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Optimal
Billing Options: Breaking Down the Visa Situation
by Cynthia "Cyndalie" Fanshaw, Marketing VP - PSW
Billing Solutions
It
was only 3 years ago when payment options began dwindling for
adult businesses online. America Express pulled out, Visa and
Mastercard put a clamp on “factoring” and began to
more tightly regulate and restrict third party billing companies.
Now adult site owners are experiencing exclusion from services
provided by mainstream companies like Paypal, more and more
banks are stepping away from customers associated with adult
related business.
Yet
the truth is, this necessary evolution of the billing industry
is not only healthy for the adult Internet industry as a whole,
it will breed and inspire all types of acceptable payment options.
It is no secret that not just adult webmasters want relief from
the Visa/MC strangle hold.
Taming
the Billing Beast
MasterCard is rumbling in his cave, ready to take another gouge
at adult and online merchants. It becomes difficult to separate
the rumors from reality and whom it may apply to when you hear
things like “MasterCard will be charging fees to be accepted”,
“If you pay will Visa be accepted internationally?”,
“Are cancels now counted as chargeback’s?”, and
so the stories and questions go on…
If
you read or find out information and you are not sure how it
affects you, before you spread panic, talk to your processor
and ask questions. We’ve all heard a lot of talk, but now
it’s time to break down the Visa situation in layman terms.
To
accept Visa for US customers you will need to register and pay
the $750, along with the $350 annual renewal fee. Some say,
for that cost why not get my own merchant account? Acquiring
and owning your own adult merchant account can be difficult
to manage, expensive to setup, and it can all incur kinds of
costs and risks from customer support to personal/business financial
credit risks. If you lose a merchant account due to disproportional
chargeback/cancels or neglect the account you eliminate the
option of becoming a Sponsored Merchant under a third party
processor in the future. This is very important to take into
consideration when reviewing your merchant options.
For
adult webmasters, the best solution if you are going to accept
Visa is to apply and become a Sponsored Merchant, pay the fee,
get setup with an honest, secure, and reliable billing company
(ISPS), and run your site the best way you possibly can –
like a business. Once you have a good grasp on what it takes
to keep your account in check and are making money, then you
should explore the option of maintaining your own merchant account.
Multiplying
Costs
Many ask, “Can I accept Visa with multiple processors,
such as a backup processor or if I cancel or lose a Sponsored
Merchant account with another ISPS”? Yes you can, but you
have to pay the Visa registration fee through each ISPS you
process Visa with. If your Sponsored Merchant account is simply
cancelled by the ISPS than joining with a new processor should
not be much trouble. However if VISA pulls your SM account you
will lose the ability to process Visa on any level. If you use
one primary billing company and a second as a back up processor
plan on paying about $1,500 before you’re through getting
setup with both billing companies.
When
shopping out billing options you will notice that most companies
offer a free setup and all kinds of features. What you really
need to know is: What is the per Transaction fee? What is the
Rolling Reserve Percentage and for how long? What is the processing
fee? How much am I charged Per Chargeback and Per Credit? If
you have to make a phone call to find this information, you
may want to keep shopping. Although most services will negotiate
rates based on the volume of transactions you process, a truly
good deal will be the happy medium you are looking for. Ideally,
you do not want to begin paying your billing company until you
start processing money.
Repressed
Revenue
If you decide to not to pay the Visa fee and attempt to find
a company that has found a “loophole” and not is charging
the fee, be cautious. For US webmasters this could turn into
a processing nightmare where you end up switching processor
3-4 times in the course of a year and just hope your members
can catch up. If you are living in the US and have to decide,
make a decision to accept Visa and comply or do not accept Visa.
Just
because you do not choose to accept Visa does not mean you are
out of business. Companies like PSWBilling.com offer a “lite”
version of their ePayment services where webmasters can sign
up and still accept MasterCard/MC Debit, JCB, and online checks
as billing options. Combined with other forms of independent
payment options and programs you can surely maximize your potential
to make sales with or without Visa in the picture. By giving
webmasters more options to select from, even our customers can
begin to unshackle themselves from the Visa monster.
Expanding
Exponentially
The great news is, you pay the Visa fee per ISPS only once,
even if you have multiple sites you want to accept Visa on!
Why make one, when you can have 2? You now have the ability
to develop more pay sites and convert your AVS experiments into
big boys (or girls) and set them free on the ‘net. And
even better, more sites creates more property to optimize for
search engine traffic, cross promotion can be key to doubling
your sales, and you can keep doing what you do best as a webmaster:
serving up heap-fulls of adult entertainment to hungry surfers
knowing your payment options are designed to work FOR you AND
your customers.
There
has always been a delicate bridge between webmasters and processors.
A bridge built on years of watching, talking, trying, trusting,
and eventually success. With the demise of so many billing companies
and payment options it’s no wonder many webmasters are
jumping ship before riding out the summer slowdown. For the
true survivors, the hardest part is behind us for now. As we
ride out the storm know that PSW Billing is dedicated to keeping
all webmasters informed and ready for anything to come next.
The sooner your customers are familiar with having more options,
the sooner they will use them.
Cynthia
"Cyndalie" Fanshaw is the Vice President of Marketing
for PSWBilling.com. An established expert in search engine marketing,
Cyndalie has over 5 years experience in the adult Internet industry
and working with adult webmasters. For more information about
PSW Billing Services please visit http://www.PSWBilling.com
or contact Cyn @ PSWBilling.com
Contact Cyndalie: Marketing@PSWBilling.com
Republication NOT AUTHORIZED without permission. All rights
reserved. Copyright PSW, Inc and Cynthia Fanshaw
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