Vantage High Risk & Acceptable Use Policy
ONLY USE YOUR APPROVED VANTAGE MERCHANT ACCOUNT FOR THE SALES OF GOODS OR SERVICES AS YOU DISCLOSED ON YOUR MERCHANT APPLICATION AND AGREEMENT.
Vantage does not allow merchants to use its merchant processing service for high risk sales transactions. Such activities are prohibited by Vantage and in are in violation of the Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy. Vantage reserves the right, from time to time, to revise this High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy. Your submission to Vantage of any sales transaction that violates this High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy may result in Vantage doing any or all of the following: (a) refusal of an authorization or the refusal to process your sales transmittal; (b) suspension of your Vantage Account processing privileges; (c) immediate closing of your Vantage Account in accordance with your Payment Services Agreement; (d) the creation of a reserve account, if a reserve account is included in your Payment Services Agreement, according to the terms thereof; and, (e) Vantage exercising its security interest and or set off rights as defined in your Payment Services Agreement;.
Prohibited Activities of the Vantage High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy include, but are not limited to, the following sales transactions:
Prohibited Activities
• Aggregators (Sales made by a different business entity)
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Artifacts, Graver-Related and Native American Crafts
• Audio/video text services (adult oriented)
• Authenticity Disclaimers
• Bail bonds
• Bankruptcy lawyers
• Bath Salts (containing mephedrone, methylone or MDPV)
• Bidding fee auctions (a.k.a. penny auctions)
• Business physically located outside the U.S.A. (offshore acquiring)
• Business and Investment Opportunities
• Business/Investment opportunities operating as "get rich quick schemes" (e.g. real estate purchase with No Money Down, government grants)
• Businesses selling age or legally restricted products or services
• Cell phones/pagers (billing for services only)
• Centralized reservation services
• Chain letters
• Charities without 501(c)(3) or equivalent status
• Check Cashing
• Child Support/Alimony
• Contracts
• Credit card and identity theft protection
• Credit cards
• Credit repair or protection services
• Currency (In and out of circulation)
• Debt Collection
o Collection agency services recovering/collecting past due receivable
o Debt consolidation and mortgage reduction/consulting services
o Past Due Accounts Receivable
o Payment of last resort where prior method of payment has been difficult to collect or has been uncollectible
• Door-to-Door Sales
• Decryption and descrambler products including mod chips
• Essay mills/paper mills (i.e., ghostwriting services that sell essays, term papers, etc. with intent that purchaser will submit documents as their own)
• Embassy, Foreign Consulate, or Other Foreign Government
• Event Tickets
• Extended warranties
• Factoring (defined as charging your own personal credit or debit card)
• Fake IDs, Government Identification, Uniforms, and Police-Related Items
• Fake references and other services/products that foster deception
• Financial transactions, including but not limited to: quasi cash, stored value foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers, securities and check cashing.
• File sharing services
• Fireworks and fire crackers
• Fortune telling, Spells, Sorcery
• Gambling and gambling services, including but not limited to the following:
o Legal gambling where the Cardholder is not present when the bet is made as well as for direct purchase of wagers/chips via payment card
o Lotteries
o Illegal gambling including internet gambling
o Sports forecasting or odds making
o Betting
o Casino gaming
o Off track betting
o Gambling chips or gambling credits
• HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Decryption Devices
• Human body parts and remains
• Illegal products/services
o Amyl Nitrite Inhalants
o Any service providing peripheral support of illegal activities (i.e. drugs)
o Bootleg Recordings
o Counterfeit, Imitation or Knock-off Items
o Drugs and Paraphernalia
o Embargoed Goods, Prohibited Countries
o Good or services in violation of intellectual property rights
o Psilocybin Mushrooms and Spices
o Psychoactive Herbal Products
o Stolen property
o Unauthorized Copies
• Jammers or devices that are designed to block, jam or interfere with cellular and personal communication devices/signals (e.g., GPS)
• K2 (also known as Spice or Kronic)
• Loan payment and loan underwriting
• Marijuana, marijuana dispensaries, marijuana products, marijuana services and marijuana related businesses ((including hemp, CBD oil, seeds, etc.)
• Medical Devices
• Merchants engaged in deceptive marketing practices (e.g., hidden disclosures, bogus claims and endorsements, refund/cancellation avoidance, poorly disclosed negative option, pre-checked opt-in boxes for payment without cardholder's active consent)
• Merchants engaged in Data Pass (i.e., merchants up-selling or cross-selling products or other merchants and then sharing the cardholder data with the third party or receiving cardholder data from third parties)
• Merchants engaged in unlicensed aggregation and factoring
• Merchants offering substantial rebates or special incentives (e.g., free gift, prize, sweepstakes, or contest) as an inducement to purchase products/services
• Merchants that have ransom-like or extortion-like basis for their business model (e.g., mugshot removal)
• Merchants utilizing tactics to evade Payment Network chargeback monitoring programs
• Money Laundering or the Financing of Terrorist Activities
• Money Service Businesses
o Cash advances (by non-financial institutions)
o Check cashers
o Currency exchange or dealer
o Issuer/seller/redeemer of money orders or traveler's checks
o Money Transmitter
o Provider or seller of prepaid access/stored value, including both open-loop and closed-loop* exceeding $2,000
o Quasi-cash or stored value
o Wire transfer/money order
*Closed-loop prepaid access includes gift cards, phone cards, subway cards, college campus cards, game cards and other limited-use prepaid access devices when the value can exceed $2,000
• Negative response marketing techniques by any type of merchant (i.e. customer is automatically charged if merchandise is not returned at the end of a free trial period)
• Nutraceuticals (i.e., food products or other degestables marketed via-unsubstantiated and/or unlawful health or medical claims, fequently associated with weight loss claims, anti-aging, sexual stimulants, increased energy, etc.)
• Offensive, Racially or Culturally Insensitive Material
• PayDay Lenders, payday loans and unsecure loan/lines originating from non-FDIC insured banks
• Pharmacies
• Prescription Drugs and Devices
• Products/services that promote hate, violence, harassment or abuse
• Pyramid schemes
• Quasi cash or stored value
• Real Estate Agents and Brokers
• Real estate purchase with no money down
• Recalled items
• Rent Payments
• Salvia Divinorum
• Sales leads / Lead generation
• Security brokers
• Sexually oriented or pornographic merchants, including but not limited to the following:
o Adult book stores or video stores
o Adult telephone conversations
o Adult oriented audio/video text services
o Adult websites and content
o Any products on the internet containing graphic or nude content
o Companion/escort services
o Fetish products
o Gentleman's clubs, topless bars, and strip clubs
o Illegal activity (e.g., child pornography, bestiality)
o Sexually oriented dating services
o Mail order spouse and international match-making services
o Massage parlors
o Prostitution
o Video (web-based sexually oriented video)
o Miscellaneous adult entertainment
• Shipping/Forwarding Brokers
• Software
• Splitting transactions to circumvent account limitations
• Structuring (defined as processing the same credit or debit card multiple times within a 24 hour period)
• Substances designed to mimic illegal drugs (e.g., herbal synthetic cannabis, herbal smoking blends, herbal incense, and HCG/HGH-like substances)
• Substances made to closely resemble or look like illegal substances
• Substances marketed as producing effects similar to effects of illegal substances
• Telemarketing companies involved with the following methods of operations:
o Offering a free gift, prize or sweepstakes, contest entry as an inducement to purchase their product or service
o Inbound telemarketing companies that receive calls as the result of post cards or similar mailings (as opposed to catalog or media advertising)
o Selling products/services as an agent for a third party
• Tobacco, tobacco-less cigarette or e-cigarette
• Travel related merchant to include:
o Airlines (including airlines "nested" under another entity)
o Cruise lines (including airlines "nested" under another entity)
o Timeshare Sales
o Unqualified Vacation rentals/Lodging
• Unlocked cellphones
• Unqualified Multi Level Marketing Companies
• Unqualified Pseudo Pharmaceuticals/Neutraceuticals (e.g., anti-aging pills, colon cleansers, detox products, muscle-building, sexual stimulants, weight loss, diet, etc.)
• Used vehicles
• Virtual currency that can be monetized, re-sold, or converted to physical/digital goods/services or otherwise exit the virtual world
• Weapons and ammunitions, and firearm parts, Internet/MOTO
• Wire transfer/money order
• Any other activity deemed by Vantage to be similar to those activities listed above
If you use your Vantage Account to process a sales transaction(s) in violation of this High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy set forth above, Vantage may incur substantial liability and/or suffer significant damages, including, without limitation, assessments, fines and other related expenses from Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover, and/or its sponsor bank. By selling goods or services, including access to content, in violation of Vantage’s High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy you are liable to Vantage for any and all damages assessed upon Vantage as a result of your activity, despite any language in your Payment Services Agreement to the contrary. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree to reimburse Vantage for any and all assessments, fines and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by Vantage and/or levied on Vantage by Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover, and/or its sponsor bank, as a result of your activities in violation of this High Risk Transactions/Acceptable Use Policy.