Offshore Merchant Account

Open an offshore merchant account (also known as a merchant acquiring or credit card processing account) and easily accept credit card payments from all over the world! Any company doing business online needs a merchant account to successfully accept payments using credit and debit cards, as well as alternative payment methods.

Many companies claim to offer "easy" offshore merchant accounts but there is no such thing. Most are just brokers who collect leads and have very little international experience. Offshore Pro Group, however, is fully based offshore but can also help with merchant setups in countries like USA, Canada, UK and Portugal (European Union) where MDRs (merchant discount rates) are lower and the services available are more flexible. In this case, although we talk about an "offshore merchant account" what we are technically talking about is a hybrid onshore-offshore merchant solution.

Selecting the best offshore merchant account allows you to solve several problems at once:

• simplify interaction with clients by receiving guaranteed payments in seconds - no need to wait for complicated international bank transfers.
• controls the costs of commissions - proper merchant accounts are usually much cheaper and more flexible than alternatives like PayPal
• accept payments from cards all over the world
• withdraw funds to the company's bank account in the currency of your choice or pay for the services of partners (affiliate marketing)

Depending on your needs, we select and help you connect a credit card merchant acquiring account around the world. There are offshore merchant accounts that suit a wide range of clients, from small businesses to very large ones. There are also solutions with an individual approach to large companies with high turnover.

Nonetheless, merchant accounts come with a lot of risk. Chargebacks are the main risk both for the business with an offshore merchant account, and for the bank that sponsors the offshore merchant account. If your chargebacks go over a small amount, heavy contractual penalties kick in. Credit card fraud can lead to increased chargebacks, so the acquiring bank also needs to see that you have professional fraud prevention systems in place before they will approve your offshore merchant account application.

Qualifying for an offshore merchant account is therefore similar to qualifying for a business loan - normally you should have a legal entity incorporated in the same jurisdiction as the bank that is sponsoring the merchant account. You will be expected to have "substance" in the jurisdiction - a mailing address is not enough, instead you will need a physical office and staff.

Our partners at Offshore Pro Group and WorldMerchant have years of experience on how to obtain offshore merchant accounts for all types of business: high, medium and low risk, and with various card schemes. They can also help with incorporations, employees and substance and even fully managed offshore merchant account solutions where they provide the staff, physical address and more.

For all these reasons, and to reduce the risk of rejection, we recommend you select an offshore merchant account very carefully and only with professionals: info@offshore-pro.info. For the best service please include in your initial email as much detail as possible about your business and transaction profile, expected turnover, etc.

At the bottom of this page, you will find the most interesting materials from the InternationalWealth portal about offshore merchant accounts.