💳 Save money on credit card processing with one of our top 5 picks for 2024
These reputable payment services providers offer merchant accounts with reasonable rates to high-risk industries.
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If you’ve visited our business loans section, you know that credit scores still play a huge role in a merchant’s ability to get funding.
Business owners with poor credit may find themselves locked out of some of the better sources of funding. And more people than ever are relying on their credit in the midst of a rising trend in fraud and identity theft.
Maybe you’ve decided to make helping business owners repair their credit your business. More specifically, you may want to help people who’ve experienced glitches in their aid, assistance, or forbearance systems and, consequently, have been unable to report their late payments to their credit bureau, dinging their credit.
So, now you’re looking for a merchant account for credit repair companies. However, getting a credit repair merchant account can, itself, be a bit of a challenge. You’ll probably need to look into the best high-risk merchant accounts.
Learn More About Our Top Picks
| Company | Highlights | Next StepsHighlights |
|---|---|---|
Corepay
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Host Merchant Services
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Durango Merchant Services
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Soar Payments
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Easy Pay Direct
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| Show More Options | ||
Instabill
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| Show Fewer Options |
Read more below to learn why we chose these options.
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Table of Contents
Customers with poor credit, at face value and in the eyes of banks, are risky customers who have recently had trouble paying their debts on time. As a credit repair business, those same customers are your clients, a fact that makes your credit repair industry a high-risk one.
Banks, conservative lenders that they are, view the credit repair industry as one prone to chargebacks and fraud — your business likely provides high-ticket services as well as services on recurring billing plans, factors that make your business particularly susceptible to chargeback risks.
All this to say that, for credit repair companies, this means that popular third-party processors like Square, PayPal, and Stripe are out, as are many of the best small credit card processing companies. Instead, you’ll have to look at high-risk merchant service providers to get your credit repair merchant account.
The best credit repair merchant accounts are able to accommodate high-risk transactions at a fair price with reasonable contract terms. While you may not be able to access the lowest payment processing rates, you should still expect quality service.
| Account Setup Fees | Account Approval Time | Payment Gateways | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corepay | 24-72 hours | NetValve, Authorize.Net | |
| Host Merchant Services | Not advertised | Transaction Central, HMSExpress, Authorize.Net | |
| Durango Merchant Services | 24 hours – 6 business days | Durango Pay | |
| Soar Payments | 3-5 business days | Authorize.Net, NMI, USAePay | |
| Instabill | Not advertised | Instabill payment gateway | |
| Easy Pay Direct | $99 | Not advertised | EPD gateway, Authorize.Net, NMI |
Pros
Cons
Corepay's fast approval process can be a great benefit to any high-risk merchant, including those running credit repair companies.
Corepay is geared primarily towards eCommerce with a diverse selection of payment gateways and offshore account options, which should be more than adequate for a typical credit repair company.
Pros
Cons
Host Merchant Services is among our list of best credit card processing companies for small businesses. While they don't offer quite as great terms to high-risk customers like credit repair companies, you can still expect competitive pricing and terms from Host Merchant Services.
Host Merchant Services also offers a variety of third-party products and services, and has a remarkably low complaint volume from its users, as well as the same high level of customer support that low-risk businesses receive.
Get Started With Host Merchant Services
Pros
Cons
Durango Merchant Services has just about everything you'd want to see in a high-risk payment processor, most notably reserving early termination fees for only the riskiest clients.
Durango Merchant Services can cover a variety of uses, including in-person, eCommerce, and mobile payments. Businesses looking to save money on credit card processing fees can take advantage of Durango Merchant Service's eCheck or cryptocurrency processing capabilities.
Notably, Durango Merchant Services specializes in finding merchant accounts for business owners with poor credit or have landed on a credit card processing blacklist like the Terminated Merchant File (TMF) or MATCH list.
Get Started With Durango Merchant Services
Pros
Cons
Being a high-risk business doesn't mean you have to settle for second-rate service. If you're looking for a fully functional suite of payment processing features, you should consider Soar Payments.
Soar Payments offers eCommerce integrations, a payment gateway through Authorize.Net, ACH processing, and POS hardware--which covers just about all your bases. Additionally, it offers chargeback management and fraud prevention, which will help cut down on fraudulent chargebacks and other suspicious activity. It also has substantial experience in placing credit repair companies with backend processors.
Perhaps most importantly, Soar Payments has some of the most lenient contract terms you'll see in the high-risk processing segment.
Get Started With Soar Payments
Pros
Cons
High-risk accounts often come with monthly processing limits that can be a hassle for high-risk merchants. Easy Pay Direct offers load balancing, which allows you to strategically spread your transactions across multiple accounts as needed. This does come at the cost of having multiple accounts each with their own monthly fee, but the convenience may be worth it for companies that regularly run into these problems.
Additionally, Easy Pay Direct doesn't have early termination fees. It comes at the cost of a $99 setup fee, but that's a fairly trivial cost compared to most early termination fees.
Get Started With Easy Pay Direct
Pros
Cons
Instabill is a service that specializes in overseas merchant accounts. If your business proves too risky even for most domestic high-risk payment processors, Instabill appears to be able to work with even the riskiest businesses (online gambling sites, for example). The feature suite isn't the most complete, but you can get ACH processing and mobile EMV POS through integrations or Instabill's partners. Credit card terminals are available through lease, which we generally recommend against.
Since Instabill is partnered with a number of banks throughout the world, there's not much information available upfront about pricing. A big point in Instabill's favor, however, is that there really aren't that many customer complaints out there about them. Expect higher prices but also competent customer service and complaint resolution.
Merchant Maverick has been researching the payment processing industry since 2009. Our writers have reviewed hundreds of credit card processors, merchant account services, and mobile payment apps, evaluating each provider carefully on several different metrics.
When comparing different payment processing companies and applications to one another, we consider numerous data points. Our experts start by comparing credit card processing rates, the presence of additional fees, contract length, sales practices, and the presence or absence of additional features and services, like point of sale software. Each provider is judged on its own merits and how well it stacks up to industry standards; then it is weighed against the other providers on the list.
We spend an average of 10-15 hours researching and updating each one of our lists, making sure every company or application included meets our internal standards for quality and reputation. Any list of recommended payment processors on our site might contain a mix of standard merchant accounts, third-party payment processors, mobile payment devices, and high-risk payment processors, depending on what our expert feels is the best fit for certain scenarios or business types.
For additional details about Merchant Maverick’s review and rating processes, please refer to any or all of the following methodology pages:
15
Years reviewing payment processors
100+
Providers evaluated
25
Attributes and features assessed per vendor
40+
Years combined experience
There’s no magic formula that guarantees approval, but there are some things you can do to increase your chances of being approved for a credit repair merchant account.
Being in a high-risk industry like credit repair may narrow your merchant account options, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for just anything short of the best high-risk merchant services. Even among high-risk merchant accounts, there are good, reputable providers as well as sharks looking to take advantage of desperate businesses. With tiered pricing, the service that appears to offer the cheapest merchant account for credit repair business may not really provide the most value for your money — or even the cheapest rate, for that matter, as only certain transactions will be processed at the advertised low rate.
Need more resources to help you set up your credit repair business? We can help you get a high-risk business loan.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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