When looking to engage credit card payment processing services, it may come as an shock when the processor labels you a high-risk merchant. A high-risk merchant account is usually labelled so because the industry exhibits certain characteristics that make it risky to the processor and hence they have to assign the business this category to minimize their own risk. They will take in account the number of years you have been in operation, history of chargebacks, type of business and company financials among others. They will also take into account your personal credit history. The factor that most determines if you are high-risk is the type of business you operate. This will also affect the kind of rates you pay for every credit card transaction you process.