Jul 20, 2013

Merchant Accounts – Accept Credit Cards

Benefit from the Offshore Pro Advantage when doing business online!

Offshore Credit Card Merchant Accounts

Offshore Pro Group has established a specialist division dealing only with credit card merchant accounts for offshore merchants and companies: WorldMerchant. WorldMerchant’s experts deal only with offshore merchant accounts, day in day out.

Merchant Accounts for Offshore Companies: Andorra, Panama, Belize, Mauritius, Seychelles, Hong Kong etc

Many high risk merchant account providers claim to handle “international merchants” or to accept international companies. However, when it comes down to real business, they will often tell you to incorporate a US or EU-based subsidiary.

This admittedly can be a way to get a merchant account approved more easily, but at what cost? These businesses are only interested in getting you approved as soon as possible and moving on to the next client. They know nothing about tax planning and only think short term. Both US and EU companies are subject to tax on their worldwide income and they have efficient and sometimes aggressive tax authorities who will come after you.

We believe a true offshore merchant account has to link an offshore merchant with an offshore bank, all in tax neutral jurisdictions. That is what we do.

High Risk International Merchant Accounts?

Many banks in the USA and elsewhere automatically regard anything from outside their country as high risk. This is illogical from one side, as according to Forbes the US has the second highest rate of credit card fraud in the world, much higher than in most major countries. However, US banks do not have the capacity to make credit decisions or carry out credit checks on non-US companies. The problem is simply that they don’t have qualified staff who understand the realities of doing business on a global basis. This is where Offshore Pro Group can help.

Our policy is to work only with banks that accept international merchants. Some of the banks we work with accept only low risk merchants, but most will also accept high risk merchants including travel, adult entertainment, gaming, nutraceuticals, dating etc.

Working with Offshore Pro

In order to use the services of WorldMerchant you do not need to be an Offshore Pro client. You can go directly to WorldMerchant’s site and apply online. If however you require a complete offshore company and banking set-up, see our E-Commerce Special or contact us to discuss the range of options available.