Merchant Accounts For Cannabis and Marijuana Support Businesses
An Overview
Cannabis Related Business Merchant Accounts
While the legality of cannabis / marijuana varies among federal, state and local authorities, there are now 33 states where medical cannabis (MMJ) is legal, with 11 states that have legalized cannabis for recreational use.
Unfortunately, due to the legal status of cannabis at the federal level, there are no US banks or legitimate credit card processors currently offering merchant accounts for marijuana dispensaries. Even businesses that support or are related to cannabis or marijuana, but do not directly sell, are considered high risk, and therefore find it difficult to obtain a merchant account.
Soar Payments as a high risk merchant account provider, by contrast, is proud to offer merchant services to businesses affiliated with or supporting legal cannabis. For example, these companies include those offering CRM software for cannabis businesses, MMJ medical and doctors offices who issue MMJ cards, businesses who take customers on dispensary tours, hydroponic equipment vendors, MMJ shop software companies, vendors of equipment used in marijuana cultivation, other cannabis SaaS vendors, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are common questions specific to cannabis support business merchant accounts:
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What types of cannabis support industry businesses do you accept?
Soar Payments accepts a broad range of businesses within the broader legal marijuana support industries. These include cannabis CRM software companies, cannabis cultivation equipment companies (grow lights, soil, water filtration systems, hydroponic systems, etc), various cannabis SaaS businesses, and beyond.
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Can my business be approved if we also sell cannabis or cannabis seeds?
If you are actively selling cannabis or cannabis seeds, even in a state where it is legal to do so, Soar Payments CANNOT provide you with a merchant account.
At this time we can only offer merchant services to companies that exclusively offer SUPPORT products and services for legal cannabis. If you’re unsure about your businesses status, please contact our friendly sales team!
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Is Soar Payments compatible with my CRM software suite, or eCommerce platform?
Soar Payments cannabis support business accounts, either directly or via a payment gateway, are compatible and can be integrated with most other software or CRM platforms.
This includes CRM and software platforms frequently used by businesses in such as Zoho CRM and Salesforce. This also includes eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and ClickFunnels
Soar Payment’s merchant accounts can be integrated with most other software, CRM, or eCommerce platforms which are compatible with the Authorize.net, NMI, or USAePay payment gateways. So if you don’t see yours here, you can check with us or your provider to confirm!
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Why is my cannabis support business considered “high risk” by banks and credit card processors?
Most credit card processors consider the cannabis support business industry as high risk because of two reasons:
- Cannabis is still a schedule 2 controlled substance at the federal level. With marijuana being illegal at the federal level, FDIC insured banks and credit card processors are caught in an uncertain regulatory situation. This makes the risk too great for some to work with the industry.
- The additional underwriting burden is too much for some processors and banks. Given the legal status of cannabis and the risk of businesses attempting to process marijuana sales with credit cards, the underwriting process is more involved. Many banks simply don’t want to take that on.
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Types Of Cannabis Support Industry Merchant Accounts
Soar Payments offer a full-array of merchant accounts to equipment sellers and cannabis SaaS companies. These include:
Retail Payments
A retail merchant account for cannabis support industries enables your business to accept face-to-face credit card payments via a traditional credit card machine or point of sale system.
These are suited for companies that accept payments primarily in-person in their storefront location. Due to the in-person nature of the transaction, retail credit card payments have lower rates of chargebacks and fraud, and therefore these merchant accounts receive the lowest pricing.
Mobile Payments
Mobile merchant accounts allow your company to accept in-person payments via a swiper that plugs into your employees’ mobile phone or iPad.
Legal cannabis support companies that accept credit card payments at the customer’s location are ideally suited for a mobile merchant account. Because payments are accepted in-person, the fraud and chargeback risk is lower and consequently these merchant accounts are priced similar to retail.
Virtual Terminal Payments
A virtual terminal or payment gateway merchant account, allows businesses to accept payments over the phone, via mail, or typed into a regular computer with no outside equipment.
This is ideal for cannabis support companies that prefer to accept credit card payments over the phone, or who use a robust CRM system, and prefer their payments to integrate automatically with that CRM system.
eCommerce Payments
Online merchant accounts for cannabis support companies allow your company to accept credit card payments via a website checkout page. Our eCommerce accounts pre-integrate with most major payment gateways and website shopping carts, making setup easy.
eCommerce sales are vulnerable to customer chargeback and fraud risk, and therefore Soar Payments offers integrated chargeback prevention technology.
Payments and Banking for the Cannabis Industry with Thomas Gavin of CannaTrac
There’s little doubt that the legal cannabis industry is here to stay, and will continue to grow as more states (and someday even the federal government) will push for legalization (both medicinal and recreational).
Yet the financial side, from banking to commerce, will continue to be a challenge for dispensaries and other legal cannabis businesses must navigate.
Fortunately there are great fintechs working to solve these issues and carve a path forward through technology and transparency. The guest on this podcast is Thomas Gavin IV, CEO of CannaTrac® Technology Inc., a company working to do just that.
Listen in as he breaks down the challenges - and solutions - when it comes to payments and banking for cannabis businesses.
Our podcast explores the fast-changing world of payments and fintech through interviews with thought leaders around the world. From credit card processing to bitcoin, and digital banks to finance software… we cover it all!