Merchant Accounts Being Cancelled??

I've gotten several phone calls and emails from friends today saying that they have received a letter from Card Service International stating that their Merchant Accounts were being cancelled because Card Service International "has determined not to continue operating in certain segments of the industry". A quick call to Card Service confirms that they have made the decision to cancell ALL processing for the adult industry.

Has anyone else gotten a letter from Card Service?

Does any know of another company who offers Merchant Accounts for adult online businesses? If so, let me know as Card Service is providing on about 45 days before they are cancelling the accounts.

I'm wondering if the Bush Administration hasn't decided that the easiest way to get rid of the online adult industry isn't to just cancel their ability to accept credit cards. Perhaps they are applying pressure to Card Service.

Any thoughts?

Bill

Quote:

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Originally posted by hdkbill
I've gotten several phone calls and emails from friends today saying that they have received a letter from Card Service International stating that their Merchant Accounts were being cancelled because Card Service International "has determined not to continue operating in certain segments of the industry". A quick call to Card Service confirms that they have made the decision to cancell ALL processing for the adult industry.

Has anyone else gotten a letter from Card Service?

Does any know of another company who offers Merchant Accounts for adult online businesses? If so, let me know as Card Service is providing on about 45 days before they are cancelling the accounts.

I'm wondering if the Bush Administration hasn't decided that the easiest way to get rid of the online adult industry isn't to just cancel their ability to accept credit cards. Perhaps they are applying pressure to Card Service.

Any thoughts?

Bill

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Well that truly sucks :(

You might like to shoot an email across to rainey@gamediacorp.com who should be able to get you set up with a Merchant Account at Netbilling though Bill :)

Regards,

Lee

Lee,

Thanks, I'll pass on the info.

Bill

Humboldt is taking adult merchants if your doing over $100,000 a month. I have heard that
http://www.merchantservicesusa.info
is taking low volume adult merchant accounts. I also heard yesterday that
http://www.incredicash.com
is looking into taking low volume adult merchant accounts.

I know of 2 large players dumped into deep-deep-doo-doo of late when their merchant accounts were pulled from under them with NO warning.

I have a contact who is working with 2-3 entities around the world setting up merchant accounts for adult operators.

If you are interested in me putting you in contact with them, hit me up, they are friends and good people, and of long-standing in this industry.

:bandana:

Thanks for writing back Icedemon. I have been in contact with Humboldt and they are accepting adult account, but as you said, a monthly minimum of $100,000, so that will cut out a lot of guys who may be affected by Card Service International.

I will in get in contact with the two companies you mention and am still wating to hear from some others.

Thanks,

Bill

Quote:

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Originally posted by hdkbill
Thanks for writing back Icedemon. I have been in contact with Humboldt and they are accepting adult account, but as you said, a monthly minimum of $100,000, so that will cut out a lot of guys who may be affected by Card Service International.

I will in get in contact with the two companies you mention and am still wating to hear from some others.

Thanks,

Bill

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I'm sending IncrediCash a email to get more details. I'm going to talk to Matt from IncrediCash this Saturday about it to.

If those two places I mentioned above can't set anybody up with a adult merchant account, I can get you a offshore one. I would only do the offshore one as a last resort, since the discount rate is so expensive. If you can't get a merchant account, just fill out the form at
http://paywide.com/cgi-bin/merchantaccount.cgi
Email: gaywidewebmasters AT paywide.com
Toll Free#: 1.877.PAYWIDE x704

Have Fun
Mark

This is the main reason that Brad and I believe this is such an appropriate time for 123Bill .

We are not processing credit cards and can not completely solve that issue for any merchant at this time. But we are offering merchants and servers a way around using credit cards at all. And unlike ANY other alternative payment method, we are guaranteeing payout on every sale made. Right now, while we're waiving the sign-up fee, is the perfect opportunity to give it at try. You risk nothing financially and there's no length-of-term contract.

So think about it a little bit and give it a try, at worst, you won't like it and will have lost no money. At best you'll have a new opportunity to capitalize on sales you would otherwise have no way to accept!

Thanks for the moment. :)

Thanks for the info on 123Bill. As I know little about it I really can't say much or offer any comments other than just a couple of thoughts. I did go to the site and read how it works and it seems plausible. The major problem I see is that since it's fairly new I'm guessing that the majority of the web surfers are not familiar with it, and as with anything new, it will take some time for surfers to gain confidence in it and begin to use it with enough frequency to replace the standard VISA/MC.

It appears to be certainly something to consider as an alternative method or collecting payment, but not as an replacement for accepting credit cards online. For those companies who are getting cancelled within the next 30 to 40 days I would think their best bet would be to try to find an alternative merchant account and then perhaps start using 123Bill and try to get their customers to use that alternative.

Also, Costco has been mentioned as a possibility for a merchant account. Be careful with them. I am aware of a situation where they just summarily cancelled a site and it had nothing to do with chargebacks....simply cancelled them with only 3 days notice because they were an adult site.

Thanks for the responses guys,

Bill

Y'all,

With Card Service Interenational deciding to pull out of the adult business completely it has left a lot of adult sites scrambling for a processor and merchant account.

I have talked with several over the past few days and from my perspective, it seems as the most cooperative is a company called Merchant Services USA. They help companies set up merchant accounts with a bank in Texas by the name of Wood Forest National Bank, and their processor (gateway) is E Processing Network.

Their rates for adult are 2.69% plus .30 transaction fee which isn't a bad rate from what I have heard from others.

The person to contact is:

Joe Montella
888 997-5174

Has anyone had any dealing with Joe, or Merchant Services USA, E Processing Network or Wood Forest National Bank?

Thanks,

Bill

Quote:

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Originally posted by hdkbill
Y'all,

With Card Service Interenational deciding to pull out of the adult business completely it has left a lot of adult sites scrambling for a processor and merchant account.

I have talked with several over the past few days and from my perspective, it seems as the most cooperative is a company called Merchant Services USA. They help companies set up merchant accounts with a bank in Texas by the name of Wood Forest National Bank, and their processor (gateway) is E Processing Network.

Their rates for adult are 2.69% plus .30 transaction fee which isn't a bad rate from what I have heard from others.

The person to contact is:

Joe Montella
888 997-5174

Has anyone had any dealing with Joe, or Merchant Services USA, E Processing Network or Wood Forest National Bank?

Thanks,

Bill

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That is one of the servies I mentioned in my post above. I am actually working with a person right now that just signed up with them (which is how I found out about them). She seemed very happy with them. That is also low rates for a adult merchant account. Here is a link to the website, in case people want to check them out.
http://www.merchantservicesusa.info/

The person I'm working with that I mentioned, I'm setting them up so that they can use the PayWide system to take care of password management, affiliate tracking, fraud scrubbing, etc. with the eProcessing Network gateway. If anybody here gets a merchant account from Merchant Services USA and needs something like that, let me know.

10 cents per transaction for the service
gaywidewebmasters AT paywide.com
Toll Free Phone#: 1.877.PAYWIDE
Mark

Bill...

check with Mitch at NetBilling.com

I know they use(d) Card Services also
but they may have had alternative options...

~Bell

p.s. please keep up posted on your research...
(CCBill wasn't an option for you - ?? )

Bell,

Thanks for writing. I have checked with NetBilling and honestly they required that I make what I felt to be unreasonable changes to our websites.

We have been speaking with "Merchant Services USA", who processes through www.eprocessingnetwork.com using a bank in Texas. We were happy with their rates and the speed in which they got us approved for a merchant account. We know a couple other sites who processing through eprocessingnetwork and use the bank in Texas and they are very pleased with the services and rates.

The contact person we went through was
Joe Montella
Merchant Services USA
888-997-5174

Couldn't recommend him high enough.

Thanks,

Bill