Travel credit card processing and WordPress
Anyone who plans on opening an online travel service needs to know that getting credit card processing for their travel business is not always as simple as signing up with Paypal or Stripe. Unfortunately, for many, the travel industry falls under the “high-risk” category. The higher risk of chargebacks and the time between when a card is charged, and services are provided make it riskier and less attractive to many merchant account providers.
We can help
This does not mean it’s impossible to get affordable payment processing for your travel or tourism-based business. Tower Payments offers excellent solutions specifically for companies in high-risk categories, providing them with merchant accounts for their industry, and providing competitive payment processing options with one on one HUMAN support. This makes Tower Payments a perfect choice for new travel agencies or existing ones looking to expand their online operations or find better pricing than their current provider. Learn more about us here.
Travel and tourism on WordPress
WordPress is a versatile and robust platform, and also happens to be one of the most popular websites and e-commerce platforms in the world. Not only is it fashionable but it’s open source, making its potential for business nearly limitless. Additionally, WordPress is developing a new interface, called Gutenberg, and more features to improve the platform and its functionality. There are many useful third-party apps and plugins to not only help you run your travel service, tour company or agency but also to help your customers efficiently use your services easily. It also happens to be easy to integrate with our favorite payment gateways like Authorize.Net or NMI. 
Beware of standard payment gateways for Travel sites
We have seen it many times in many high-risk categories where a merchant will sign up with a standard type of gateways like Stripe or Paypal, and several months down the road will have their accounts frozen and become unable to make a profit while they have to deal with an underwriting issue. For many of these easy to sign-up for gateways, the underwriting isn’t taken care of until long after the business starts accepting credit cards. When they realize the company is selling certain “high-risk” products or services they merely shut them down, and tie up all that business owner’s cash. This is why it is so important to make sure you sign up with high-risk credit card processing designed specifically for your business. We provide processing that is intended for high-risk transactions. You will sleep soundly at night knowing you won’t wake up to a nightmare – one where you suddenly cannot take credit card payments anymore.
Travel and tourism industry
The global tourism industry brings in over 8 trillion dollars annually. Adjacent sectors such as accommodation, transportation, and live entertainment totaled over two trillion dollars. That’s an industry in which people can make a lot of money by making the right moves. However, even local tour companies and small travel agencies need to have an online presence or else they will be overlooked entirely. What was a common practice of visiting a travel agent had been replaced by a simple online search or a well-advertised site like Travelocity. This is not to say it’s too difficult to make money in this industry, but the roles have now reversed where agents are currently looking for clients, instead of the other way around. This is the nature of the e-commerce industry, an industry that we know very well. This industry covers many sectors, including timeshares, destination travel, tours and tour guides, transportation, ticket reservations and sales, cruise ships and train rides, and more, so don’t be afraid to ask us if your business could benefit from our high-risk credit card payment processing solutions.
Get started accepting credit cards on your WordPress travel site
As mentioned before, accepting credit cards on WordPress should not be complicated. To make things even easier, it helps to have some documents ready to speed things along. While we can’t guarantee approval of your application, we will do everything we can to help you get things straightened out and ready for business. Items that may be needed include valid identification and a tax id (SSN or EIN), three months of recent bank documents, and payment processing statements if you have any. It is also essential that your website(s) be secured with the latest SSL technology, clear contact information and a terms and conditions page. WordPress makes it simple to comply with processing requirements, and WordPress makes our job easier by offering many integration options. We try to help everyone we can get connected and running with the right high-risk credit card processing, so don’t let your industry or lack of experience stop you from contacting us.
Contact us to get started accepting credit cards
Don’t be turned away or shut down by choosing the wrong processor. We’d love to help.