Selling ecommerce site with merchant account

[rpanella]

I have an magazine subscription site that I am considering selling but had a question as I have never sold a site before. How does the transfer of a merchant account work? Would the new owner need to get their own account or could the ownership of the one I currently have be transfered? I ask because in the magazine business there are a higher number of refunds than most industries and a new merchant account wouldnt have access to all the old transactions.
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[Chris]

I'm sure john will come and post something definitive, but I imagine the new owner would have to get his own.

[stymiee]

Unless the merchant account was established on the merits of the business (business credit, letter of credit, etc.) then the new owner will need a new merchant account as the original one will be based on the merits of the previous owner (personal credit, reserve, etc.).

As far as the refunds go, an agreement would need to be in place to allow the new owner to recoup losses for refunds on products sold before they bought the company (If you decided this was necessary that is). Or this would need to be factored into the selling price based on past history with refunds. You don't need to worry about accessing past sales as once a sale is processed you can't touch it anymore anyway. The refund is considered a new transaction and is no in way associated with the original sale (as far as the processor is concerned).

[rpanella]

Thanks, that is what I figured. And yes, the merchant account was established under my personal SSN as I simply created a DBA and not an actual entity for the business.
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