Operating a successful pawn shop involves juggling many moving parts and interacting with a diverse customer base. One of the most important things you can do to ensure that everything runs smoothly is to partner with a reputable high-risk merchant provider. Doing so will help you to build a strong and secure payments foundation that will go a long way toward earning your clients’ trust, bolstering your credibility, and fostering an environment of data security. As you do your research to find the best company, keep the following qualities in mind.

1. Reasonable costs.

Because of the nature of the pawn industry, the increased likelihood of fraud and chargebacks and the extra regulations under which you must operate, you will automatically be categorized as a high-risk business. Consequently, some payment processors will not want to work with you. The good news is that there are many who will. You just need to understand what partnering with them will mean.

You can expect the application process to take longer, and it might require additional documentation and scrutiny. Additionally, the lender will most likely require that you pay higher fees for transactions, early cancellations, chargebacks, and more. However, these costs should not be excessive and should be in line with those of other reputable competing companies.

2. Experience in the pawn industry.

When you collaborate with a lender that can demonstrate that it has successfully partnered with other pawn shops, you can relax. This industry knowledge means that you will have a much easier time taking payments from all sources, including during the times when you accept checks and prepaid cards. Today’s clients expect flexibility and choices when it comes to how they pay, and a high-risk merchant provider with industry connections can furnish it.

3. Accessible, high-quality customer service.

It is your payment processor who provides you with everything you need to facilitate customer purchases. Should you encounter any difficulties with your equipment or software, you need to be able to get in touch with them right away so that they can begin to troubleshoot and resolve the issue as quickly as possible. After all, downtime is money lost. A very protracted outage might lead customers to take their business elsewhere and do lasting damage to your brand.

For these reasons, you need a high-risk merchant provider that offers reliable, multi-channel customer service. At the very least, you should be able to connect with a knowledgeable human being during regular business hours. In addition, the company should offer additional avenues for assistance such as live chat, email support, an online knowledge base, and user forums. Before you sign any agreements with a provider, it’s always wise to give their help desk line a call to test the responsiveness of their representatives.

Pawn shops continue to provide essential services to their customers and frequently serve as valuable institutions in many communities. When you take the time to find a high-quality merchant account provider, you can offer your customers a consistent, secure, and solid payments environment that they can trust.