TMF Merchant Account
Losing your merchant account is bad enough, but getting your business placed on the TMF / MATCH list is much worse. Your prospects for a new payment processing solution seem to shrink to the point of disappearance. But it doesn’t have to be that way and at UniBul we have built a working solution for businesses just like yours and it is one that just works! Once we receive the paperwork we need, our application process is quite straightforward.
We specialize in servicing high-risk businesses and understand the challenges you are facing. In order to overcome them and give you the TMF merchant account you need, we ask that you tell us exactly why you were placed on the MATCH and when. As long as we can rely on your full assistance, we will get the job done.
Credit Card and Settlement Options
Our goal is to enable you to accommodate the payment choice of every single one of your customers and to make that possible we support a wide range of payment options. You will be able to take all major credit cards, including:
You will also have the option of choosing your settlement currency. Our TMF merchant account solution supports a number of different currencies from around the world, so that you can sell your product in your customers’ own, local currency. Here are some of your choices:
Payout schedules are determined case-by-case, but you can expect to get funded on a weekly basis, with one week in arrears.
The TMF Application Process
Once we get going, your TMF merchant account application is processed quickly and then the set-up is as uncomplicated as we could make it — this is a TMF application we are talking about here, so it will still take some time, but typically we can wrap up the whole process within two weeks. In order to begin the process, we will need the following paperwork from you:
- Application form. You can download it here. Please fill it out thoroughly (it is only a couple of pages long, anyway), sign and initial it where indicated and email it back to us, along with the other documents listed below.
- Merchant statements. We will need your last six statements with your latest payment processor.
- Articles of Incorporation or an equivalent document.
- A copy of the business owner’s passport or other national ID card.
- A copy of your business license, where applicable.
- A voided check or bank letter.
- Your three latest business bank statements.
- A utility bill, no older than 30 days of the application date.
It is almost inevitable that, later on during the application process we will need some other documentation and we may ask you for an explanation of some issue or other. After all, the fact is that getting approved for a TMF merchant account is not exactly the simplest thing to do. There is extra scrutiny that is placed on businesses which have been unfortunate enough to be placed on the MATCH, with all the inconveniences such a designation entails. So be ready for such a request and follow up promptly to help us wrap up your application as quickly as possible.
Again, this is what exactly what we specialize in — UniBul is a TMF merchant account processor — and we’ll do the necessary to get you up and running in as short a period as possible. Now contact us and let’s get to work!
How Does TMF / MATCH Work?
Now let’s dig a bit deeper into what these labels mean. So MATCH stands for Member Alert to Control High Risk Merchants and TMF — for Terminated Merchant File. These two are one and the same thing, which is a national database of merchants and their principal owners (that is important!), which have been terminated for cause. This tells you that the fact that your merchant account is shut off by itself doesn’t mean that you get placed on the MATCH. A MATCH placement occurs only in limited circumstances, so make sure you ask the processor who terminated your account whether or not they placed you on the MATCH.
The MATCH / TMF file is maintained by Visa and MasterCard and is based on information reported by their acquiring banks. MATCH was developed to help the acquirers identify a potentially high-risk merchant prior to entering into a merchant agreement and, should they decide to acquire that merchant’s transactions, whether they need to impose specific conditions with respect to acquiring.
When an acquirer initiates a search into the MATCH database, the system looks for possible matches between the information provided in the bank’s inquiry and the following:
- Information reported and stored during the past five years.
- Other inquiries during the past 120 days.
The acquirer who does the search can also contact the one who made the listing directly to help them determine whether the merchant which is under review is the same one that was previously reported to MATCH, terminated, or inquired about within the past 120 days.
Surviving MATCH / TMF
So if, having inquired with your processor, you learn that your merchant account has been placed on the MATCH list, the first thing you should do is to ask for the specific reason. Then, once you’ve contacted UniBul, tell us that you were placed on MATCH and provide the documentation we will ask for — keeping silent about the TMF thing will do you no good at all and could actually be harmful, as we will inevitably find out at some later point and will have lost valuable time working on the wrong solution.
The underwriting process may take a bit longer to run its course than the one you went through when you applied for your previous merchant account and that is for a reason: Visa and MasterCard will penalize processors who don’t follow the special rules which apply to TMF merchant accounts. We may ask you to supply an additional piece of paperwork or answer a question or two, so do it promptly and let us continue our work.
Once your TMF merchant account is approved and set up, you can start taking credit cards once again. At this point, while it’s perfectly fine to feel relieved, it is no time to relax. Your account will be monitored much more closely than before and so you will have to make sure that you are constantly in full compliance with the terms of your processing agreement. During the first few months we will be looking into your transactions, making sure everything is as it should be, until we feel confident that you are managing your account properly. So make sure you keep it all well organized.
Get Started
A MATCH / TMF placement is a very big thing — a truth not nearly as universally acknowledged as it should be. Most merchants who find themselves on the list are very slow to grasp the full gravity of the issue and are therefore ill prepared to deal with it. Many believe that the worst thing that could happen would be that they’d be forced to accept a rate hike, possibly a steep one, but manageable, and that otherwise business would continue as usual. Well, it doesn’t quite work like that and in reality the vast majority of payment processors are unable to process your payments. However, that’s why we built our solution and, if you follow our suggestions, you will get your TMF merchant account and be back in business.
What Our Customers Are Saying
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UniBul enables American and international businesses to accept payments for the things they sell on their websites.
