Cigars & Tobacco Merchant Accounts
In order to begin selling tobacco online, you will need to secure a payment gateway. To do that, you should find a high-risk payment provider that can support the industry of cigars and tobacco. It’s not unusual for many businesses in this space to forego the ability to accept credit cards, but that shouldn’t have to be the case. Open up your business to multiple payment options by securing a tobacco merchant account and reap the benefits.
Tobacco Processing: A Thriving Industry
Before delving deeper into the tobacco industry, it is best to start with the definition of what these tobacco products are. A cigarette is made of finely cut leaves of tobacco placed in a thin rolled paper used for smoking. Meanwhile, cigars typically use whole-leaf tobacco wrapped in tobacco leaves.
Despite what the media may imply, tobacco products are still selling extremely well. Each year, billions of tobacco products are sold in the US alone. In fact, almost 250 billion cigarettes were sold in the country in 2017. Meanwhile, almost 12 billion cigars were sold in 2015 with 11.9 billion large ones and the remaining 0.6 billion were little cigars.
The tobacco industry remains one of the most profitable industries in the US and the whole world. With those numbers, it is no wonder that many people seek a tobacco merchant account.
How To Benefit from a Tobacco Payment Processor
Over the last few decades, governing bodies and health professionals have strengthened their efforts in preventing the use of tobacco. It is not easy to run a business selling cigars online unless you have a tobacco credit card processor.
Selling tobacco online, including cigar and cigarette products, is not illegal. No federal law bans online sales of these items. However, there are loose rules that try to regulate online sales of tobacco in the online world. For this reason, banks feel unprotected when working with these businesses.
Looking for a traditional merchant account for businesses in the tobacco industry can be quite frustrating. Declines, shutdowns, and overall insatisfaction is common with businesses starting up in this sector. In order to properly accept credit cards online or in your store is with a high-risk tobacco merchant account.
With a high-risk processor supporting you, your business receives a supportive bank and risk mitigation procedures to combat fraud. Credit card processing is necessary to grow and develop your business. Why not do it right the first time and find a provider that wants your business to thrive?
PaymentCloud Helps you Sell Cigars Online
If you are looking for a tobacco processing merchant account, you have come to the right place. PaymentCloud is the most reliable high-risk tobacco credit card processor because our services are designed especially for hard-to-place industries. You need a company that understands the challenges that online businesses like yours face and has built-in solutions for them.
We work with each of our merchants to develop a personalized solution that helps reduce risk and maintain sturdy processing. Some of these solutions include:
- Brokering changes imposed by the acquiring banks
- Secure MOTO and in-house integrated payment gateways
- Maintaining compliance with onsite changes
- Risk monitoring solutions to detect and prevent fraud
- Chargeback mitigation procedures
The business’ individual risk level is assessed based on a multitude of factors as you begin the application process. One step in assessing risk and compliance is when underwriters check that you have clear privacy and refund policies. Another way to reduce risk is by securing SSLs for your web pages. Other factors that affect your approval are your credit scores, previous bank statements, and other merchant account histories.
At PaymentCloud, we streamline this process with in-house procedures that speed up the application process. By customizing the payment processing application for each of our cigar merchants, it allows our solutions to integrate with your specific needs.
Beginning Your Payment Gateway Approval Process
- You will first need to start the pre-application online.
- A dedicated sales representative will contact you to finish the submission process.
- Most approval times are between 24-36 hours.
- Once approved, you will set up the gateway and can begin processing immediately.
Why Partnering with Us Brings Success to Our Merchants
The majority of our merchants have made their way to us after being shut down by their previous payment processor. Frustratingly, this is commonly caused by relaxed underwriting and a misunderstanding of the business by the acquiring bank. An unannounced account closure can put you and your business at risk due to the holding of funds and possible Terminated Merchant File (TMF) listing. In order to prevent this, a high-risk provider must be able to support your business type and have relationships with multiple banks and regulatory bodies to do so. Luckily, PaymentCloud has all of that. Hard-to-place accounts are our specialty because of the infrastructure that we have in place.
Our dedicated account managers help you to stay compliant and broker the lowest rates for our processing merchants. By securing a payment gateway and reducing your risk factor to the bank, you have the ability to start selling cigars and tobacco online instantly.
We Can Process for Your Cigar & Tobacco Business
Poor personal credit? No problem. No processing history? Not an issue. We have the bandwidth and track to get you on your way to processing credit cards quickly and securely.
We house nearly 40 senior account representatives that are on call each day to answer questions and get you started. Any inquiries about the process before or after your application, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Let us show you how easy it is to get started.
Contact us at 1-800-988-2215 or by filling out our simple online form