If you sell guns or weapons for a living either online/ecommerce retailer or a traditional retail establishment, you know it can be somewhat difficult to find a merchant account that isn't going to charge you high fees for each transaction. Luckily, options are available if you're a firearms dealer who needs to be able to legally and safely collect credit card payments. Below is more information for anyone who wants to get into selling hand guns, rifles, weapons, knives, ammo to the public.

Accept Credit Cards for Firearms Dealer

Here are some of the things you need to think about if you're looking through merchant accounts for firearms weapons and ammo dealers.

• Billing and Chargebacks - Ever have a customer who had to return an expensive firearm for one reason or another? In the world of gun stores, this is actually quite common, which is why it can sometimes be hard to find a merchant account.

• Retail / Card Present / Signature - Since you can sell most firearms online, you're going to need to be able to get a firearms friendly merchant account that will allow you to take payments without a signature and card present (MOTO).

• Multiple Underwriting Banks - If one bank decides to cut and run for some reason - a new gun bill or law, for example - you want to make sure your merchant account is backed by more than a single bank.

• Fees and Rates - Another thing to think about carefully is the fees and rates you're going to have to pay. You want to keep these as low as possible, obviously. You might be surprised that there are a wide range of fees and rates depending on the industry.

• Reserves - In some cases, the merchant account provider may require you make a reserve deposit to cover potential problems. This can be expensive for some gun stores and firearms dealers, especially if they're just starting out and have to make every bit of income count.

• No Setup Fees - Just because you're selling firearms (legally), it doesn't mean you need to pay high setup or application fees. In fact, some merchant accounts will waive these fees for you. This is great if you're a startup and can't afford to pay a lot to be able to accept credit card payments via Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express.

• ACH Processing/Check Processing - Most customers are going to want to pay with a credit card, but you may have some who want to write a check. In these cases, you want to be able to handle check processing with your merchant account.

Truth About Gun Store Merchant Accounts

The truth about gun store merchant accounts is that they can be hard to get sometimes. On the good news front, IBI Merchant Services has provided merchant accounts to firearms dealers for many years. We know about the special needs that gun store owners have when it comes to accepting payments. Contact us today to get answers to all of your questions about collecting for guns you sell. We have friendly professionals standing by to help make getting the right merchant account easier for you.