Braintreepayments.com (won't take sole traders)

[Si]

I'm a UK host. Have been in the hosting and domain reg business full-time for 10+ years. No debt, and I turn over 100,000USD + each year.

 

I've had a merchant account with Nat West Streamline, left them to go with RBS and now I have a merchant account with Worldpay for 6+ years.

 

I could count the number of chargebacks on one hand in all my years in business. Yet I received this from braintree when I applied for an account with them today:

 

I hope you are doing well. Unfortunately our sponsoring bank is unwilling to underwrite your business type (sole proprietor/trader) at this time. Are you in the process of incorporating now or looking to incorporate in the near future?

 

Just thought this might be a heads up to not waste your time if you are in a similar position - ie sole trader. My business is no-risk and THEY CHARGE ME even if there is a chargeback. Wow.....don't you just love banks.

[zomex]

That's a shame they turned you down. I remember when I was looking for a replacement gateway to 2Checkout. I had a really hard time finding one because each gateway had 1 or more strange policies that made it impossible to get accepted (e.g some point blank didn't accept merchants from the UK, some didn't accept USD pricing from UK based companies). Having this many problems finding a gateway I can't imagine how hard it is finding a reliable merchant account.

 

Just out of interest is there a reason why you don't incorporate your business? Based on your turnover I'm assuming you're paying high rate tax in the UK, your tax rate would be significantly less as a LTD company.