Optimize cost
When there is no domestic home for the account, offshore is a tool — not a last resort.
Offshore acquiring, multi-currency acceptance and settlement, and cross-border card handling. Different cost profile, different settlement timing, and we will tell you the honest trade-offs before you decide.
- Offshore acquiring for categories US banks will not write
- Multi-currency pricing and local card acceptance
- Cross-border and dynamic currency handling
- Domestic-first — offshore only when it genuinely fits
What you get
International & offshore, set up properly.
Six things that actually matter, and what each one does for your business.
Offshore acquiring
Banking relationships outside the US that write categories domestic sponsors decline. A legitimate route for merchants who have exhausted the domestic option, not a way around underwriting.
Multi-currency acceptance
Let a shopper pay in their own currency and settle to you in yours, or hold balances in multiple currencies. Conversion happens once, at a disclosed rate, instead of twice invisibly.
Local acquiring for better approvals
A card issued in Europe approves at a higher rate through a European acquirer than through a US one. If a meaningful share of your volume is foreign, local acquiring lifts authorization rates.
Alternative payment methods
Outside the US, cards are often not the default. Bank transfer and wallet methods matter for conversion in specific markets, and the gateway should support the ones your buyers use.
Cross-border fee transparency
Cross-border and currency-conversion assessments are separate line items and they add up. We show them explicitly rather than folding them into a blended rate.
Settlement structure
Offshore settlement typically runs on a longer cycle with a reserve. You should know the exact hold period and percentage before signing, not after the first month.
Try domestic first. Every time.
A US-domiciled merchant account is cheaper, funds faster, and is simpler to reconcile. It should be the default and we will exhaust it before recommending anything else.
Offshore earns its place in two situations: your category has no domestic sponsor willing to write it, or a real share of your revenue comes from customers outside the US whose cards approve better through a local acquirer. Outside those two cases it is usually the wrong answer.
The honest trade-offs
- Higher effective rates than a comparable domestic account
- Longer settlement cycles and usually a rolling reserve
- More documentation up front, including corporate structure and ownership detail
- Currency conversion on the way in and sometimes on the way out
- Foreign-transaction descriptors on customer statements, which can lift disputes if you do not label them clearly
Doing it properly
Offshore does not mean unregulated. The banks worth working with run full underwriting, expect real compliance, and will close an account that misrepresented itself. Anyone offering an offshore account with no questions asked is selling you a problem with a delay on it.
We also structure it as a complement rather than a replacement where possible: domestic account for domestic volume, offshore for the categories or regions that need it, with routing rules deciding which transaction goes where.
Accounts placed through our processor and banking network
Free statement analysis
Let's get international & offshore right on your account.
Send one recent statement and we will show you what changes, in writing, with the arithmetic on the page. No contract and no obligation either way.
Terrab Solutions is a registered agent/ISO partner. Rates and approval subject to underwriting. Estimates are not a binding quote.
Straight answers
International & offshore questions
Yes, when it is set up properly with accurate disclosure of your business, ownership and products. It is a normal banking arrangement, not a workaround. What is not legal is misrepresenting what you sell in order to get boarded anywhere, domestic or offshore.
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