

Payday loan companies will offer a short-term cash advance for low-interest rates on the condition that the money is repaid in full at some point within a limited time frame (typically two weeks). The problem with these loans is that they are not regulated by governments and often have hidden fees or high-interest rates attached to them, making it difficult for borrowers to repay their debt. As such, many payday loan companies charge exorbitant fees and high interest rates, which makes this industry high-risk.

What are the advantages of a high-risk payment gateway?

A high-risk payment gateway offers a few advantages. 

One of the benefits is that it is safer. High-risk payment gateway uses several types of security measures to guarantee the safety of the merchant’s data, including firewalls and SSL. This high-risk payment gateway also helps with fraud detection, which reduces the high level of chargebacks when merchants are not at high risk.

High-risk payment gateways also help with international payments, making it easier for customers in different countries to make purchases with less hassle, which requires less involvement than other gateways that use more complicated processes.

The Importance of High-Risk Payment Gateways for E-commerce

Ecommerce sites are constantly evolving, and the high-risk payment gateway is an essential component for any e-commerce site. These gateways ensure high security for your customers while also providing high performance. 

A high-risk payment gateway ensures that your customer data stays safe while you enjoy fast processing speeds with no delays or downtime. Although the cost of this service may be higher than other options, it’s well worth the investment because it will save you money in lost business opportunities by avoiding transaction errors.

The high-risk payment gateway works by splitting your customers into high and low-risk categories. This allows you to use a single interface to design rules and apply them to high or low-risk transactions. 

In addition, the high-risk payment gateway acts as an intermediary between your site and the payment processor, it can generate reports on either side for improved customer service.

How do you select the best high risk payment gateway provider?

There are three main factors to consider when choosing a payment gateway provider: processing fees, the gateway’s countries, and whether they can process mobile payments. But, of course, these factors also depend on your business.

First, you’ll need to evaluate your business for what kind of payment gateway it needs. This includes looking at how much money is processed each month (the bigger the company, the higher the processing fees). 

Second, you’ll need to look at what countries your company operates in – if you’re targeting customers in more than one country or selling internationally, make sure that your payment service provider has global coverage. Lastly, if you offer mobile payments (such as Apple Pay), ensure that this is included in your payment gateway provider’s services.

Often, businesses can be charged a discount rate when they process over a certain amount of money in a month. This is an incentive for companies to process more money each month with the same payment service provider. If this fee applies to you, make sure that the discount rate isn’t too high: you should be able to process enough money in a month to make up for the discount rate not to pay more than you would with other payment service providers.

Next, compare fees that each payment service provider charges. You can do this by looking at how much they charge per transaction and their monthly fee (or if there is no monthly fee).

Once you’ve evaluated these factors, if you’re still having trouble choosing between several payment service providers, then look at what countries they operate in. Often, you can find a great gateway provider in your home country that might be able to process the money in foreign currencies more cheaply than other services. If this is not the case, you’ll need to decide based on processing fees. If one is significantly lower than the others, it might be worth it to sacrifice some countries for a lower cost.

Before choosing your payment gateway provider, one final consideration is whether they offer mobile payments (such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet). If you accept mobile payments, you should make sure that your payment service provider can process them.

For more information on payment gateways, talk to its customer support team about what kind of monthly fees are involved, which countries are supported, and whether they offer mobile payments.

What do you need to obtain a high-risk payment gateway?

To obtain a high-risk payment gateway, you need a high-risk merchant account. For most high-risk accounts, banks will require you to have a high-risk SSL certificate for your site with high-risk encryption. When setting yourself up as a high-risk merchant, having a high-risk 3D verification system with high-risk customer authentication may also be necessary. In most cases, high-risk credit card processors charge high rates for processing high-risk transactions.

Why Zenti is your high-risk payment gateway solution

As a high-risk payment gateway partner, Zenti provides all the services your business may need to accept payments, including access to advanced capabilities that assist your company’s growth. This lowers attrition and increases recurring revenue for your customers while also providing the tools you need to run your businesses successfully.

High-Risk Payment Gateway features

Sell everywhere

Enable users to pay for purchases online, in-store, using self-service and mobile payments. The platform will support EMV as well as contactless options.

Freedom of choice

We integrate with 200+ processors, 125+ shopping carts, and a wide variety of payment devices. We support whatever your merchants want to use!

Easy management

From a single account, merchants may easily manage all of their payment processing activities. In addition, merchants may utilize various services to improve transaction management, including processing payments and generating reports on all of this activity in real-time.

Multiple MID Capabilities

Manage multiple MIDs on a single gateway account while consolidating reporting, organizing products, and more.

Tokenization

With tokenization, you can reuse cardholder data from previous transactions without having to store or secure it. As a result, your customers won’t have to enter their information again, and the payment will still be processed immediately—all while keeping your business safe and secure.

Powerful reporting

Get a single view of data across channels to help your business’s merchants get the most out of their customer data.

Additional core payment gateway solutions for your merchants

• Accept multiple currencies: Merchants accepting international payments can use the processor to accept USD, CAD, and other major currencies.
• Take all major payment types: Merchants accepting international payments can use the processor to accept all major payment types, including mobile payments.
• Virtual Terminal: Customers may pay for phone and mail purchases using a browser by swiping cards or entering payment information.
• Recurring Billing: Removes the stress out of creating recurring payments for your vendors.
• Collect Checkout: Our hosted payment page and payment button generator allow merchants to sell without a shopping cart.
• QR Codes: Customers may quickly and create payment links as QR codes to access all of the benefits of using contactless payments.
• Webhooks: With real-time transaction notifications, you can automate the reporting procedure and eliminate manual data entry.
• Transaction Routing: Multiple MIDs may be routed to the same gateway account using an automated process that automatically determines which MIDs should be sent to transactions.
• Batch Processing: Utilize the platform to store, manage, and process large volumes of transactions all at once.
• Product Manager: Streamlined product management for merchants, allowing them to quickly enter and manage product SKUs while also keeping inventory organized.
• Gateway Emulator: Easily migrate from other gateways without having to rework or reprogram software or applications.

Additional High-Risk Payment Gateway Services

Customer Vault: 

Safely store and use tokenized cardholder data from prior transactions, which is critical for businesses with recurring revenue models.

Automatic Card Updater:

Maintains a complete history of payments made by authorized users and supports seamless synchronization with card-on-file data.

Electronic Invoicing:

Customers may pay invoices by visiting the merchants’ websites and making a few clicks.

Fraud Prevention:

Provides enhanced protection against rule-based parameters in fraudulent transactions.

iProcess Mobile Payments:

With turnkey mobile apps for Apple and Android, merchants may accept EMV card payments on a phone or tablet.

QuickBooks Plug-In:

QuickBooks merchants can use this feature to process transactions, create accounting entries, and designate payments as completed right in the program.

Automatic Level 3 Processing:

Level III fees are automatically applied to all CNP transactions for merchants who use the Enhanced Data service.

Advanced security features

Point to point encryption

When it comes to payment processing, P2PE is the most secure and prosperous encryption technique available, ensuring that cardholder information is never exposed during a transaction.

Remote key injection

Instant and secure payment terminal key injection at the point of sale with a low, cost-effective alternative.

Terminal management system

Manage your payment devices from any location, including remote firmware updates required for security or continued EMV compliance