New Credit Card Gateway Launched Today for Cannabis and CBD Merchants

Today FIRST MERCHANT BANK CARD SERVICES launched it’s new payment gateway to accept Visa® and MasterCard®. Our new payment gateway is easy to install and we can approve new merchant accounts within 48-hours. It’s available for storefront dispensaries, delivery services and online websites.

Please contact us to learn more about the new payment gateway and receive a merchant application.

FIRST MERCHANT BANK CARD SERVICES

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Hey Steve,

This is a great announcement post!

I think a lot of business professionals could use your payment gateway services. Is there a client story that you have and could tell us about to provide more information on why this gateway is beneficial to our members in the cannabis industry?

Thanks,
~Kareenabis~
Success Coach

Dear Kareen,
We recently had a client that has suffered the wrath of the banking industries paranoid rules in two ways.

The customers’ first predicament was their credit card processing account was cancelled without notice. This resulted not only in their reserve account being tied up for who knows how long but having to explain to customers why they needed to pay in cash or cryptocurrency!

The second predicament was they’ve been forced to take in cash that their bank won’t allow them to deposit. In fact the bank even threatened them with closing their account regardless because they didn’t like the business they were in.
They stored their cash in wrong places and were targets for criminals.
This isn’t a unique story but the multi-pronged solution we provided is!

The first problem solved when we facilitated a bank account local to them under a special umbrella that would allow them to use normal banking services and deposit cash. It had limitations but we were able to provide help for that as well with secure pickup and deposit of large amounts of cash.

The second problem of no longer being able to accept credit cards was solved within 3 business days by providing them a payment gateway to accept Visa® and MasterCard® without the risk of getting turned off and allowed no reserve account and daily funding. They are now processing well over $100,000 per month, still taking in some cash and happy that they can concentrate on growing their business rather than waiting for the next fire to extinguish.

How do we do it?.. the best explanation is that we are positioned as a merchant bank between those nationally licensed banks and the customer.
In all frankness we didn’t know much about the canna and CBD space until one of our high-valued investor clients had invested in the canna space came to us for help.

We’re here to help people legally with respect to anything we facilitate. We want long-term relationships.

We have consulted with medical experts who have convinced us that it is only a matter of time that the medical value of both cannabis and CBD oil will become the new norm. As opioids are being pounded other tested solutions will prevail. Clearly cannabis and CBD will soon have its appropriate place as an accepted medical treatment.

At the end of the day we know that the big banks will suddenly want your business and hope that as the field becomes more competitive that our clients whom we helped at a time when nobody else would, will remember us and remain loyal.
In the meantime we continue to do what we can to support the canna and CBD industry.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: We tried a Group Blast and got slapped!

Wow, this is great information Steve! I am very happy that your company is able to provide this industry with a resourceful banking gateway that could and would relieve a lot of fear within this industry in regards to processing large amounts of funds.

I agree with that. Cannabis and CBD are slowly becoming the new norm. Opioids need to be pounded and done away with because coming from my behavioral health background, the opioids were making my high risk youth more depressed, anxious and aggressive if not sedated. So it makes a lot of sense to push the benefits of CBD and Cannabis in most cases.

Yes, absolutely. Your company is currently ahead of the game and I would hope that your current clients including your new clients that get a hold of your new payment gateway launch through our community will jump on this train and connect with you to sustain their business foundations forever.

Great banking problem and solution story Steve.

Thanks and keep it up!

~Kareenabis~
Success Coach

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Also, I think @CBDMerch should come on in and jump into this conversation.

Todd - I’m sure you have some similar client stories in which you’ve possibly provided solutions to your clients in regards to merchant processing. I would really like our members to know how you have helped your clients in the past as well as the present with your services.

Looking forward to reading some of your content soon.

Thanks,
~Kareenabis~
Success Coach

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Hi Steve,

Sounds like a great product! I’d love to hear how you mitigate the risk of being non-compliant considering that Visa and Mastercard are unwilling to work with cannabis in the U.S. until it is rescheduled. Are you routing customer accounts offshore?

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Hi Carson,
Thank you for your inquiry and interest in our payment gateway. Unlike solutions that tie into offshore banks, etc to avoid US card association rules this is not the case.

We facilitate providing the merchant with a digital wallet. The transactions are similar to PayPal and are treated as quasi-cash. Quasi-cash per MasterCard® for example uses MC6050/51 for such transactions. All transactions are in USD.

We provide a gateway to an electronic pay system that works with a cash-based digital wallet.
The eWallet operates in a “PCI-DSS Level 1 Certified Provider” environment. This means that it complies with the best security standards in electronic transactions using the most advanced technology to process and secure your information. It is constantly being updated in terms of security and user friendliness.

The actual eWallet was developed by a veteran pioneer in the US payment industry and has been private labeled by many banks worldwide as a universal payment system as they gravitate away from your present bank App.

From the merchant perspective, the eWallet is funded daily and funds can be wired to any non-OFAC-restricted country and bank.

It was originally developed for e-commerce and can be integrated into most shopping carts but it functions as the gateway. Integration into Magento, Woo-commerce, WordPress is easy and fast. For storefront dispensaries for card-present transactions we recommend a card reader such as PAX A920.

It was never intended for the canna or CBD space until the need was demonstrated that canna and CBD merchants including delivery services are being stifled by their local banks and forced to take in cash or deal in risky crypto currencies or worse sign up for merchant accounts tied into banks that nobody ever heard of, or are being part of an aggregated transaction MID along with an auto parts dealer or worse yet, being miscoded.

We know it is only a matter of time that the big banks will be accepting this very active group of merchants as evidenced by the recent increased investment by Constellation Brands in Canapy Growth which was partially financed by Bank of America.

I hope this provides you some information that is helpful.
We joined the Growers Network hoping to reach decision makers, dialogue and gain knowledge to help us improve our services. We appreciate the dialogue!

Steve Randall
Chief Commercial Officer

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