Get a Stable Paraphernalia Merchant Account.
A Paraphernalia merchant account refers to a type of merchant account specifically designed for businesses that sell items related to the use of tobacco and similar products. With a Paraphernalia merchant account, businesses sell items such as smoking accessories, vaporizers, glass pipes, hookahs, bongs, and related products. These businesses are generally considered high risk by acquiring institutions due to the legal and regulatory complexities involved in the sales of the products.
With a Paraphernalia merchant account, businesses can securely accept online credit and debit card transactions. Retail stores selling paraphernalia items can use credit card terminals to accept face-to-face payments. With built-in features like fraud detection, transaction analytics, and better chargeback defense tools, merchants can have a smoother payment processing experience. These accounts are generally offered by high-risk merchant account providers that specialize in supporting similar businesses.
Merchants struggling to obtain a high-risk paraphernalia merchant account can contact QuadraPay, as we specialize in providing high-risk credit card processing accounts to hard-to-place merchants. We work with a network of payment processing companies that are willing to serve merchants from various high-risk industries, including paraphernalia sites and retail stores.
KYC Documents for Paraphernalia Merchant Accounts
Our solutions are perfect for those paraphernalia merchants that sell products related to nicotine and tobacco. For this kind of powerful and reliable merchant account, businesses need to submit some key documents for the approval of the account. These documents are called KYC documents.
Fully Completed Merchant Application: The detailed form collects all the important information regarding the company, as well as the business owners and the business activity.
Proof of Identification (Driver’s License, Passport, Government ID): The proof of identification is required for the acquiring company to confirm the identity of the individual that owns the company.
Tax ID Number Verification (SS-4 or W-9): The tax identification number may be required, and this tax ID can vary depending on the country of business registration.
Bank Account Verification (Voided Check, Bank Statement, Bank Letter, Direct Deposit Form, etc.): The bank account information is required to ensure that the settlement fund will go to the right business bank account, which is active and valid.
Corporate Documents (Articles of Inc., Certificate of Organization, etc.): These corporate documents help the underwriting team verify various details of the organization, including the shareholders’ shareholding pattern, business objectives, and many more.
Bank Statements: The business bank statement helps the underwriting team understand the financial strength of the company.
Processing Statements: If the merchant is already processing credit cards on their website, then they must submit 3 to 6 months of Credit Card processing statements.
Additional Documents and Website modifications that may be Required for Paraphernalia Merchant Accounts:
Fulfillment Agreement: If the full payment of the products is handled by a different company, then you will be required to submit a fulfillment agreement.
Proof of Inventory: This can be images of your inventory and invoices of the paraphernalia products that you wish to sell.
Terms and Conditions Agreement: Apart from the merchant account agreement, the credit card processing company may require you to sign a tobacco, nicotine, and paraphernalia addendum. This small document will have dictionary terms that will be considered a part of the merchant account agreement between you and the credit card processor. Generally, this addendum is provided by the credit card processor once they have internally reviewed your profile and approved it to proceed for the agreement.
Age Restriction: Depending on the country of registration of the merchant, the age restriction may vary; however, it is generally 21 years. Your website must have an age verification popup which confirms the age of the user. You should not allow users below the age of 21 to access your website. You should also mention the age requirement in the footer of your website.
Additional Disclaimers: You must add additional disclaimers in the footer of your website.
Mandatory Card Brand Registration: The merchant account provider may ask you for mandatory card brand registration.
Test Logins: The merchant acquirer will require a non-expiring username and password to your website to view the member’s area and checkout page behind the login wall.
Timeline for Paraphernalia Credit Card Processing Account Approval
The total time taken for the approval of a paraphernalia high-risk merchant account depends on various factors. The most important factor is the availability of the solution. You must keep in mind that for industries like this, the availability of merchant providers keeps fluctuating. However, if we have a stable solution for this industry, then generally merchants can get approval within 7 days.
For this, it is important for the merchant to ensure that all the required documents are provided at once. This reduces the time-consuming hassle of going back and forth to collect additional documents. Additionally, merchants must ensure that their website fully complies with the guidelines of our merchant acquirers.
Rates and Fees For Paraphernalia Merchant Account
The rates for paraphernalia merchant accounts are generally slightly higher than a regular low-risk merchant account. This is because of the industry. Also its quite common for paraphernalia merchant accounts to have a BIN fee that can change without notice as per the acquirer’s discretion. Along with this, the merchant is subject to paying a merchant discount fee and a fixed transaction fee for gateway usage.
If we talk about the range of transaction fees that can be applicable for paraphernalia merchants, then this can range between 1.99% to 5%, depending on the complexity of the account, the underwriting team’s decision, as well as the card type being used for the transaction. A rolling reserve of 5% to 10% may be applicable.
Integration of Paraphernalia Merchant Accounts
There are two ways to integrate the paraphernalia merchant account to your website. The first one is the easy way, in which you use a ready-made plugin that you upload to your content management system like WordPress, Magento, OpenCart, and others.
The other way is to write custom code for integration. For this, you will receive a detailed API guideline which will have all the necessary information. Your team can use this guide to write the integration codes and utilize all the available features on the gateway.
