Are you a High Risk Business that needs to process credit cards?

The only thing you have to be to considered a "High Risk" when it comes to doing business in this economy is anything against the norm. If you don't have a store front aka sticks and bricks location then you are considered a "High Risk". If you do have a store front but it is in a really bad town, city or zip code, you are considered "High Risk" and most of all if you have questionable or to put it bluntly bad credit you are definitely considered "High Risk".

So what is a business to do when they can't make the grade of a traditional bank or "Low Risk Only" credit card processor? Well, fortunately you do have a few options. One way I have gotten around not even having a merchant account is use services like PayPal.com and Google Checkout. Both services don't care if you are "High Risk" or not, all they want to is a verification of who you are and what you are selling. You can be up and running in minutes with any one of these services. PayPal.com happens to be my favorite and I have been a verified merchant of theirs for the past seven years.

Now their is also and answer for all you that want to step out there and go the extra mile and get a traditional merchant account. There places to go even if you are considered a "High Risk" business. Advantage Processors.com and Easycharge.net two places you can at least start. So don't stagnate your business by not accepting credit cards. Give one of these services a try and take your business 2 The Next Level.

Google Checkout "Gbuy" has me on Lock Down

I was so excited when the announcement first came out that Google.com was going to have its own version of a payment service. As soon as I was able I then applied and was amazed at the ease of signing up for the service. Then came my disappointment. After giving Google all the necessary information they needed to get an account I was put off by one major aspect of the payment process, GETTING PAID!

Turns out I currently have what Google Checkout calls a "Payout Limit" on my account.

Here are the findings when I click on the Payouts tab in my account

Your payout amounts are currently limited to $500.00 a month. To increase your monthly payout limit, upgrade your account.

We when I got to the upgrade your account link it just brings me back to my settings tab and does not give me any instructions on how to upgrade my account.

I have since emailed the Google Checkout team via their email form and I am still waiting for an answer. I did get a standard reply email that said that they currently have my account under review and will get back to me on their findings.

It has only been a few days since that email but I am still not happy with such a process.

Here are the official words from Google on why I have a payout limit from their own FAQ's

What's a monthly payout limit? How do I remove this limit?

A monthly payout limit is a restriction on the total amount of earnings you can receive at one time.

When you process transactions through Google Checkout, your payouts are sent to you according to the standard payout schedule. With a monthly payout limit, however, your earnings will be paid to you over a longer period. For example, say you have a monthly payout limit of $500. If your total sales in July equal $600, only $500 will be paid to you in July; the remaining $100 will be carried over to your August payouts.

Not all sellers have monthly payout limits. If you have a payout limit, the limit amount will appear on your Payout Summary page, Payout Summary Details page, and payment settings page. On these pages, you may also see a notification message asking if you'd like to remove your monthly payout limit. By clicking the link in the message, you can request that Google perform a simple review and remove your monthly payout limit so you can receive your payouts more quickly. (If you don't see these notification messages, you aren't currently eligible to have your monthly payout limit removed.)

To my understanding this is clearly a bad feature if it comes down to my account being limited this way. Let's look at their own scenario in a very possible sales transaction.
I have charged one of my customers say $2500.00 to create a website for them. They then goto my website and use a Google Checkout "Buy Now" button to complete the purchase.

According to Google Checkout they will only allow me to have $500.00 of that money this month and keep the other $2000.00 until the following month and only give me another $500.00 NOT the balance of my original transaction.

So I ask you does this seem fair.

Why can't I get all of the money that was due me from the beginning?

I hope Google Checkout has a good explanation for this, cause right now I won't be using this account anytime soon.

If you would like to get another oppinion on what Google Checkout is doing against the likes of Ebay/Paypal.com please check out Brent Leary's Blog.

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Google Checkout "Gbuy" Has renewed my faith in them
Are you a High Risk Business that needs to process credit cards?