Is it possible to acquire an internet merchant account and/or payment processor that can support most major credit cards and charge US issued credit cards without being in the US? I am living outside the US and Europe and my business is too big to work with 3rd party payment processors like 2CO and so. I was advised before to acquire an offshore merchant account in bahamas, cayman islands, etc.. but I am not comfortable with this solution. I was advised also to open a company in Delaware (offshorely) but I am not sure if that is legal or not. Also even if I did the latter, I dont have a SSN to apply with in a US merchant account provider. Any ideas are appreciated.
Check with ChronoPay, they accept all major credit cards, Debit cards, Atm cards, gift cards and checks with some of the lowest rates, you may check their site & faq pages for more detail; chronopay.com/en/faqs/faqs
ChronoPay works with EU countries only. I asked if I could incorporated my company in a EU country like the UK will they accept my application and they let me know that I personally have to live in the UK for that.
there is one thing you need to know first, Delaware LLCs are not offshore if dealing with US clients, Delaware corproations are not offshore in any case. and your question, having EU based company is enough to get merchant account in EU, of course you need to comply with other requirements also.
Take a look at worldpay.com for an international merchant account or webbusinesswizard.com for an all-in-one solution.
Do you need offshore because of the type of business you own, or just because of your location? If it's just location then a Delaware llc will solve that problem.
Only because of my location and no, incorporating in Delaware LLC is not enough to obtain a merchant account. You will be lucky of you could open a US business bank account for your incorporated company, but either ways a merchant account application requires a SSN if individual and SSN + EIN if a company. CSI/Linkpoint is the only merchant account provide that works internationally, but then again they have a monthly processing limit of $5,000. I was advised on another thread to research my options acquiring a merchant account from Panama, Belize, Nevis, etc..