How To Setup An Offshore Pharmacy e-Commerce Merchant Account
Owning and e-Commerce business is quite hard. Setting up a website
not only requires the skills of a professional programmer, but also the
investments in webspace, bandwidth and traffic, technical support,
administration and management. The market also needs research, P.R. and
advertising. But one of the most vitally important parts of this large
complex called e-Commerce is online credit card processing. Things get
even more complicated when online pharmaceutical stores are involved.
First of all, the legal issues that emerge when dealing with
pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs are hard to come over. When
pharmaceuticals are concerned and sold you will have to do with the
FDA. When and where prescription drugs are sold is what the FDA wants
to know and control. The process of opening a pharmaceutical business,
especially online pharmacy stores, takes a lot of time to legalize and
when you have finally managed to settle all the legal issues you may,
or surely will, find out that that your type of business, i.e. online
pharmaceutical, does not meet the requirements of 90% of your local
credit card processing banks; while the other 10% will simply be
ripping you off, offering their services at such high prices and rates
that a young pharmaceutical business owner cannot afford them.
Moreover, it is very likely for an online pharmacy e-Commerce merchant
to get a TMF using local credit card processing service (TMF stands for
Terminated Merchant File, i.e. the merchant is banned by all local
merchant account banks.)
What is left to be done? There are three basic ways out of this situation. These are: getting a high risk merchant account,
which actually lets online pharmacy merchants, who are considered high
risk merchants, process credit cards without worrying about being
terminated due to a high percentage of returns and chargeback cases;
applying for an offshore merchant account, which puts thousands of
international credit card processing banks to your disposal, all ready
to process your online pharmacy business at low rates and on great
terms; and, finally, acquiring a pharmaceutical account, which is
similar to a high risk e-Commerce merchant account, modified to work
with online pharmacy business factors. So, normally you, a pharmacy
e-Commerce business owner, would have to choose one of the three
options to be able to process credit card payments. Not until recently.
How are these accounts set up?
An offshore pharmaceutical merchant account is applied for as any
other type of e-Commerce merchant account service. Application is done
at an e-Commerce merchant service provider’s online website, over the
phone or at a representative’s office. After having contacted one of
the providing companies you will engage into a discussion with one of
the professional staff members about the offshore bank that suits you.
The choice of offshore pharmacy gateway providing banks is usually
varied and large. You will usually have to fill in a form of some sort
so that the agents can filter out the best banks for you. From there on
you will have to choose one, and in a matter of hours (or days,
depending on the e-Commerce merchant account provider)
you will get all your offshore pharmaceutical merchant account details
and information. After you have chosen the right bank the company will
issue a bill with all the initial payments, if there are any, which
you’ll have to pay right away.