The Bottom Line: Credit Card Processing Capability Depends on CreditPosted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010 Copyright 2006 William Hamilton When you apply for credit card processing capability for your website, there are a multitude of factors that underwriters take into consideration when deciding whether or not to accept your application. These factors include: * The type of business you own When a merchant's credit card processing application is evaluated, their personal credit rating is assessed and significantly affects the outcome of the decision. A poor credit rating may preclude an application from being accepted. But what does your personal history have to do with your business potential? As far as your credit card processing application is concerned, everything. How you run your personal life is indicative of how you will run your business, helping the underwriters of your credit card processing application to determine whether or not you should be considered a risk. Everything that is included in your credit report is relevant information for the credit card processing underwriters. This information includes: * Whether or not you made personal credit card payments on time or at all, over drafted your accounts, or filed for bankruptcy may indicate your ability to repay future creditors. Research Your Credit Report One way to make sure that your personal credit is an asset to your credit card processing application is to make sure that it is as high as possible before you send in your application. It is free for you to check your credit report with the three major credit agencies in the country ? Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax ? once every year. Staying up to date with your credit reports will let you know right away if there are mistakes due to inaccurate reports or identity theft. The sooner you find out, the sooner you can get started getting these things corrected and removed from your credit reports. How To Raise Your Credit Rating There are many ways for you to raise your credit rating if you feel that it is inadequate to get the credit card processing application results that you need. Some credit report improvement techniques take a great deal of time before they affect your credit rating. Others begin to improve your score immediately. The bottom line is that your personal credit reports and rating will directly affect the outcome of your credit card processing application. Maintaining the best credit possible will help you make the most of your business when it comes time to apply for credit card processing capability. And if worse comes to worst, there is an alternative solution. Many credit card processing companies allow a merchant to use a cosigner. Choosing someone with a favorable credit rating score may help you offset the negative effects of your own credit rating. Like it? Share it!More by this author |