I own a small business, and recently introduced a new line which is selling like gangbusters. I have decided it is time to move forward and start selling this line via the internet. I need to become a Visa/ Mastercard merchant, but have very damaged credit (I have paid all debtors in full, but have an extremely poor credit report). I am wondering if the bank and credit card servicer will require a good credit rating in order for me to be able to use their service. Any one out there know? Thank you for your help.

-- worried and wondering (tooembarrassed@togivemyname.com), November 17, 2001

Answers

ask your bank anout it,, if they say no,, there is always an option. Ive been offered CC service via the net for my little business, but they want a monthly fee, most CC sevices just take 2 percent across the board. Can always try paypal,or something like that also

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 17, 2001.

I also have a small homebased business through my website. I do not take cards, I tell customers via e-mail to send a check or money order when I tally up their order, with shipping etc. and when received,I send the order. If its small, under $50. I usually just send it with an invoice. So far this has worked for me.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), November 17, 2001.

Absolutely, you must have good credit.

You see it is like this, if one of your customers does not pay, lets say has a card over limit, expired, stolen and so on; the merchant account servicing company will expect you to stand good for that charge + service charges + late fees, and etc. In essence you are expected to guarantee every transaction with your own money.

If your credit is just a little off they, the servicing company will want a much higer discount for giving you the honor of guaranteeing all transactions for them.

From the way you describe your own credit, it sounds like this would be an area that you might want to just leave alone.

If you know of another businessperson who takes credit cards, you might be able to get them to service your accounts for you.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), November 17, 2001.

If you plan on selling via the internet try PayPal. You can register there using a check card. I use it for eBay auctions and it works good. I know of others who use PayPal with their business websites.

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), November 17, 2001.

Gosh, I don't know about Ohio, Ed, but here in California my husband & I accepted credit cards at our restaurant, and there was no credit relationship whatsoever with the company. We weren't responsible for checking expiration dates because when you slide the card into the machine it does that automatically. And every month or every few weeks (I can't remember-it's been a few years) they'd pay us what was taken from the issuing banks less whatever fees they charged.

So there was no credit extended to us at all, and in fact they never checked our credit rating or even asked to see our business license. What happens when you open a business is that the credit companies (who are not, by the way, credit issuing companies themselves like Visa) beat down your door looking for your business, you pick one, they bring you a machine and explain how everything works, and that's that.

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@mm2k.net), November 17, 2001.

If your going to sell via the internet only, paypal, billpoint, epay or echeck is te way to go.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), November 17, 2001.

I've not known anyone with damaged credit being denied the ability to accept Visa/Mastercard et. al. here in my part of the world. Along with doing those cards, I'd also suggest getting hooked up with a 'Check by phone' deal as well. I have one if you're interested and just love it and so do my customers. I can draft their account directly without them having to write a check then either mail or deliver it. I do it right at my PC and it works great. It will also print checks (worth it's weight in gold for the "I forgot my checkbook" and "I'm fresh out of checks" ploys). Drop me a line if you'd be interested in that. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), November 17, 2001.

Thank you all for your wonderful replies. I very much appreciate your time and input. I was hoping to get a 'swipe' machine, alot of my corporate accounts are using CC's instead of issuing P.O.'s. This new product line also allows me to go to factories and sell in break rooms, where more often than not, a telephone line is available and could be used for a CC machine.

The main reason I ask this board instead of the banker is the simple fact that the banker is a very close friend of one of my best customers. I am a proud person (and ashamed of my credit history), and I live in a small town. People talk. It never dawned on me that my credit history would have been a stipulation in this matter until I talked with him in depth about their CC program.

-- worried and wondering (tooebarrassed@totel.com), November 17, 2001.

Might be worth checking on your credit record yourself. One reason a credit record can be bad is because bad things find their way onto your credit record, but no-one feels the need to put the good things on. So - if you've paid off every debt - that may not be on your credit record - only that you didn't pay (that it was only for a while might not be mentioned). Now, if there is false (possible) or incomplete information, you can require them to correct it. Also, in some jurisdictions they are only allowed to keep information for a limited period of time. They'll keep it forever if they can, regardless of the law, but if you catch them at it you can require them to remove information that's older than legal limits. You may have done this already, but if you haven't it's worth looking into.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 17, 2001.

If you do choose to get your credit report, you can do it a number of ways. You can call or write to the CRA (credit reporting agency) or easier and quicker, you can order it online. Fees vary state to state, but there are ways you can get it for free.

ConsumerInfo.com, will give you your credit report for free (it's from Equifax). Now, I had trouble reading this one and found my credit report from Experian to be really easy to read and understand.

Now with ConsumerInfo.com, you need to agree to a 1 month trial of their services - I cancelled before the 1 month and the credit report was free.

The 3 big credit reporting agencies are Experian (which you can order and view online IMMEDIATELY), Equifax (I found theirs hard to decipher - maybe I'm just dumb), and TransUnion (also easy to understand). There is also an option of getting the 3 merged into one report. From what I've read that isn't always a good idea, since if there is an error you're not sure which report it stemmed from.

We were refinancing our home so that's how I know all this stuff - wanted to make sure our credit was up to snuff before applying.

We got the credit reports from each agency, separately. And there were significant differences in each report from the same creditor. There were even accounts listed that were not ours.

-- Shannan (JanuaryGem2@aol.com), November 19, 2001.