Accepting credit cards as a business owner is an excellent way to boost your current sales, legitimize your business, improve cash flow, and broaden your reach. However, depending on credit-card processing to serve your customers can soon become a nightmare if you end up on the much-dreaded MATCH or TMF list.
The MATCH (Member Alert to Control High-Risk) or TMF (Terminated Merchant File) list is a Mastercard blacklist of all merchants whose accounts have been shut down for specific reasons in the last five years. You can end up on this list for a variety of reasons, including money laundering, account data compromise, excessive chargebacks, identity fraud, and illegal transactions. Below are some tips you should know to get off the MATCH list when the need arises.
Hire a lawyer for arbitration.
Getting put on the MATCH list makes you a high-risk merchant, which is bad for business because you may have to pay more for processing services from risk-tolerant acquirers and experience delays in accessing funds. Therefore, getting off the MATCH list as soon as possible is essential, and generally, you should approach the issue based on what got you there in the first place. As such, hiring a lawyer is worth considering to get off the MATCH file since they can negotiate with your previous processor for your removal. However, finding expert attorneys to handle this procedure is crucial to your chances of success. Trusted law firms such as Global Legal Law Firm can help with this need.
Global Legal Law Firm is located in San Diego, and they specialize in litigation within the electronic payments field both locally and nationwide. Their experienced lawyers represent processors, ISO’s, agents, credit card brands, as well as and other entities within the electronic payment industry. Also, their team of experts is highly skilled in MATCH list cases. They can help your business get off MATCH list as soon as possible, whether you have been put on this list for fraudulent activity, excessive chargebacks, or any other reason.
Also, Global Legal has an impressive MATCH list removal success rate, helping many businesses get back to normal as soon as possible. Moreover, Christopher R. Dryden, and James C. Huber, Global’s founding partners, are widely recognized as expert attorneys in the electronic payments industry.
Let your new acquirer contact MasterCard on your behalf.
Your merchant account will likely be restored if your acquirer reports to Mastercard that you were added erroneously. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to ask your acquirer to contact Mastercard and have your account taken off the MATCH list. However, many acquirers are reluctant to do this because they’re liable to any subsequent acquirers for any merchants that should have remained on the list or were improperly removed from it. Although it’s no easy task to get off the MATCH list this way, it’s undoubtedly worth trying.
Contact the bank.
Your best bet to get off the MATCH list is undoubtedly contacting the bank that put you there, so contacting your previous provider is the all-important first step to get off this list. Generally, you’ll likely have to deal with numerous phone calls before being put through to the right person. In some cases, you may even get forwarded to the processing bank.
However, if you’re lucky enough to get connected to the right person, find out why you’re on your file, ask for advice regarding how to get off. Getting reinstated can be impossible or straightforward, depending on your reason for being terminated. For instance, if your account is terminated due to high chargebacks, the banks will wait until your chargebacks have been corrected before reinstating you. However, getting reinstated after fraudulent and illegal activities is impossible in most cases.
To summarize, getting blacklisted on the MATCH list is the worst thing that can happen to a business that relies on credit card processing. The points above are some valuable tips worth knowing to get off this list and flourish financially.
