International Merchant Account

The Characteristics of an International Merchant Account
In the present day context, increasing number of people prefer to make payment for their purchases through credit/debit cards instead of cash. This entails that any vendor - big or small - has to create provisions for processing payments made through these cards.
This becomes more relevant for online vendors where payments on the Internet are mostly accepted through credit cards in addition to some other electronic payment methods.
In order to undertake such transactions, a vendor is required to acquire a merchant account from any merchant account provider such as a designated bank or a credit card processor. If the business is small in size, the vendor does not have to open his own account, but can make arrangements with a third-party merchant account provider.


What Is an International Merchant Account?
For various reasons the vendor may not find the domestic merchant account providers always open to cater to his need for obtaining an exclusive merchant account. The account providers are rather skeptical towards risk-prone businesses, which is a typical characteristic inherent in a horde of online business ventures. Under such a situation, a vendor badly needing a merchant account will look for an offshore or international merchant account provider as these account providers are known for a better economical package and also for their flexibility in dealing with their clients.
International merchant accounts is also considered ideal for vendors seeking greener pastures at the global level. Another big advantage could be possible tax advantages that offshore as well as international merchant accounts are likely to offer. The subject of tax gain facilitated by the international merchant accounts, however, depends largely on the rules existing in the respective countries.

Notable Features of International Merchant Accounts
Apart from the advantages mentioned above, some other key benefits offered by international merchant account providers are:

Virtual terminals
Multi-currency processing service.
Meticulous fraud protection and scam control arrangements.
No concern for high volumes of sales by the vendors holding international merchant accounts.
Online reporting.
Secure transactions.
Tie up with foremost credit and debit card companies.
The only disadvantage of an international merchant account could apparently lie in the higher processing fee charged by the international merchant account providers for their services. Nonetheless, the huge benefits offered by the international merchant account solutions are bound to neutralize this lone disadvantage in the long run.

Instant Merchant Account

About Instant Merchant Accounts

An instant merchant account is necessary for all merchants who want to have an online presence. In an online business, the monetary transactions are normally done through electronic means, predominantly through credit cards. The advent of Internet has opened new vistas for vendors to sell their products and services online without the restriction of geographical borders and boundaries. In order to facilitate online acceptance of payments, a vendor is required to acquire a merchant account from a merchant account provider. The increased use of Internet for carrying out business transactions has led to an enhanced demand for merchant accounts from all over the world. This has resulted in considerable competition among the merchant accounts providers with many new international agencies wanting a fair share in the business.

What is an Instant Merchant Account?

One outcome of the increased competition amongst the merchant account providers is the advent of the instant merchant account. The account providers, while vying with each other to win more clients, promise the issue of an instant merchant account for a specific price.
While the promised ‘instant’ can be as small as one or two seconds, the fact remains that the so called instant merchant account is only placed at the disposal of the merchant. This too only after the provider agency has received the online application, checked its correctness along with the vendor’s credibility, and then had approved the issue of the instant merchant account.
All this action involving issue of an instant merchant account certainly takes a little time. It should be appreciated that any instant merchant account provider will want to satisfy itself of various facts with regard to the vendor’s eCommerce business history as well as his eligibility for issuance of an instant merchant account.
Secondly, the provider also requires time to tie up with a designated bank on the application before deciding to issue the instant merchant account. Yet, all said and done, these merchant account providing agencies certainly create the instant merchant account by issuing the credit card Merchant ID number as quickly as possible and certainly take considerably less time than required for the issue of a non-instant merchant account.
The various instant merchant accounts offered by the international agencies include offshore instant merchant accounts, third-party instant merchant account.