Pharmacy Merchant Accounts
Pharmacy Merchant Accounts
Starting a business on the internet is not as simple as it seems to be. To start a website you require a professional programmer, management, administration, technical support, and bandwidth and web space. Then, if you have to survive in the market you need advertising, P.R. and research. However, one of the primary requirements to survive in this competition is accepting of credit card payments from your customers. And to do this you need the “ecommerce merchant account”. Things get more complex when you are the owner of an online pharmaceutical store.
You have to deal with any legal issues, which come up more frequently than in other industries, when you are running a pharmaceutical store. You may also face legal issues that will cost you thousands of dollars. Then, you also have to comply with all the terms and conditions set up by the FDA which is very strict and complex, else you will end up in a legal tussle. The FDA rules are hard because they want to control and know where and when drugs are sold. Firstly, starting an online pharmaceutical store like Rx Pharmcheap Online Pharmacy, is extremely difficult, but if you have managed to open one then, getting a merchant account for it to accept credit card payments form your customers is even more difficult as more than 90% of the banks and service providers will reject your application and the remaining percentage of the companies will offer you merchant accounts and services at extremely high fees and rates that will make the business unprofitable. If you charge all the fees to your customers then they will just go to a physical store and get the medicine for a much cheaper price. Also, online pharmaceutical stores’ will not be able to get the TMF or Terminated Merchant File which states that this merchant has been banned by the local merchant banks.
There are 3 ways to get out of such a situation. They are: you can obtain a “high risk merchant account” for pharmacy merchants; obtain the “Offshore merchant account” which comes ready to start processing your credit transactions; and lastly, get the “pharmaceutical account” that is very similar to the “high risk ecommerce merchant account” but modified or customised for the online pharmacy industry. Till recently you had to choose any one of the 3 options listed above. All the 3 solutions were not very favourable to your online business. The reason for this is online pharmaceuticals come under the “High Risk” category and even many high risk merchant account providers don’t want to work with them because of the many legal issues that engulf the pharmaceutical industry.
Very recently a new type of merchant account was created for the online pharmacy business. They are referred to as “Offshore Pharmacy Merchant Accounts”. These are hybrid accounts and offer several services to your business. These accounts also offer you the best fees and rates available in the market.
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.