PSP Angels VIKTORIA SOLTESZ Founder of PSP Angels
LET’S DEFINE: ‘HIGH RISK’
It is inevitable that we live in unprecedented times. So you realize it is the perfect chance to start turning yourself into your own boss: you come up with an extraordinary idea, and start building it up as a side hassle. Months later, you’ve got your brand new business ready to get rolling, and so you start. Everything goes according to plan only to realize the only point you cannot check out on your perfectly polished list is the ‘Start processing payments’, which is the last and most important stage that will get you to your well-deserved money. You turn around to realize the reason to that problem is actually all the hundreds of different PSPs (Payment Service Providers) and banking applications you had reviewed, submitted and negotiated got rejected, without any given reason as to why. This isn’t the case only with fresh, start-up companies. One could be a well-established business, yet all the funds and banks suddenly get cut off, this time with the reason being ‘you are too high risk for our appetite’.
GAME CHANGERS Issue #29
These are just two basic examples to prove how finding the right payment and banking provider takes up a lot of time, dedication and effort as the industry is changing all the time which makes it difficult to keep a finger on the pulse on the market. The problem always with payments, is that either funds get stuck with the PSPs, banks shut down accounts, merchants cannot process cards or simply needed alternative payment methods, which is why one should always have a good 2-3 solutions on hand in case anything goes wrong. It’s a never ending search, as all providers are coming up with new products, and your company is changing too.
However, the thing that sometimes leaves businesses confused and frustrated, is the mere fact that they might not even have a clue they are considered high risk, so they are stuck with applying to acquirers and processors who offer low risk merchant accounts. They may think they are different form the obvious ‘high risk’ industries such as Forex, Crypto,
