summary
5/5
Best for
E-commerce companies, SaaS companies, "high-risk businesses", & established small/medium businesses ($500,000+ in annual sales)
Specializes in
Easy Pay Direct has unique gateway software and banking solutions to optimize payments for eCommerce, SaaS, information products, supplements, and CBD amongst other verticals.
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: $99
Monthly Fee: $24.95
Swipe Rate: 1.59% + $0.17
Keyed-in Rate: 2.39% + $0.29
Early Termination Fee: $0 (domestic accounts)
Contract Terms:
summary
4/5
Best for
High-Risk Merchants
Specializes in
High Risk
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: None
Monthly Fee: None
Swipe Rate: Unknown
Keyed-in Rate: Unknown
Early Termination Fee: Unknown
Contract Terms:
summary
4/5
Best for
eMerchantBroker is best for any size business that is considered high-risk. It's considered one of the top payment processors for high-risk businesses that would otherwise have difficulty finding a standard merchant account provider.
Specializes in
eMerchantBroker specializes in credit repair, collections agencies, adult websites, travel and timeshare, firearms and guns, bankruptcy and bad credit, online and in-person smoke shops. They also work with electronic cigarettes and other companies that fit into the high-risk merchant account category.
Pricing Summary
Setup Fee: $0
Monthly Fee: Undisclosed
Swipe Rate: 3.00% + $0.15
Keyed-in Rate: 4.00% + $0.25
Early Termination Fee: Up to $595
Contract Terms:
Most people pay for the products and services they purchase with a credit card, debit card, or something other than cash. Cannabis payment processing services are needed for dispensaries that sell these products.
This is how it works in other industries:
Marijuana businesses need merchant accounts for a number of reasons, including:
There are alternatives to merchant accounts and processing payments through an MSP, but utilizing those services could be detrimental to a business in the cannabis space.
Marijuana is a legal gray area right now. There are only a handful of states that have not legalized cannabis in some way, shape, or form, and most have legalized it for medicinal or recreational use.
But that hasn’t changed things on a Federal level - yet.
As of this writing, cannabis is still illegal at the Federal level, and while the SAFE Banking Act might be working to change that, the current laws prohibit the use of credit and debit cards for buying marijuana.
That leaves a lot of dispensary owners in a bind. But there are workarounds, and many of them use them.
If you own and operate a dispensary, whether it’s for recreational or medicinal marijuana, you may have at least considered using any of the following methods to process your payments.
Payment aggregators - or payment service providers, as they’re often called - are services like Stripe, PayPal, and Square. These companies offer a quick way for businesses to be able to process payments.
They’re popular for good reason. Setting up a merchant account with them only takes a few minutes, and businesses are able to begin accepting payments almost immediately.
But all of them have strict policies against working with cannabis dispensaries because of the legalities we talked about above. That doesn’t always stop businesses from trying though.
Working with a payment aggregator may work for some businesses, but anyone who owns and operates a cannabis dispensary should avoid them at all costs.
In Upstate New York, once cannabis was legalized at the state level, “sticker stores” began popping up in various cities. Customers would go to these stores to purchase “stickers” and leave with a “free gift” of cannabis.
It wasn’t long before these businesses lost the ability to continue to accept credit and debit card payments.
If you’re working with a payment aggregator and they suspect that type of dishonesty, they can quickly shut down your access to your business funds. Your account could end up getting frozen for months, and you may never be able to access your money.
This is also a good way to end up on the MATCH List, which is a type of payment processing black list. In the event that it does become legal for dispensaries to process credit and debit card payments, if you’re on the MATCH List, you may not be able to find anyone who will work with you.
The use of cashless ATMs is sometimes referred to as Point of Banking. It’s a way of paying for goods and services that accesses the customer’s bank account at the point of sale.
Point of Banking involves using an ATM to process payments. The customer inserts their bank card and enters their PIN. But instead of getting cash to use for the sale, money is transferred to the business’s bank account.
For these types of sales, customers have to pay in $5 increments. Many dispensaries that use this method also charge a convenience fee to help cover the cost of the service.
Point of Banking is growing more and more popular. Customers love the convenience of it, and it offers a streamlined, legal payment processing option for dispensaries.
Some payment processors can help cannabis dispensaries get offshore merchant accounts to use for accepting payments. Still, these businesses are considered high risk, so not all MSPs will work with them.
Working with a provider that offers offshore merchant accounts for businesses like yours is something to consider. But be aware that you may have to pay a lot more for their services.
There are a few things that you’ll want to think about before you choose a cannabis merchant services provider.
Remember, take your time. Learn as much as you can about each one you’re thinking about working with before you make your decision.
Like we mentioned above, if you own and operate a cannabis dispensary, merchant account providers consider your business high risk because of the products you sell. The same is true for similar products, like:
But it’s legal to work with an MSP in the United States if you’re selling any of those four products.
We’re hoping that cannabis dispensaries will be able to start accepting credit card payments soon, just like other businesses. But for now, you may have to work with a provider that can get you an offshore merchant account, or one that offers Point of Banking.
Regardless, you’ll want to check your contract length and terms carefully before you decide to sign on the dotted line.
Because you’re considered a high risk business, you may have to have a lengthy commitment with any processor you decide to work with. So a contract term of 3-5 years would be considered typical.
But be aware that you don’t need to enter into an expensive lease agreement for your equipment. It’s much more cost effective for you to purchase a POS system or card reader outright than to lease it, even though the monthly payments may appear to be reasonable.
Sometimes those types of contracts can rope you in for a very long time, and a machine that may have only cost you $500 if you’d purchased it could end up costing you thousands of dollars.
It’s a good idea for any business to have more than one merchant account; especially those that are high risk.
Your merchant account provider can help you set up multiple accounts so that if one experiences an excessive number of chargebacks, the majority of your business funds won’t be affected.
This is something called load balancing, and you’ll want to ask every MSP you’re considering working with if they offer it.
One of the first things you’ll want to learn about any merchant account provider is their pricing structure. There are several options, and every provider has their own preference.
There are other pricing structures too, such as surcharge programs and cash discount programs. But those are probably not going to work for your business until it’s able to accept credit card payments.
As you’re shopping for a cannabis payment processor, look for one that has experience working with cannabis dispensaries.
Your account will need to go through an underwriting process, and you want an underwriter who understands what you do. They’ll know all of the legal information to get your account and services set up the right way.
There are plenty of ways for you to accept payments for your cannabis business. You’re definitely not limited to using just a POS system or card reader. Here are your other options:
Have a conversation with every processor you consider to see what they can do to offer you a variety of options. You also want to know that they’ll grow with your as your business grows.
Having an accessible customer service department in place is absolutely critical.
If you sell your products online, people could be purchasing from you day or night. If there’s an issue with a payment, you’ll want to be able to contact your MSP’s customer service department at any time.
We recommend looking for customer service departments that offer multiple ways to contact them. For example:
There are even some merchant account providers that make sure all of their customers have access to their teams’ cell phone numbers in case they need even faster assistance.
When you work with a merchant service provider, you won’t get an instant approval for your account. You’ll have to wait a bit, but the amount of time it will take is dependent upon each company.
Some processors may be able to get you approved in as little as 2 or 3 business days. Others might take up to 10-14. Regardless, find out how long it might take before you get an answer on your approval.