When applying for a credit card processing or merchant account, your acquiring bank or payment service provider will normally need information about your business, its owners, how you intend to process payments and your expected transaction volumes.
The exact information requested can vary between providers, but preparing the details below in advance can help make the application process quicker and easier.
You will normally be asked to provide basic information about your company, including:
Make sure the information provided matches your official company records wherever possible.
Acquiring banks and payment providers are required to carry out Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks.
You may therefore be asked to provide information about directors, partners and beneficial owners.
This will typically include anyone who owns or controls 25% or more of the business, although the exact threshold or information required may vary.
Information requested may include:
Identity documents may not always be required during the initial application, but you should be prepared to provide them later in the underwriting process.
These may include:
The provider will need to understand how your business intends to take card payments.
You may be asked for:
You may also be asked which card types you intend to accept, for example:
You should identify how customers will make payments.
Typical payment channels include:
For businesses using Paytia, this may include telephone card payments where Paytia securely captures the customer's card information during the call.
You should also be prepared to provide information about your:
The acquiring bank or payment provider may ask how your business protects payment card information and complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Information requested may include:
Depending on the way your Paytia service and payment environment are configured, Paytia may help significantly reduce the amount of cardholder data that enters your people, processes and systems.
The applicable PCI DSS SAQ should always be confirmed against your individual payment environment and the requirements of your acquiring bank or payment provider.
You may also be asked to provide links to your:
If your business already accepts card payments, the new acquiring bank or payment provider may request evidence of your previous processing history.
You should normally be prepared to provide the last three months of processing statements from your existing payment processor or acquiring bank.
These statements may be reviewed to understand:
Processing history can help the provider assess the expected risk and transaction profile of your account.
You will normally need to provide details of the business bank account that will receive your card payment settlements.
The provider may request:
The bank account will normally need to be held in the name of the business applying for the merchant account.
You may also be asked to provide evidence that the account belongs to the business.
Before starting your application, it is useful to have the following information available:
Once the information has been submitted, the acquiring bank or payment provider will normally carry out an underwriting review.
During this process, they may:
Some applications can be approved quickly, while others may require additional information before the merchant account can be activated.
Preparing your company information before starting a merchant account application can significantly reduce delays.
The most important information to have ready is your company registration information, ownership details, expected payment volumes, bank account details, website policies and, if you already process cards, your recent processing statements.
The exact requirements will vary between acquiring banks and payment service providers, so additional information may be requested during underwriting.