5 Best High-risk Payment Processors

High-risk businesses – due to the specificity of their work – simply cannot function properly without using the services of a payment provider. Broad geography and customers, who require local payment methods in different currencies, are the main reasons why a provider with a small range of payment options would not fulfill the demands that are put toward by his high-risk merchant.

The owners of such businesses may spend a lot of time searching for a reliable provider that would be ready to work in high-risk areas. All in all, high risk merchant account are called like that for a reason. In essence, their income depends on a lot of factors, and the size of their transactions may vary from day to day, which is why their financial operations are often claimed as suspicious by banking entities.

This puts regular payment processors in a very problematic position, and there’s nothing surprising in the fact that many of them often decide to avoid working in these areas completely.

Even after the appropriate service if finally found, there’s nothing that stops it from putting too high fees, a great list of restrictions and rules that might hurt the recently set business.

We’ve done research to compare what different high risk merchant processing companies can offer to the corresponding businesses, and made a top with which you can pick up a perfect service.

PayOp is a comparatively new, yet, very successful payment provider, that offers high risk merchant services, among others. It has a transparent fee system, so merchants can evaluate their spends in beforehand without the need to register on the website.

It supports a number of the most popular high-risk niches that you can see in the table atop. Yet, businesses that work in the semi-legal or completely illegal niches (weapon, medicine, replicas of popular brands, etc.) wouldn’t be able to pass PayOp’s verification process.

PayOp suits perfectly to businesses that need to fulfill their activity in numerous countries around the world. It works in more than 170 world countries – one high risk merchant account can receive payments in a significant number of currencies that would be automatically converted into the main account’s currency. Aside from that, about 300 methods, including local payment options, guarantee that your customer will be able to find the most suitable method of payment and proceed to purchase your products.

The security side of high risk card processing PayOp offers is outstanding. Aside from the PSI DCC Level 1 compliance, which is a standard in the money processing area, PayOp takes additional measures to protect merchants and their customers, like SSL encryption and 3D Secure card processing.

SecurionPay – одна из самых популярных торговых компаний с высоким риском. Он специализируется на зонах повышенного риска и предлагает достойную защиту для торговцев. Его меры безопасности включают протокол PCI DSS Level 1, 3D Secure для транзакций с картами, а также токенизацию – шифрование обмена информацией между веб-сайтом и сервером.

Когда дело доходит до обслуживаемых стран, все не так радужно – SecurionPay доступен только в 40 европейских странах. Поэтому, если торговец с высоким риском желает торговать в Америке или Азии, SecurionPay не сможет удовлетворить их требования. Кроме того, есть только 8 способов оплаты, доступных для торговых счетов с высоким уровнем риска – нет возможности предложить своим клиентам локальные варианты оплаты.

SecurionPay имеет более высокую, чем в среднем, комиссию за торговую учетную запись и требует единовременного платежа в размере 500 евро при регистрации учетной записи. Для недавно установленного бизнеса такое требование может быть подавляющим.

PaySpace is a high risk merchant processing platform that offers a great range of payment methods to merchants. By serving African, European, and Asian countries, the processor earned the recognition of high risk merchants who seek variable payment methods – PaySpace offers at least a hundred of them.

The list of the areas where this payment processor works isn’t too broad, yet, it covers the needs of the most popular businesses. What is not good about this platform is that the information about the transaction and processing fees are unknown to unregistered users. Thus, it is not possible to evaluate the possible losses from using the high risk merchant services PaySpace offers.

EMB (eMerchant Broker) is a trusted high risk payment processing service. It is known for reliability and reasonable fees, which is a rarity in high risk card processing – the platform doesn’t require any monthly or registration payments as well.

EMB supports a range of high risk industries, including CBD products and pharmacy. It is a great option, yet, its geography leaves great room for improvement. A big drawback is the lack of opacity – it is impossible to find any information about the payment methods provided by the system, as well as about its security measures.

High Risk Pay is a comparatively unknown company on the high risk merchant processing market. It has a clear pricing system, which couldn’t but positively influence its reputation – even though the pricing includes a monthly fee.

It supports a great range of semi-legal high risk areas, even those that are connected to fire weapons, tobacco & CBD products, pharmacy. Unregistered visitors wouldn’t be able to find the information about the countries where the platform performs its activities – the same is true about the information on the payment methods.

High Risk Pay works according to PCI Level 1 protocol, which guarantees secure storage and usage of the customers’ private information.

What option to choose among the high risk merchant processing companies?

Depending on the area of your high risk business, there might be a lot of nuances when it comes to your target audience and their demographics. Start by asking yourself – which world countries am I planning to enter with my business? If the list consists of a few European countries, then the majority of the listed services would be ready to help you.

If that’s not your case, then answer the next question – what high risk merchant processing methods do you need? For example, PayOp offers 7 primary payment options that are International cards, local cards, Internet banking, eWallets, prepaid methods, cash, and bank transfer methods. Having such a broad list of options, you will surely find the most convenient payment methods for your clients.

Finally, if that’s still not enough, decide how much high risk merchant account fees you’re ready to pay monthly. Some services have a great range of high risk merchant services in prejudice of price; the others offer moderate or low fees for a small set of functions. Your needs are unique, so the answer to the question “which high risk payment processor to choose” will vary.

Remember the basic precautions – do not transfer too high sums from the start and always check the service’s Terms & Conditions to determine its operational principles. Checking the actual reviews from the service’s customers is also an option. That will be enough to determine whether the service is trustable – all the other details will become clear only after you’ll start using the payment processor.