Better Call Center Merchant Account
A call center merchant account is a specialized credit card processing solution for businesses that operate call centers to collect payments from customers and companies. With the call center merchant account, businesses can accept payments over the phone, via email, online invoices, IVR, or chat.
Various businesses use merchant accounts for call centers. These include companies that offer telemarketing, customer care, healthcare, professional services, streaming media, and more. Most businesses utilize merchant accounts for call centers to provide convenience to their customers.
Call Center Credit Card Processing Is High Risk
Call center credit card processing is considered high risk by acquiring banks in the US, Canada, UK, and the European Union due to several factors.
Since all transactions occur without face-to-face interaction, the risk of fraudulent transactions is heightened. Additionally, call centers may use subcontractors, smaller entities that lack proper quality monitoring, increasing the risk of data leakage and credit card information theft.
Another contributing factor is the potential for returns and chargebacks, which historically have been higher in call center transactions compared to retail credit card processing. Despite these challenges, there are payment processors comfortable working with merchants from various hard-to-place industries, including those in the call center industry. For more information about high-risk credit card processing for call centers, please send us an email.
Global experts ready to help your high-risk business scale
Top Payment Challenges Faced by Call Centers & How to Solve Them
Running a call center is not just about making calls and closing deals; it also includes accepting card payments in a secure manner without chargeback chaos. Let us explore some key challenges faced by call centers when it comes to credit card processing.
1. High Decline Rates on Card-Not-Present (CNP) Transactions
Most of the transactions that are processed in a call center are done without the customer’s physical presence. Such transactions are generally flagged as high risk by card-issuing banks. This often leads to more declined payments and lost sales. To solve this problem, call center merchants can use specialized call center payment processing solutions. These solutions use intelligent routing and high-risk-friendly acquirers that truly understand the card-not-present model. This ensures a higher authorization rate for your transactions.
2. Recurring Billing Setups Can Get Complicated
Many call centers handle subscription models or installment payments. Failed rebills or double charges—this can lead to angry customers and chargebacks. The solution to such a problem is that merchants should use advanced recurring billing tools within the virtual terminal. This way, merchants can customize the billing cycle and use retry logic to efficiently collect payments.
3. Fraud and Friendly Fraud
Fraudsters love phone transactions. It is because there’s no chip, there’s no pin, and there’s no camera. Meanwhile, customers can easily dispute illegitimate transactions, claiming that they never authorized them. The solution to this problem is that merchants should use advanced call center payment solutions, which include address verification systems, CVV verification, velocity checks, and fraud scoring. You can also add 3D secure where applicable to reduce fraud exposure.
4. Difficulty in Integrating Payment Tools with CRMs
Call centers often run multiple CRMs, dialers, and helpdesk systems. A merchant account that doesn’t integrate with your tools can slow down your agents and create challenges in customer experience. For this, you should use a merchant account that integrates well with popular CRM software like Salesforce, Zoho, HubSpot, and even predictive dialers.
5. Chargeback Volume and Ratio Management
Call centers, especially those that work on an outbound sales model, often struggle with high chargeback ratios. Remember, exceeding the threshold of 1% can lead to the merchant account termination. The solution to this problem is using chargeback alerts and notification tools. This way merchants can keep their chargeback ratio healthy and keep the account active for a long time.
| Payment Challenge | Call Center Solution |
|---|---|
| High decline rates | High-risk acquirers + smart routing |
| Failed recurring payments | Virtual terminal with billing engine |
| Fraud & friendly fraud | AVS, CVV, velocity checks, 3DS |
| CRM/payment tool disconnect | CRM and dialer integrations |
| Chargeback spikes | Chargeback alerts & representment tools |
Ready to Stop Losing Payments?
Let our team design a specialized call center payment processing solution for your business. We support local and international merchants and help them easily accept credit card payments for various high-risk industries. We know how to keep your payments flowing even in complex scenarios. Apply now for a call center merchant account today, or contact us to get started.
Features of call center merchant accounts
A call center merchant account significantly enhances business efficiency. It combines various tools to ensure high conversion rates, ultimately leading to improved revenue generation. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most important features you can expect with a call center merchant account.
Our call center merchant account solutions are powered by some of the best payment processors in the industry. While obtaining approval for such an account may not be easy, once secured, you’ll realize that it was the right decision. Our payment processing partners comply with all the necessary industry guidelines related to credit card processing for call centers.
To accept orders over the phone, this solution includes a virtual terminal. The virtual terminal is an essential component of a call center merchant account as it enables agents to manually input credit card details and process transactions. Agents can also send invoices or payment links to customers, allowing them to complete transactions on their computer or mobile phone.
Various tools are available to enhance the fraud defense capabilities of the merchant account. These tools identify and prevent fraudulent transactions. Merchants can also integrate a call center merchant account with their CRM, adding various new features to the transaction processing experience.
For call centers that accept B2B transactions, the ability to process high volume orders is crucial. High volume processing is another unique feature that comes built-in with a call center merchant account.
Application Process of call center credit card processing account
The process of applying for a call center credit card processing account typically involves several steps aimed at identifying the merchant’s risk profile, enabling underwriters to make informed decisions.
It begins with initial communication with the team at QuadraPay, where we ascertain the unique requirements of the merchant and propose suitable solutions. Subsequently, we request the merchant to provide Know Your Customer (KYC) documents.
These documents are essential for evaluating the merchant’s risk profile and typically include business registration documents, bank statements, previous processing history, a letter of good standing from the bank, or any other specific licenses required to operate a call center.
Once we receive all the necessary documents from the merchant, we submit them to our processing partners. The underwriters then assess the documents and reach a decision. If the account is approved, the merchant receives a contract. Upon signing the contract, the merchant is provided with details of the virtual terminal and merchant account to commence accepting live transactions.
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