Best High-Risk Merchant Account Providers for Businesses Rejected by Banks

You run a completely legitimate business. Nothing about it is illegal. Nothing about it is sketchy or in the ‘grey area’. But regardless of the legitimacy, banks and payment processors keep rejecting your application, preventing you from doing business. Why is that?

It makes no sense because why would they not want to work with you and get more profit?

The problem is that regular banks and payment processors label some business categories as ‘risky’. If you’re reading this, chances are, your business is in that particular category, and you’re struggling to get approved.

It doesn’t matter how well you’re doing and how legal everything is; if they think you’ll be too much trouble, you’re simply not worth it. This happens a lot with businesses in industries like telehealth, travel, CBD, subscriptions, SaaS, etc., etc.

Luckily, this doesn’t mean you’ve hit a wall. 

There are payment processors who have built their services specifically for businesses like yours, so let’s see which of those are the best ones.

Top 4 High-Risk Payment Processors

Lots of businesses get labeled as ‘high-risk’, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way for them to continue working and accepting card payments.

Here are some excellent providers that are willing to take those on.

Adaptiv Payments

One of the best options out there is certainly Adaptiv Payments. If you’ve been told time and time again that your business is simply too risky, this is the first door to knock on. Adaptiv works with industries that include CBD, subscriptions, fintech, tech support, events, consulting, and telehealth. It works for both online and retail payments, so if you have both an e-commerce store and a physical location, you can easily do both.

You’re probably wondering what this service would cost you, but if you want to know that, you’ll need to ask for a quote. 

Adaptiv’s pricing solutions are fully customized for each customer. Sure, there are some pre-made plans they use based on your business’s industry/size, but generally you’ll know how much everything costs once they evaluate you. The site says that you won’t pay anything for setup, and there’s also a possibility of next-day funding.

With Adaptiv Payments, your business can accept credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets as forms of payment, and there’s an option for subscription accounts to collect recurring fees from cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets. 

There are also tools for fraud and chargebacks included in the service.

PaymentCloud

PaymentCloud is another excellent option for those who can’t get their applications to be accepted by mainstream processors. PaymentCloud works with high-risk businesses exclusively, and they cover a wide range of industries.

That being said, there’s no guarantee that your application will be accepted simply because you fall into that high-risk category. According to PaymentCloud, high-risk accounts need underwriting, and you’ll need to provide bank statements and business documents with your application. 

If you do it properly, though, your account could be approved within a few days, and in some cases, there’s even a chance of the same-day pre-approval.

You’ll need to ask for a quote if you want to know the exact price, but there’s a pricing guide listed on the site that could give you an idea of what you’d pay. Average high-risk processing is between 3.49% and 3.95% per transaction, and there’s also a 0.25%  transaction fee to keep in mind.

SoarPay

SoarPay covers more than 50 high-risk and regulated industries, so there’s quite a range here. Its merchant accounts cover businesses like travel, nutraceuticals, SaaS, telemedicine, credit repair, and ticket agencies. 

If your industry is the reason why payment processors keep rejecting you, SoarPay could help you out.

SoarPay’s site is transparent and clear about the application process. What’s not as transparent is pricing. This has to do with the fact that there are quite a few industries that are in the ‘high-risk’ category, but that said, not all of them expose processors with the same amount of risk. This is why the payment plan will depend on your industry/sector, your monthly transaction volume, transaction size (avg.), your processing history so far, etc.

The good thing here is that after SoarPay evaluates your business, you’ll get a clear pricing plan before there are any signatures. No nasty surprises, no hidden fees.

Reserves are also explained for those wondering, but again, not every account will need those (you’ll know after the evaluation for sure).

When a rolling reserve is required, however, you can count on 5% to 10% of the processing volume. You can usually request a review in 60 to 90 days.

Host Merchant Services

Host Merchant Services isn’t exclusively a high-risk processor, but it has specific options for businesses that regular payment processors are likely to reject. High-risk industries that are covered include CBD, supplements, travel, and adult business. 

Approval and final terms of the account depend on the individual merchant.

The contract itself is pretty interesting because this provider advertises month-to-month agreements without cancellation, and there are no penalties for early termination.

For most standard accounts, the next-day funding option can be very handy. But with high-risk accounts, there’s a delay (usually 2-3 business days) simply because there are more steps in terms of verification and compliance checks.

Conclusion

While every single provider you’ve just read about does a great job, make sure to do some research on your own before you decide who you’ll sign a contract with. Just because your business is considered high-risk doesn’t mean you have to accept the first offer you get because there are plenty of options.

It’s always a good idea to compare a couple of available payment processing options side-by-side before you tie your business to one of them.