Offshore merchant accounts: card acquiring for companies outside the onshore system

Card schemes license acquirers by region. A UK acquirer serves UK merchants, an EEA acquirer serves EEA merchants under passporting rules, and acquirers in places such as Mauritius, Cyprus, Malta or the Caribbean may serve companies registered elsewhere. When the acquirer's licence region differs from the merchant's customer base, the account is usually described as offshore or cross-border.

The practical effect is on pricing and controls, not legality. Cross-border transactions can carry higher interchange and scheme fees, and the acquirer needs to be permitted by the schemes to board merchants from your company's country. An acquirer that is not permitted to do so cannot fix that with a higher fee.

The common profiles are international holding or trading companies in BVI, Seychelles or Cayman with no domestic acquirer; US LLCs owned by non-residents that Stripe has restricted; UAE free zone companies selling mainly to Europe or the US; and sectors that domestic acquirers decline on policy, such as forex, nutraceuticals, travel, dating, telehealth or digital subscriptions.

If your company and customers are both in one onshore market and your sector is accepted there, a domestic acquirer is usually cheaper and simpler. Offshore acquiring makes sense when there is a real cross-border reason.

Expect the same underwriting as any high risk account, with more emphasis on transparency. The file normally needs: certificate of incorporation and register of directors and shareholders; an ownership chart down to every beneficial owner; owner ID and proof of address; a live website with clear pricing, refund, delivery and contact pages; three to six months of prior processing statements if you have them; a description of how products are delivered; and a settlement bank account in the company's own name.

Nominee arrangements that hide the real owner, mismatched website and company names, or vague descriptions of what is sold are the main reasons offshore applications are declined. We work only with transparent ownership.

Offshore acquiring usually costs more than domestic processing. Blended rates for higher risk sectors commonly sit in the 3 to 6 percent range, with a rolling reserve of 5 to 10 percent held for 90 to 180 days, plus setup or monthly gateway fees depending on the provider. Settlement is often weekly at first and in USD or EUR rather than your customers' currency.

Terms improve with clean history. The figures above are typical ranges, not a quote; your actual terms depend on sector, volume, chargeback ratio and the acquirer's appetite.

Be cautious with any provider that promises guaranteed approval before seeing your file, asks for a large upfront application fee, offers "no KYC" processing, or suggests transaction laundering, meaning running your payments under another merchant's account. These arrangements are against card scheme rules and the funds can be frozen without notice.

A real acquirer will always ask for ownership documents and a review of the website.

We review your company, owners, website and processing history free, identify which acquirer licence regions can board your company, and prepare the underwriting file before it is submitted. We then introduce the case to a suitable acquirer. Approval and pricing remain the acquirer's decision; we do not offer guaranteed merchant approval, and any paid work is agreed separately after the free review.