Moving Companies Merchant Accounts

With current and growing regulation looming in the Moving Companies industry it makes operating a business challenging for their owners. Regulations, restrictions and also rules for merchant account providers can put more pressure on operating successfully. Because of these many challenges, finding a processor that will approve a merchant account to a Moving Companies are extremely problematic. Banks often brand Moving Companies as high-risk industry for a range of reasons. Most merchant processors do not fully understand how the industry works. This results in many banks considering them high risk or not approving them at all. Choice Funding will have you approved quickly! If you’ve had trouble acquiring a credit card processing account online or at your business location Choice Funding can help. Let us tailor a solution to your business today!

Having a card processing solution that keeps your top interests in mind lets you get back to concentrating on what’s most important and that’s your business. Choice Funding makes it simple to set up a merchant account and our pricing plans are designed to insure you are paying the lowest possible rates with the top PCI security standards. Our USA based tech support department provides simple guided integrating into your pre-existing online system. We are compatible with nearly every website shopping cart so your customers can continue to conveniently place orders. All transactions are run safe and securely so you will have a lower risk of fraudulent occurrences that end up costing you more! Contact Choice Funding today and speak to a Moving Companies merchant account specialist for more information. Choice Funding makes choosing and merchant processing company more simplified!

• There are approximately 7,000 moving companies operating at 14,000 locations, primarily providing moving and storage services for household and office goods in the United States.
• The moving industry employs 123,500 people with an annual payroll of $3.6 billion
• The moving industry is dominated by small businesses, 47.7% of industry companies employ fewer than 5 people.
• Approximately 36 million or 11.7% of Americans move in any given year.

Company’s in the moving industry are considered high risk primarily due to three reasons:

1. Large Average Tickets: Moving industry businesses, generally speaking, have a few large transaction sizes on their monthly credit card processing account. Because their average sale is generally well into the hundreds of dollars, a single chargeback is significantly more impactful in terms of risk to the credit card processor than a business with thousands of transactions in the $5 or $10 range.
2. Non-Retail Transactions: Generally speaking, moving businesses take the majority of their credit card payments over the phone or via their website. Unfortunately, the risk of credit card fraud is significantly higher with these types of transactions as opposed to face to face transactions. To combat this, a lot of moving companies have begun to use mobile swipers out in the field to accept payments.
3. Inherently Risky Service: The moving industry is a service based business, which is already more risky from a credit card processor’s perspective than a retail or eCommerce business, because there is more room for dispute between the customer and the merchant. Add to that that there is a lot that can go wrong in terms of broken or lost furniture, and the high risk nature of moving companies from a credit card processor’s perspective should be clear.

Residential and commercial movers unfortunately tend to face a higher chargeback risk than most businesses, due in large part to the fact that they have very high average tickets. Thus, when a customer is dissatisfied or attempts to avoid a legitimate charge by resorting to a chargeback, that single chargeback is more financially significant than one for say $40 or $50 dollars. Consequently, moving companies need to understand chargebacks and the chargeback process in order to avoid and manage them properly.

• What is a Chargeback?
  Stated simple, a chargeback is when one of your customers calls their credit card provider (aka their ‘issuing bank’) and disputes the charge from your business. The customer has up to 6 months after a charge to dispute it, and they can dispute a charge for a variety of reasons ranging from: (a) the service was never provided, (b) the customer was over-billed, (c) the customer doesn’t recognize the charge, (d) the moving service provided wasn’t as advertised, etc. No matter what the reason, once the customer has disputed the charge, your company’s credit card processor will immediately withdraw the money from your company’s bank account and it will be held in escrow until the dispute is resolved. You as the business owner, will then be responsible for disproving the customer’s accusation. If you win, you get the funds returned to you, if you lose, you lose the money. And, if you have a lot of chargebacks, not only it is it a giant hassle and expensive, but eventually your credit card processor will terminate your moving company’s merchant account.
• How do I keep my chargeback ratio low?
  Chargebacks are expensive, and they can eventually get your moving company’s merchant account terminated. Thankfully there are a few reliable techniques you can use to keep your chargeback ratio low:
  1. Send confirmation and customer satisfaction emails:
     One big reason that customers initiate chargeback disputes is that they either don’t recognize the charge or they think that it’s erroneous. You can eliminate most of these by having a clear payment descriptor (the name of your company listed on their credit card statement) and sending a detailed receipt that breaks out all of the various charges, taxes, total, etc. Additionally, make sure it lists a convenient phone number and email that they can contact your customer service department, so if there is a question or complaint they will contact you rather than their credit card issuer. Moreover, if a chargeback does happen, you’ll be better able to prove that the customer was fully informed of all charges.
  2. Integrate Customer Dispute Alerts:
     A customer dispute alert (aka chargeback alerts) is a notification system that you can subscribe to which will inform you when a customer has attempted to initiate a chargeback, and provide you a three day window to refund the customer and avoid the chargeback. Obviously, this isn’t terribly useful if the customer initiates the dispute after the move has been completed. But in those instances where the chargeback dispute arises before the move has happened, it allows you the ability to just fully refund the customer and walk away from the transaction, as opposed to only finding out about the chargeback once the move has been completed.
  3. List All Refund / Dispute Policies Clearly:
     In the moving industry, no matter how careful your team is, there will eventually be accusations that client’s furniture or other items were damaged or lost. By having clearly defined policies that were fully disclosed to and signed off by the customer, you ensure that a customer cannot simply initiate a chargeback and seek a full refund, but instead the customer will have their chargeback dispute denied and have to follow the refund / dispute policies as outlined.
  4. Fight Illegitimate Chargebacks Professionally:
     A good number of chargebacks faced by moving companies are ‘friendly chargebacks’. That is, chargebacks initiated by legitimate customers who want to circumvent the refund / dispute process outlined in their agreement and try to get a better deal via the chargeback process. Unfortunately, the chargeback dispute process is highly technical and heavily weighted in favor of the customer. So, if you’re a small business, we’d highly recommend that you use a third-party that specializes in fighting chargebacks to ensure that your customers can’t get away with simply resorting to a chargeback every time they aren’t thrilled with your service.