Before you can get a merchant account, it may happen that your bank or the financial firm with whom you filed your merchant account application requests to see your credit risk and requires a security deposit. The reason behind that is the level of internet fraud that is increasing day by day, and the new types of businesses that are opening these days.

When considering the merchant account applications, banks and other financial institutions also take into account whether the business under consideration is a high risk or a low risk business.

Merchant accounts of the businesses that are considered risky are categorized into the following two groups:

1. High Risk Merchant Accounts
2. Low Risk Merchant Accounts

Banks and other financial firms usually approve the applications of low risk merchant accounts way sooner than the other one. If yours is a low risk business, you should not have any problems in acquiring a merchant account. However, if yours is a high risk business, then you really need to go through the following information.

First things first:

Here is a list of some of the businesses that are considered a high risk business:

• Telemarketing
• Travel industry
• Multi level marketing
• Gaming
• Adult services
• Pharmacies
• Phone card sales
• Timeshare rentals
• Credit repair
• Counseling

If the above list does not contain your business type, talk to some professionals to know if your business is considered a high risk business.

If you find that yours is considered a high risk business, it will be quite difficult for you to get a merchant account as most of the financial institutions do not provide merchant accounts to any such businesses.