The legalization of Cannabis is quickly sweeping across the United States and CBD can be found at nearly every gas station or corner store now in 2021. But many retailers (both online and offline) find it difficult if not downright impossible to find a bank or merchant service willing to provide account approval letting them take debit and credit card sales transactions. This is for one major reason, Cannabis is still federally illegal in the United States.
Marijuana is A Changing Landscape
Cannabis Merchant Services
With a new national administration and many new states, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, have legalized the consumption of recreational cannabis. Many states already offer a medical cannabis program but the focus here is on the recreational side of things. Federal legalization or decriminalization likely isn’t too far away, but as its stands at the time of this writing (mid-2021), Cannabis is still a class A narcotic federally on the same level as cocaine and heroin.
Those of us who know anything about Cannabis know that this is just ridiculous. To classify weed in the same class as heroin seems like a very outdated and puritanical way of thinking. But that is starting to change and as more and more of the 50 states legalize recreational cannabis, we may see federal legalization follow soon.
Cannabis Legal States and Banking
Because of its federal status, cannabis is still a very tricky subject for banking and electronic sales. Many national banks will flat refuse to accept a retailer’s application let alone provide credit card processing approval for cannabis and related goods. So what are legitimate businesses who sell recreational cannabis supposed to do?
Traditionally you had to risk-taking on cash-only transactions and deposit that cash at the end of the day or week at the local bank branch. This is not only very dangerous (as handling a large amount of cash and going mobile with it is for armored cars, not cannabis retailers) but also poses its own risks.
There were horror stories reported of cannabis retailers being tailed home or to and from the store because criminals knew they had to deposit the cash and had it on hand. There is a real danger in doing this and finding a solution to take credit and debit sales for CBD and related cannabis products aren’t always straightforward.
Finding a Cannabis Merchant Service Solution
Getting approval for a debit and credit card processing account is easy enough for normal businesses. But cannabis retailers find themselves consistently turned away and discriminated against simply due to what they sell and in the face of full legalization. Cannabis businesses pay their fair share of taxes (if not more) and are helping to create an important tax revenue stream for state and federal governments. So what is an option if you are a retail store? Can you get approved for card-based sales?
The short answer is “Yes”, but it depends on how you try going about it.
Getting a Cannabis Account Approved
We’ve been working with Canadian and United States cannabis and CBD retailers for the past 5 years, it is our main focus as an enterprise. Because we have been doing this for a long time we know the fine points that are required to get an account approved. For example, CBD businesses can’t just start selling CBD. They need to go through a lengthy approval process and get every single item that they intend to sell individually approved following a specific compound laboratory test.
This is just the start of the complications of getting a CBD account approved so as you can imagine accepting credit and debit card sales for recreational Cannabis goes a step further in the required compliance. One wrong piece of information or accidental omission can lead to an immediate account denial, then you’re back where you started.
Because we have worked with several dedicated banks and have a strong track record with them, we can get Cannabis merchant services account approval where others have failed. It requires some planning and thorough information before we even begin your merchant approval process so give us a call today and let’s discuss your business and card processing needs.
