Can I still get a merchant account if I have bad credit?

Who are you trying to get a merchant account with?

Yes. Just google "bad credit Merchant account". some processors claim 99% approval rate, but sometimes that is just to suck you in.... if that doesn't work for you, and you are unable to get approved then try "3rd party credit card processing". Those are mostly offshore processors. You will pay a higher transaction fee however most "will" work for you.

One time I had merch account shut down a long time ago (used authorize.net), and it hurt my credit as a processor, so I had to find another merchant account til I got that straightened out. There are many 3rd party processors that will work with you.

Merch companies rip people off and freeze their accounts all the time for stupid reasons...especially if you were like me: They froze 30k and I never got it back...so alot of people run to 3rd party companies when that happens. Ultimately it killed my thriving business. Someone (a pissed off customer) rallied up a bunch of my other customers and talked them into all charge back on the same week... Watch out for these things.

Never let your customers have full access to each other, even if your product is good.
If you have a forum attached to whatever you are selling be sure to moderate heavily because rebel rousers can do more damage than you would ever want to imagine. They can literally cause nightmares.

Ps. be sure to batch your sales daily. dont ever let your batches build up because that's just more you are leaving up for grabs if they ever decide to freeze you for some reason.

Dont believe me? Just google "frozen Merchant account" you will see all the people to this day that still get put out of biz by that scenario. Seriously, when it happens it SUCKS, and it's almost impossible to bounce back from.

I'd better stop because this whole story is negging me out again.

Answer: Yes you can get a merch. account.

Look into getting a business account at Paypal and use their cart system.

Companies that specializes in getting a merchant account for those with dings on their credit charge a hefty fee. Plus the processing fees are pretty high.

Steve

You can with some banks and not with others. They all have their own underwriting standards. With that said there are banks out there that are willing to take the risk with bad credit. Cardservice International is one that I have heard is very liberal when it comes to credit.

You could also signup for PayPal and PayPal Pro which is essentially the same as having a merchant account and payment gateway. They too are fairly liberal with credit in my experience.

With either though you will have problems if you have claimed bankruptcy and not settled it.

Back in the day....I used a 3rd party credit card processor...it didn't bother me, paying the fees, as I had a huge profit margin.Of course, there may be more viable avenues today, as that was like 10 years ago, but I think they are still out there.