When you apply for merchant accounts to accept credit card payments for your event, the account provider will ask to see your website and/or the registration form before they issue your accounts. They will be looking for proper security (all security should be taken care of by the registration system provider) and some key pieces of information to make sure that what you are selling (in this case, you are selling registrations to your event) fits within their policies, and that you have some basic information in place to help avoid potential disputes.
Since most people apply for their merchant accounts while building their registration form, be sure to get the following details in place right away to avoid delays with your application.
- A refund and cancellation policy – This can be as simple as “No refunds” but see these suggestions for a more friendly refund policy. There is a place for this in the footer of your ePly form.
- The currency you are charging in – This can be stated anywhere on your registration form. You can add a note in the payment area or state it where you show the price for the registration options.
- The name, phone number and email address of a contact person – This is just good business practice and the best place for this is in the footer area of your form.
- A clear description of what you are selling – For events, this will usually be clear once you put in the time date and location of the event in the header for your form. If you will have one or more fields with different registration options, try to get a few of these in place right away even if the wording and prices you put aren’t final, you can add more options and update the details anytime.
- Some merchant account providers may ask for other details such as where your business is located, and address, etc. We recommend putting these details in the footer of your form so that the text on the main part of the form is kept to a minimum.
If you have a website for your event or conference some of this information may already be stated there, so be sure to provide this URL and the URL for the registration form in your application.
