Need help getting merchant account for Canadian company

[covid]

Hello,

Is it possible to get a merchant account for a Canadian company that sells digital game items? (not related to gambling or crypto)

I am a Canadian citizen/resident and have a USD and CAD business bank account.

Please give me any suggestions.

 

[Sols]

Maybe I'm missing something but this doesn't sound difficult at all. Have you tried Stripe?

Are the items you sold not permitted to be sold?

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This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[covid]

Sols said:
Maybe I'm missing something but this doesn't sound difficult at all. Have you tried Stripe?

Are the items you sold not permitted to be sold?
Click to expand...

Stripe and many others don't allow you to sell digital in-game items/currency. Also, the business is fairly new and doesn't have any processing history, except for when I used Stripe for like a month to test the market (they terminated me, but this was before I got incorporated).

 

[covid]

Sols said:
Maybe I'm missing something but this doesn't sound difficult at all. Have you tried Stripe?

Are the items you sold not permitted to be sold?
Click to expand...

Hi Sols, a processor has told me they have an issue since I'm breaking the game's ToS and could have copyright issues (I sell digital game items)... Do you think there's any hope with the high-risk processors in the resource database, or should I look into another way to do this? There are many websites in pretty much the same industry and they all seem to be registered in the UK or Cyprus and have payment processing, not sure if they did it the legit way or not.

 

[Sols]

They are using Stripe with shop fronts (fake websites and in reality using the merchant account for something else) or using a high-risk processor. There are a few listed here: https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/resources/categories/payment-service-provider.4/

If you try to make a purchase on your competitors' websites, can you see which processor they use by looking at the HTML or HTTP headers?

Toggle signature
This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[covid]

Sols said:
They are using Stripe with shop fronts (fake websites and in reality using the merchant account for something else) or using a high-risk processor. There are a few listed here: https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/resources/categories/payment-service-provider.4/

If you try to make a purchase on your competitors' websites, can you see which processor they use by looking at the HTML or HTTP headers?
Click to expand...

I looked at all high-risk processors in the resource section and contacted most of them yesterday, just waiting to hear from them.

How reliable is the shop front method?

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but before I checkout, I went to inspect element, and I'm seeing "bluesnap-script," "checkout-script" (checkout.com), as well as kount, google, paysafe. You type your card details into the site, it doesn't bring you to a payment page. Bluesnap requires these types of businesses to make over $1m a month, which I don't think they're doing, and checkout.com never even responded to me... So maybe they use a front?

When I go to checkout on a different site it takes me to cardpay.com (unlimint), and the domain of the seller is displayed, you fill in your card details and address there. This payment processor isn't branded as high-risk, but I'll be applying to see what happens.

Another site takes me to an ecommpay.com payment page. Branding of the seller is displayed. I'll apply for this one as well.

Another site also uses cardpay.com but only for Visa, they also send customers payment links via email.

 

[Sols]

covid said:
How reliable is the shop front method?
Click to expand...

More or less as reliable as you make it.

covid said:
I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but before I checkout, I went to inspect element, and I'm seeing "bluesnap-script," "checkout-script" (checkout.com), as well as kount, google, paysafe. You type your card details into the site, it doesn't bring you to a payment page. Bluesnap requires these types of businesses to make over $1m a month, which I don't think they're doing, and checkout.com never even responded to me... So maybe they use a front?
Click to expand...

Yes, or using someone else who in turn provides fronts. Or they were approved when the business was accepted and have been grandfathered in.

covid said:
When I go to checkout on a different site it takes me to cardpay.com (unlimint), and the domain of the seller is displayed, you fill in your card details and address there. This payment processor isn't branded as high-risk, but I'll be applying to see what happens.
Click to expand...

Despite desperate attempts otherwise, Unlimint almost exclusively handles high risk processing.

covid said:
Another site takes me to an ecommpay.com payment page. Branding of the seller is displayed. I'll apply for this one as well.
Click to expand...

Similar story as Unlimint.

covid said:
Another site also uses cardpay.com but only for Visa, they also send customers payment links via email.
Click to expand...

That usually means Mastercard caught on to what they're doing and shut that particular channel down, while Visa hasn't detected it yet.

Toggle signature
This is the probably the answer to your question.