Been denied a merchant account for your CBD or Cannabis-related business? Can’t get any help in accepting credit and debit card sales for your 100% legal business? Feel like you’re operating a criminal enterprise because of this? You’re not alone! Thousands of CBD business owners have experienced the same hardship when applying for a standard merchant service account. From farmers to processors and sellers, too many have been denied outright or faced huge costs. This should not be the case, not now in 2021.
MATCH Lists Getting Put on One
CBD Processing Account
Many merchants in the Cannabidiol world have been denied for being on a “MATCH List”. “MATCH” stands for “Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants” and it means merchant services and banks have labeled your business high-risk. “High-risk” typically involves companies involved in adult entertainment, gambling, tobacco, or alcohol-related businesses. Those no a “Match List” have other problems that caused them to be labeled as such:
- Been terminated or denied by your merchant service provider or processor
- Had high chargeback ratios exceeding industry acceptable standards
- Kept customer information at-risk and not secure
But companies have been placed on the Match List without having done all of these things, and it seemed CBD and Cannabis businesses have been unfairly targeted.
Getting Off a Match List
Getting on this list doesn’t happen overnight and neither will getting off of it. First and foremost, eliminate your chargeback risk and ratio. This can mean simple things like ensuring products are delivered and only accepting orders from a matching billing and shipping address. Or it can mean changing your customer base or the way you are marketing. Chargebacks are bad for all businesses, and if you’ve been canceled or denied by a processor because of it, this is the very first issue you need to address. Otherwise, you won’t be able to operate credit and debit card sales at all.
Complete an overhaul of the way you store and protect customer information. Is your website properly SSL secured? Are you capturing names and emails? Where does that information get stored? Who has access to customer information and payment details? If there was a hack to your system you need to address it immediately. If there was a bad employee who stole customer information, be sure to fire them and press charges. This sort of thing can prevent you from getting back up and running.
Getting a CBD Company Approved
Cannabidiol (CBD) is legal in Canada and the USA, though the way you market it and what you say about it on your website is limited. Health Canada and the FDA have certain requirements that must be present on your website in order to operate and take sales legally. Also, you can’t make health claims regarding CBD and its efficacy. That is all well and good, but there is a slew of other restrictions being imposed on CBD companies by the banking industry.
Despite legalization, major banks and merchant services are unwilling to offer most CBD businesses an account. Places like Stripe simply won’t allow you to use their service for CBD sales. Web hosts like WordPress or Bluehost won’t let you host a site selling CBD. Why all this despite legalization? The problem lies in unclear federal regulations regarding the banking and taxation of these businesses. The truth is that the regulations are in place, but large banks with shareholders are still uneasy to offer these services.
Partnering with Regional CBD Friendly Banks
But it’s not all bad news for CBD businesses. Brother Processing has been involved in the industry for over a decade and has established long-standing relationships with regional banks that don’t turn away CBD companies. After all, these are legal products that are taxed normally, even at higher tax rates than other products. You would think it would be easy to get an account approved but the opposite is true.
Call us today and get your CBD Processing Account up and running in both Canada and the United States. We’ve worked with a handful of CBD-friendly banks willing to offer companies in the Cannabis space a fair shake. Call us today and let’s discuss your business and processing needs.
