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Spotlight Innovators

They simply have to undergo a more intensive underwriting analysis. While this may sound straight forward, the extra
care is not something all processors, or the ISOs that sell for them, have the built-in capacity for. Consequently, some
companies attempt to adopt the higher-risk merchant brackets into their portfolio, only to realize they aren’t adequately
equipped to support them. This often results in legitimate merchants being cancelled without warning or fault, leaving
them to cycle through service providers in search of an affordable and reliable one.

This makes for a difficult sales environment, and despite the income potential of selling in the higher-risk marketplace, a
majority of payment sales representatives do not have an experienced and trustworthy merchant services option readily
available to offer these merchants. “Whenever hard-to-place accounts are encountered in the marketplace, chances are
a sales professional will spend a great deal of time hunting for a payment services provider that promises to keep the
account long term,” said Leonard Garcia, vice president of sales at Humboldt Merchant Services (HBMS). “Therefore, it
is uncommon for sales representatives to ever reach a point where they are experienced enough to feel confident about
placing these companies.”
Industry expertise is the key

Fortunately, there are a handful of service providers in the industry that are established and well positioned as a specialty
service provider for merchants that fall into hard-to-place industry brackets. However, outside of HBMS, none offer two
decades of reputable service to merchants in the higher-risk markets, or a well credentialed in-house underwriting team
that specializes in boarding them quickly and efficiently.

HBMS offers competitive, secure and reliable payment processing solutions to a myriad of merchant industries that are
legally operating businesses, but are still considered hard-to-place accounts due to additional underwriting requirements.
Examples of these industries include nutraceuticals, extended warranty, firearms and ammunition, electronic cigarettes,
bail bond issuers, direct marketing, and buying clubs, as well as card-not-present (CNP) merchants falling into the dating,
adult content, free trial and online tobacco categories.
Opportunity awaits you
While these types of accounts may seem obscure and unworthy of the time it perceivably takes on the sales front to
ensure all the underwriting requirements are fulfilled, they also make up a large segment of the merchant marketplace.
Additionally, they offer an unparalleled level of sales income opportunity, due to high and consistent sales volumes, as
well as competitive mark-up opportunities.

“Humboldt Merchant Services has proudly and consistently served the merchants that are commonly rejected by other
processors,” stated Adam McDonald, HBMS president. “We’ve spent two decades perfecting the review process and
underwriting techniques required to wholesale these accounts through to the processors that trust our in-house review
tactics and will board them without additional red tape.”

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