Educational Seminar Merchant Accounts

Seminar Merchant Services Are Difficult to Secure

While most seminars and coaching companies offer legitimate benefits to their customers, the industry is still considered 'high risk.' This means that many payment processing companies don't want to partner with business owners operating within the industry. While it might seem unfair, it's extremely hard to access credit card processing for seminars and coaching services.

Why is this the case? Banks and merchant services providers want to avoid chargebacks and other negative transactions as much as possible. If chargebacks exceed 2-3% of transactions on the online payment gateway for educational coaching, it can end up costing the credit card processor money.

Let's explore a few key risks associated with providing businesses with educational seminar merchant accounts:

1. Fraud

The educational seminar industry is prone to fraudulent behavior. An educator's claims to have skills, knowledge, or expertise in a particular industry may not be true. If a customer feels they have been ripped off or sold a misrepresented product, they may request a chargeback from their credit card company.

Even if you are offering value to a customer, but they believe that they haven't succeeded after receiving your guidance, they may push for a refund or chargeback. For this reason, it's critical to be careful with your promotional material.

Too many chargebacks can leave the merchant services provider exposed to undue losses. The fraudulent behavior of a few bad actors in the seminar industry has resulted in the 'high risk' classification.

2. High Cost

The cost of educational seminars and training can also be an obstacle for seminar merchant services. As many professional training courses can cost thousands of dollars, chargebacks and fraud claims can be exceptionally expensive for the educational seminar merchant account.

3. Cancellations

If you operate in-person training, you will likely register clients far in advance of the event's starting date. For this reason, many seminar businesses are prone to cancellations from professionals with busy schedules. This is particularly prevalent in career development training.

4. Negative Option Processing

Many training firms offer negative option processing, which will continue to charge customers until they cancel a service. You find this type of billing structure in most subscription services. Due to the educational seminar industry often using recurring payments for online subscriptions, this is a type of processing that's prevalent in the industry.

Some consumers may request a chargeback if they forget to cancel a subscription. Again, this is another issue that leaves your credit card processing partner at risk of losing money.

In order to skirt the issues posed by the industry's status as a high risk niche, it's essential for educational seminar providers to partner with a payment processing firm that excels in high risk and understands the challenges of the sector.

Businesses Types That Need Educational Seminar Merchant Accounts

Educational seminars cover a broad range of industries and business types. At PaymentCloud, we have experience working with several major companies in the niche. If you're interested in finding out what types of companies benefit from online payment processing for seminars and coaching, explore the list of business types below:

1. Business coaching
2. Further education seminars
3. Quality assurance training
4. Finance, trading, or investment seminars
5. Professional development seminars
6. Management development seminars
7. Real Estate Seminars
8. And many more...

If you don't see your business type on the above list, don't worry – our educational seminar merchant accounts are suitable for any type of seminar series, education program, or coaching business. Contact us if you'd like to discuss your business model with one of our merchant services experts.

Benefits of Online Payment Processing for Seminars and Coaching

If you're planning on selling access to your seminars online, it's critical to offer credit card processing at the point of purchase. Modern consumers expect digital payment services if they purchase a product or service via the internet. At PaymentCloud, our clients can access an educational coaching virtual terminal to accept payments online and over the phone.

Not only will hosting an online payment processor allow you to accept digital payments, but it can also help you increase your conversion rate. If consumers are able to immediately sign up for your services, you won't risk losing a sale due to inconvenience. Offering a fast, secure, and convenient online payment gateway for educational coaching is essential if you want to expand your client list.

Compatible Subscription Management Software

While not all educational seminar businesses use a subscription model, we find that many of our clients enjoy using recurring payment methods to generate revenue. If you're someone who uploads frequent content, offering subscriptions or membership tiers is an excellent way to capitalize on your expertise. Our experience providing continuity subscription merchant accounts means we're uniquely positioned to help educational seminar businesses.

Discuss Your Educational Seminar Merchant Account

If you're searching for reliable educational seminar merchant accounts, PaymentCloud is the perfect partner. Our team has experience in providing high risk industries with access to state-of-the-art merchant services and credit card processing. We understand the importance of accepting digital payments within your seminar or coaching business.

Our experience with 'high risk' industries allows us to provide cost-effective solutions to our clients. By employing credit card processing for seminars and coaching services, you can increase your business's professionalism and payment capabilities.