At first glance, having your company on the merchant bank MATCH File might not sound like such a bad idea. After all, maybe this means that you’ll be “matched” which a merchant bank that best serves your needs. However, finding out that another name for the MATCH File is the Terminated Merchant File” might have you changing your tune. In fact, at SolidTrustPay, we know that the Terminated Merchant File is the last place you want to be.

What is the Terminated Merchant File? It’s a list maintained by Visa and MasterCard processing banks to share information on which companies and business principals have had merchant bank accounts terminated in the past for just cause. Think of it as a master list of blacklisted companies that merchant banks use to protect each other from risky customers.

There are many reasons that a company might end up on the Terminated Merchant File List:

● Engaging in credit card fraud or fraudulent business practices (such as not delivering goods or misrepresenting items sold);
● Having an excessive amount of chargebacks (more than two percent for most retail businesses);
● Performing factoring, which is depositing transactions for sales that were generated by a different company
● Not paying a debt to a previous merchant bank.

Merchant banks take the Terminated Merchant File very seriously — if you are placed on the list, chances are that you’ve committed a serious offense. Because of this, businesses and people who are on the list will find it almost impossible to open a new merchant bank account. Even worse, it’s rare that a company or executive is removed from the Terminated Merchant File.

The good news is that getting on the Terminated Merchant File isn’t something that most businesses have to worry about. As long as you engage in honest business dealings, pay your bills on time and are fair when dealing with customer complaints, there’s no reason to expect that you’ll get on the “naughty” list. Using a reputable merchant bank such as Solid Trust Pay will also help you as well, since we’ll work with you to keep your account current and fix any problems you might have.