Credit Cards and gun sales

I have a problem. I am having difficulty finding a credit card company who will let me sign on to accept cards for the following reasons:

My personal credit score
New business
Online gun sales

They tell me my personal credit score is not great but not horrible either. It's more that I am a new business and selling guns online which makes me high risk.

I still have paypal as an option but someone told me they will not allow purchases for guns and other weapons. Not to mention the 2.9% and my first order will be around 5k dollars. 2.9% is a huge chunk of that compared to other options. I looked in to iPayment but they have some rather shady feedback. Authorize.net is one who declined me.

So, I need credit card options. I will be calling Paypal when they open to verify the info I have about them but for now. I need to know who you use and if you like them. I would prefer one without a setup fee but I understand if there is one.

What about Googlepay - 2.odd percent again though..

After talking to Worldpay and others today google or amazon might be my only options. I might be forced to trade bartering in things such as manual labor and livestock. :lookaroun

The sale of guns is generally on the automatic decline list of most acquirers - in the UK at least. We have had many merchants apply for our Payment Gateway service only to be knocked back by the banks for the required Internet Merchant Account due to the products sold on their website.

We have been told by some merchants that the banks wouldn't even allow them to feature images of guns (or other weapons) on the website even if there was no option to purchase them online.

Your best bet it to look for a High Risk Merchant Account provider but be prepared for the costs to be higher as a result.

Thanks,

Simon

Can I ask how Paypal will actually know what youre selling on the store?. When the payments go through, they are not individually itemised, they just have a total store payment value.

Even if they can't automatically detect it, if they have a policy about what you can sell with them and they find out that you are in violation of their terms, that's the end of it.

gjh42:

Even if they can't automatically detect it, if they have a policy about what you can sell with them and they find out that you are in violation of their terms, that's the end of it.

Id give it a go then and see how long you last. There is nothing to lose.

dgent:

Id give it a go then and see how long you last. There is nothing to lose.

That is REALLY BAD advice - When you sign up for a payment service you agree to their terms and conditions - that is a legal contract - you are advocating something that is illegal, immoral and unethical!

...and there are things to lose - your account could be frozen, you could be prosecuted for fraud and/or fined.

If PayPal discovers that you're selling guns, they will immediately close your account - permanently, and without appeal.

RescoCCC:

If PayPal discovers that you're selling guns, they will immediately close your account - permanently, and without appeal.

That doesnt really matter as they said they wouldnt let him do it in the first place when he asked.

So weigh up the two scenarios... -He's asked - and they said no....Or he could just try any way, and may be absolutely fine for months, years etc....and if they eventually find out, they say no again and stop him..

So once again, what is he actually going to lose.

Basically if you read into this subject and Paypal, they do not want you to sell firearms through Paypal incase they are mitigated in a case of misuse. For instance, someone buys a gun, shoots someone, they find out who it was bought through, and then Paypal will be mitigated in the suit.

This is especially applicable to Ebay, where the individual item name is mentioned on the Paypal invoice.

Now if you had a varied online store, that sold everything, clothes, food etc etc, AND guns, yet every transaction to Paypal out of your store just has the title 'Sale from Yourstore.com' and is not itemised, no one (Including Paypal) is none the wiser and cannot be mitigated, as I mentioned in my first post.

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-570351.html

Im not advocating this, but end of the day, if you give it a try you may get away with it for ever, or at worst case they close your account. Seeing as you couldnt 'officially' use one in the first place, it doesnt make any difference does it.

dgent:

at worst case they close your account. S

Might want to read up a bit on what Paypal does when they "close" an account. It's not like Craigslist where they catch you spamming and ban you from logging in with that particular email for a while. Paypal will freeze all the money in your account while they decide how to proceed. You can kick and scream about it being your money, you can try and get a hold of a live person to threaten them with all sorts of legal and illegal maneuvers to get your money, but in the end they will release it when they feel like it. They'll freeze it, send the account for review for a few months, finally decide you aren't worthy of being a patron, and then let you withdraw the money but only up to the limit of $500 a month.
So yea, they'll just close the account if they catch you. And if you've got that 5K sale sitting there, it will sit there while they take their time deciding how to let you get your money when the account is frozen. Need that money for something else? So sorry. Add to that the hassle of having an up and running store and you wake up one day with no payment system.
Just jump through the extra hoops and do it right at the start. If you want to sell guns/ammo, find a payment gateway that doesn't care what you sell. There have to be plenty out there - there are too many sites selling guns/ammo online. One was suggested just a couple weeks ago in another thread.
And if a company doesn't care what you sell, but denies you based on credit rating then there are other issues involved and perhaps it's time to write up a decent business plan or better articulate your needs. They might be more considerate if you only need a means to accept credit cards, but don't plan on borrowing money for stock.

Edit if its not too late: Sorry that sounded like a rant. It wasn't intended as such but I wrote it in the morning pre-coffee.

Yes, all of that is expected. Hence regular withdrawals, and even using the Paypal Debit card to directly withdraw the money the same day.

Ive been through all this in the past. Yeah they do hold your money, but you get it back, so its all a moot point.

End of the day you could spend months and months trying to find a payment processor, and miss out on months and months of turnover and sales, or sell now, today.

What costs more?

When I had an issue with Paypal and they held 4k of my money, I wasnt really worried about that - More that every day of lost sales after than by not being able to take payments cost me more.

I just got off the phone with Paypal. They will not only close my account but I would no recourse for chargebacks and some of my weapons cost 12K dollars. Paypal is out.

Also, I am not sure if the BATFE would have have to say about my elusive actions. I cannot risk my license for any reason.

Also, I am not sure if the BATFE would have have to say about my elusive actions. I cannot risk my license for any reason.

VERY good point. An FFL is too hard to get, and too easy to lose. It is not to be trifled with.

Currently working with a client who has the same problem. Please update this thread when you find a processor and I'll do the same if I'm successful.

Dorothy

MamaKitty:

Currently working with a client who has the same problem. Please update this thread when you find a processor and I'll do the same if I'm successful.

Dorothy

Here's a thread to keep an eye on:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=188939