What is a Merchant account?

FMPay Merchant account will allow you to process electronic payment cards transactions. Your clients can pay by their Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay debit and credit cards on your website and the funds will then be settled by FMPay to your business account every 3 working days or earlier. Merchant account fees are comprised of three components: a fee for each authorization attempt, a percentage of each successful transaction, and a monthly account maintenance fee.

What currencies will I be able to accept on my website?

FMPay offers acquiring in 63 currencies allowing you to charge your clients in their national currencies. Giving your clients more freedom to pay will provide you an access to the global market and help to increase sales.

Are there any geographical restrictions applied to my clients?

Anti-money laundering and international sanction regulations put certain restrictions on the geographical locations of the clients of our merchants. All transactions from cards issued by banks on the sanctioned countries list will be declined on the websites of our merchants. Additionally, IP address restrictions apply in this case, meaning that payments from cards issued by banks outside of these countries, but initiated by clients currently located there will also be declined. Please check the current list of sanctioned countries here.

What does a settlement mean?

A settlement is the process through which a merchant receives the money paid by their customers/consumers for a particular product or service, in their business bank account.

How long does it take to get a settlement?

Generally, payments are transferred to your bank account in the cycle of 3 working days from the successful transaction date (excluding bank holidays). You may choose to be paid less often.

What currencies are supported for settlements? Can I choose my preferred currency?

Not at the moment, we're only able to provide settlements to our merchants in EUR.

What kind of account do I need to open in order to receive settlements from FMPay?

You will need to have a EUR account in the EU, EEA countries or the UK.

How do I change my bank account for settlements?

Please get in touch with us at [email protected] and we will prepare an Amendment to our Service Agreement reflecting your new bank account details.

Are my funds safe with FMPay?

Yes, the funds collected from your clients as a payment for your products and services are absolutely safe with us. All merchants' funds settled by FMPay are separated from FMPay's own finances and kept at the segregated account with a reputable bank. Learn how our clients funds are safeguarded here.

Are there foreign exchange fees if my acquiring and settlement currencies are different?

No, we do not charge you any exchange fees. All your transactions will be converted to your settlement currency at the time of the payment using exchange rates from an independent third-party provider. You may find these rates in your back office or access them through API by sending a GET /exchange_rates/ request.

How do I know if I’ve been paid by my clients?

Our online dashboard gives you real-time info on all your payments and customers, allowing you to check the status of a payment at any time. Furthermore, you may use a GET /orders/ or GET /orders/:id request to retrieve this information through API.

I see that my client paid for the same order twice, how can I issue a refund?

You can refund non-disputed payments to your customers using the FMPay API or from the back office. Use PUT /orders/:id/reverse request to refund the second payment if the transactions hasn't been charged and processed or PUT /orders/:id/refund otherwise. Please be aware that a refund process will cost you more than a reverse.

Why is my customer’s card being declined on my web-site?

Cards are declined for various reasons. These include incomplete or incorrect information entered by the cardholder, card has expired, geographical restriction, insufficient funds are available on the card to cover the transaction, daily or monthly spending limits on the card, fraud detection facilities in place by the card issuer or the card has been reported as stolen. If none of these are the reason you should advise your customer to contact their issuing bank.

What is a fraudulent transaction?

Fraudulent transactions are generally described as any transaction that is not authorised by the cardholder. This can happen when the card is stolen or the card details have been compromised, or it can happen when the card holder is tricked into providing the card details to a criminal. FMPay will set basic fraud rules for your account on our payment platform, but you may add extra rules you seem to be necessary. Check our advises on how to protect your business from e-commerce fraud here.

How does FMPay handles chargebacks?

We notify our merchants about chargebacks via email as soon as we received them from the card schemes. With the Notification of Chargeback(s) you will receive the disputed transaction details and the reason code provided by the cardholder’s bank explaining why it has occurred. On the system, the disputed transaction amount will be deducted from your account balance, along with the chargeback fee which is stated in your Parameter Schedule.

You will have 7 calendar days to investigate the case and provide your decision: (i) to accept or (ii) to contest the chargeback. 

If we do not hear from you strictly within 7 calendar days, we will conclude that the chargeback has been accepted by you and the case will be closed by the cardholder’s bank. Please note that due to card scheme rules, we will be unable to defend any responses received after the specified time frame.

If you wish to contest a chargeback, you will need to prepare a Rebuttal letter and provide Compelling Evidence that the charge was legitimate and the customer's claims are false. A chargeback Rebuttal Letter is a formal outline of the case that includes a summary of your evidence to prove the transaction is valid. The letter needs to be short, concise and written in a professional manner with no judgement given.

All documents related to the chargeback case should be formatted into a single pdf containing a maximum of 19 pages. Once you have submitted the pdf file to [email protected], we will forward it to the cardholder’s bank, which will then review the case and make a decision. If the decision is in your favour, the disputed funds will be returned to you. If it is in favour of a cardholder, things will stay as they are.

Please read more about how important is your chargeback ratio and the ways to minimize it here.

Mastercard chargeback reason codes are explained here.

What is a 3D Secure?

3D Secure™ (or 3DS) is a secure online payment service available for cards issued by Visa and MasterCard, designed to limit the risk of online fraud and identity theft. The authentication procedure is simple and involves the following steps:

- First the clients will enter their debit or credit card information on your web-site and then a 3D Secure™ window will open. 

- In that window the clients’ bank will ask them to verify their identity by entering an authentication code. In most cases it will be a single-use security code sent by SMS to their mobile phones.

- Once the clients entered the correct security code, the transaction will get approved.

Please note that is case of 3 failed authentication attempts the transaction will be cancelled and the clients’ card might get blocked by their bank.

Can I turn off a 3D Secure on my web-site?

We understand that some of your customers might find this extra step of authentication time consuming and inconvenient, however it adds an extra level of protection to online shopping. Talk to us if you think that your website may benefit from a disabled 3D Secure. For transactions in the EEA and the UK, the regulation for electronic payment services requires implementation of the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). 3D Secure is the protocol for regulation compliance, therefore it will not be possible to disable this feature for transactions in these regions.

Does 3D Secure prevent chargebacks?

Having a 3D Secure in place will likely minimize criminal activity on your web-site. You can avoid the liability for chargebacks in case of fraud, where a chargeback claim comes from a lost or stolen card. Although it will not prevent other types of chargebacks, it will reduce the number of disputed transactions and improve your chargeback ratio. Moreover, a 3D Secure for your transactions comes absolutely free.

Will you ever place limits on my account?

Yes, we do place limits on Merchant and OCT accounts and they depend on the conditions of our Service Agreement.

Also there might be certain situations where it will be necessary to apply further restrictions on your account:

- if we believe that there may be a breach in the security of your account details;

- if we suspect the unauthorized or fraudulent use of your account;

- if we are required to do so by law.

We will notify you about the issue as soon as possible and help you to resolve the situation quickly.

Can I export my transactions from the Merchants portal?

Yes, you can export your data as .csv file.

Is it possible to login to my Merchant portal from different devices at the same time? 

Yes, your account administrator can set up and manage the access to your Merchant portal for different members of your sales team.