If the thought of being put on the Member Alert to Control High-Risk (MATCH) or Terminated Merchant (TMF) list doesn’t strike fear in you, then there’s a good chance that you don’t know what it is.
The MATCH/TMF exists to store information on terminated accounts. This means that every time a business account is dropped by a provider, the reason for this is denoted into a list maintained by MasterCard.
Getting put on MATCH means that you’ll have difficulty opening up another merchant account. These are necessary for you to accept and process credit card payments, which will severely limit your income potential.
While there are ways to get off MATCH, you’re better suited to avoid getting placed on it altogether. To do this, you should know what causes a business to get added to MATCH. We’ll go over the four main reasons for this below.
Numerous Chargebacks
The number one reason for being added to MATCH is having too many chargebacks.
Chargebacks happen when a customer reverses a transaction with their bank rather than requesting a refund or replacement. This hurts your business because you lose revenue from a sale and have already delivered a product or service.
There are several reasons as to why you might get a chargeback, but the reason is largely irrelevant for MATCH purposes. To get added to MATCH because of excessive chargebacks, you’ll need to have at least 1% of your transactions charged back within any month.
With this in mind, it’s fairly easy to reach a 1% chargeback rate. You only need to have one for every 100 transactions, which may be likely depending on your industry.
This is an extremely frustrating reason to get added to MATCH because sometimes chargebacks are out of your control. They might be done for an invalid or fraudulent purpose, but MATCH doesn’t know or care about that.
Because of this, many businesses are unfairly added to MATCH even though they might not be very risky. Chargebacks are a liability for a merchant and this means being added to MATCH.
Fraudulent Behavior
Another common reason involves fraudulent behavior. There are several different avenues where this might originate from.
If a business or owner is convicted of fraud, then they will surely get put on MATCH. Alternatively, being involved in laundering or collusion will also cause a business to land on MATCH.
There’s also the situation where a business doesn’t uphold the requirements of payment processing like exceeding maximum transaction amounts.
Any form of illegal activity or fraud will surely land a business on MATCH.
Financial Instability
If a business has any type of financial instability, then it can also wind up on MATCH.
This can happen if a business or its owner files for bankruptcy. Alternatively, being in a state of insolvency will also make a business eligible for MATCH.
The reasoning for this is simple. If a business shows that they’re incapable of paying their debts, it means that they are a major liability.
Furthermore, an insolvent business isn’t likely to pay processing fees and can accrue debt toward a processor. Should the business get terminated by their processor, they’ll inevitably qualify for MATCH.
Compromised Data
The final reason we’ll cover for being added to MATCH includes having compromised data.
All businesses are obligated to keep customer data secure from unauthorized access. Whether they have poor cybersecurity practices or none at all, any form of data compromise is a violation of their responsibilities as a merchant.
Closely related to this is failing to uphold payment card industry data security standards (PCI-DSS). This means that a business is in a vulnerable position that could quickly lead to data compromise.
One last aspect of this is being involved in identity theft. If an owner is a victim of identity theft or is believed to be using an inappropriate identity to open the account, then MATCH is a likely destination for them.
Failing to comply with data security is a less common, yet still relevant reason for ending up on MATCH.
Closing Thoughts
Member Alert to Control High-Risk (MATCH) is an important list used to keep tabs on risky merchants. Without it, businesses would be free to float between payment processors without consequences for their negligent or malicious actions as a merchant.
You can end up on MATCH for one of several reasons. It’s important to note that this will only happen if your merchant account is terminated, which means you might have a chance to right your situation before being added to MATCH.
Common reasons for being put on MATCH include too many chargebacks, fraudulent behavior, financial instability, and compromised data.
You should do your best to avoid any of these circumstances so that you aren’t added to MATCH! If you find yourself in violation, then act quickly to avoid being blacklisted!
