A payment gateway for multiple merchant accounts is software allowing you to connect more than one merchant accounts you have at different payment or merchant service providers and acquiring banks to accept and process online transactions.
Once set up, such a payment gateway provides the business with a single access point to all merchant accounts, transaction details, and history. On the contrary, without a multiple merchant account payment gateway, the business should be logged in to and manage multiple dashboards, tracking all its transactions separately.
A merchant account is a business bank account that a company gets at an acquiring bank to accept money from customers using credit cards or debit cards.
Depending on the industry the business operates in, its location, turnover volume, card processing history and many other factors, an acquiring bank evaluates its risk level. Commonly, there are three levels: low, medium, and high. The risk level set by the acquirer affects the conditions, limitations, and fees of a merchant account and the scope of the information a business must file along with its merchant account application.
Some types of businesses could benefit the most from the multiple merchant accounts approach, as well as some for which it’s the only way to operate.
First, it’s worth noting that banks providing merchant accounts often set a turnover volume limit, not allowing businesses to process any transaction exceeding the limit or processing the overrun at a higher cost. For example, if a limit on your merchant account is $70,000, but your expected sales volume is $100,000, you’ll need a second merchant account to avoid such a situation.
Second, multiple merchant accounts can help manage payment processing for businesses that run multiple websites with different merchant accounts. Having separate merchant service accounts for different stores may be a must for them because of accounting, taxation or other reasons.
Another reason to consider opening additional merchant accounts is running a high-risk business. High-risk merchants tend to suffer from unexpected merchant account bans. For such cases, it’s good to have a backup option. It’s also an excellent way to diversify payment processing and distribute risks. For instance, having several merchant account providers makes it easier for high-risk merchants to stay within the chargeback threshold that gateway services and payment networks set for the high-risk industry. The chargeback threshold is calculated monthly as chargebacks divided by total transactions. In the high-risk industry, it cannot exceed 1.8%-3%. High-risk businesses can lower their chargebacks ratio by dispersing their cash flow across multiple accounts.
And last but not least, the more merchant accounts you have, the more payment processing capabilities, features and alternative payment methods are available to you and your customers, which is extremely valuable for large and international businesses.
Whether dealing with multiple banks is a must for you or your choice, such an approach bears certain benefits and disadvantages to business. Let’s get to know which ones.
All these cons will create severe obstacles to efficient payment processing if you don’t know how to avoid them. Good news: we do know and are ready to share!
You can release your business from facing all the cons mentioned above and enjoy the benefits by finding a payment gateway or platform that supports multi-merchant accounts payment setup. A payment gateway for multiple merchant accounts makes payment tracking and managing across various vendors a piece of cake. After a single API integration, you’ll have only one dashboard with all your transactional data gathered and unified and all the tools presented for you to use.
But don’t rush to work with the first platform you encounter. By taking your time and researching the market, you’ll be able to uncover a true gem offering value-added payment services. At Corefy, we offer robust technical infrastructure for payments and payouts, with special features like intelligent routing, cascading, multicurrency support, dynamic currency conversion, reporting and analytics, etc. Besides providing our clients with all the payment tech they might need, we share our industry expertise, helping them optimise and grow their businesses. Don’t hesitate to book a demo to learn more about how we can facilitate your growth and solve your payment pains.
