Cruise Line Merchant Account

Cruise line businesses require a special merchant account in order to process their payments. Cruise line businesses are viewed as high risk by most banks domestically and offshore for a few different reasons. The main reasons circle around the problem that the service is not provided at the time of the sale. Usually it is provided months down the road. This gives a higher than normal chance of customers not happy with their purchase and trying to cancel and receive a refund. However, most cruise line and tour companies have a strict no cancellation policy which is not what any bank or payment processor wants to hear.

Cruise line businesses are able to acquire cruise line merchant accounts when they have provided the correct documents to the underwriter at the payment processor. Most merchants will need to provide; a signed application, ID, bank information, previous payment processing history along with any state or federal licenses that are required for their business. Payment processors and banks will require all of this information before proceeding with underwriting, approval and account setup.

Cruise line merchants are able to be approved with several different payment processors depending on the risk that they see. A merchant with a higher volume and lower chargebacks might be able to process with a low to medium risk domestic payment processor. On the other hand, a payment processor may categorize a new cruise line merchant or tour guide as being high risk and the rates, fees and terms will be appropriate for their business. Offshore Merchants has been setting up cruise line merchant accounts since 2007. Both cruise lines and tour guides are able to be approved within a week and setup shortly after that. Most payment processors will not accept these businesses however Offshore Merchants will.

Contact one of our helpful account representatives to assist you in the setup of a high risk merchant account or offshore merchant account for a high risk merchant.

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