How to start collecting credit card payment while doing a business in United Kingdom and Europe

Collecting payments through cards has grown as one of the essential part of the business. As today people prefer to pay through their cards that are, purchasing product or services through their account directly.

For this the businesses who are practicing the traditional way of business are rapidly changing their  working or the start-up businesses who want to have a credit card payment accepting merchant account, needs to deal with a lot of paper work for the approval of a merchant account that is specially dedicated to collect payments through cards.

Here we are going to discuss about the merchant account requirements in UK, Ireland and other 26 European countries. For a merchant account to be initiated for collecting card payments the businesses needs to have the following documents to file applications:

Proof of Citizen Ship

A copy of passport or EU card, as the proof that the applicant is a resident of European country.

Physical presence of business

Proof that the business or applicant has a physical existence in United Kingdom, Ireland or 26 European countries. That can be any Utility bill with the address mentioned on it.

Applicant’s bank account

A bank account in any of the European branch.

The above are the essentials of the application that a merchant needs to provide while applying for the merchant account. Now, the type of merchant account is categorized under the two basic forms

1. Retail merchant account: This type of account is specifically designated for the merchants that deal with the retailing of products or daily utility services. Plus the account is also for the businesses that have low volume of transaction or sales. This type is more inclined for the products like fashion and electronic items.
2. High risk merchant account: This type of merchant account is assigned for the businesses who deal high risk business industries like Trial & Continuity, Tech Support and alike or high volume of transactions.

Basically the above types of merchant accounts will decide the amount that bank will applied on transactions made and also the bank will decide if the business needs any type of guarantee to use the merchant account services.

The above were the prequistes that will act as the deciding factor weather the applicant is eligible to apply for the merchant account. Now, for filing the application in the bank these are the other documentation required to be submitted in the bank:

Applicant profile

The applicant needs to submit its profile containing Applicant’s name, address, phone number, email address, business web address (if any), Business ID and additional knowledge about the applicant if any. This will help applicant to prove that he/she is resident of European countries and eligible to do business in the country.

Article of Incorporation

This is a kind of silenced that will help applicant to prove that the business is running incorporation and eligible for selling products in all European countries.

Personal banking statements

These statements will help applicant to prove the financial strength of the applicant as merchant account risk management asks for this type of security proof.

Business banking Statements

If you need the merchant account in European countries for you existing business then you will need to provide business bank statements to show them how strong is the financial profile of your business that will help you to get the high monthly volume on the merchant account.

Personal guarantee

This is required when the business is from the category of high risk industry or the volume of the business is higher, needs to provide a guarantee that can act as a security for three transactions.

If the business have used the card accepting services before they need to provide the previous 3-6 months year old transaction details that will help bank to get the estimation of the business’ transaction and risk volume.

Documents Which Are Required for United Kingdom and Europe Merchant Account
1. Company Documents

• Copy of Articles and Memorandum of Association.
• Copy of Register of Directors and Shareholders
• Copy of Share Certificate
• Proof of domain name
• proof of trading address (utility bill or tenancy agreement)
• Copy of most recent bank statement or welcome letter

Supporting Documents:

• Credit card processing statements (previous 6 months)
• Copy of required business/operating license. (Certified or apostilled copy maybe requested)

2. Personal Information

Please provide the following information for all Shareholders with a Shareholding over 25% and Notarised by a Certifier which should include the date, their name and full contact details.

• Notarized Passport Copy
• Notarized Copy of Utility Bill not older than 90 days
• A photo selfie of the person holding their passport with the frame of the picture