Management Services Billing Systems, dba MSBill.com, puts the World into World Wide Web, with an offshore program available to adult Web masters that combats chargebacks.
"MSBill (www.msbill.com) is an online turnkey credit card processing company," says MSBill Principal Kayla Nguyen. "MSBill is a gateway. In addition to being a hosting company, MSBill does special programming and real time transaction processing, also third parties - we're a credit card reseller for merchants," Nguyen states.
"The customer doesn't need to have his or her own merchant account," adds Linda Bryant, MSBill's Marketing Representative. "They can come to us, and integrate with MSBill systems. We'll allow them to process credit cards online, without a direct merchant account," adds Bryant.
"It's my sole opinion that Visa and MasterCard have decided that one of the industries they wish to reduce online transactions with is adult," Bryant says. "Thus, the almost insane requirements they're putting upon Webmasters, and the penalties for keeping under a certain level. On their own merchant account, MSBill has kept itself below 1.5% chargebacks with stateside processing for a long length of time. Which has shown the capabilities of MSBill's fraud screening. The merchants out there are caught between a rock and a hard place, in both learning and continuing the business of trying to keep chargebacks under the very extreme restrictions that Visa is implementing. If they continue the way they have been, Webmasters are going to find fewer and fewer options stateside for processing. And that's where both third-party processors such as MSBill, who are extremely capable in keeping chargebacks down, plus the turnkey part, are very significant," the credit card processor's Marketing Representative insists.
The chargeback conundrum has contributed to MSBill's decision to explore opportunities overseas. The firm has branched out to Europe, doing business in Holland, Russia, Germany, and elsewhere on the Continent. "MSBill traveled to Germany a couple of times - our other programmer/marketer, Wolfgang, went to adult trade conventions in Berlin and Munich - in order to check out the industry there," Nguyen says.
Besides tapping into Euro-traffic, operating in Europe has other advantages. "There's going to be a large push to offshore, which is already happening," Bryant declares. "MSBill offers offshore merchant accounts for Webmasters to set-up their own merchant account. One of the jurisdictions we're placing offshore merchant accounts through has a 5 percent chargeback limit. Which, for lots of merchants, gives them that breathing room which allows them to stay alive for longer than three to six months - many U.S. accounts seem to have short-term lives. Many start-up merchants are having an incredibly difficult time finding stateside transaction processing. MSBill is a great stepping stone, which allows them to get up and running. As they grow, most offshore accounts really require some kind of volume for expenses, but once you get the account you can grow. Because they have mostly unlimited transaction volume lines, so someone can process from $20,000 to $2 million a month, which gives them lots of flexibility, especially with the 5 percent chargeback limit. Third-party billers, domestic and/or offshore processing, is absolutely the wave of the future," Bryant maintains.
"Europe is going to be really, really big within the next couple of years on the processing," Nguyen believes. "Lots of Europeans are really leery about using Visa and MasterCard. Instead, they get billed with Web dollars, through their phone bills. This is for customers with dial-up modems; it's like a 900 number here. There's no chargeback with Web dollars. MSBill just started using it towards the end of 2000. Or, Europeans prefer online purchases through their Eurodebit cards, which deduct from clients' bank checking accounts. We're also doing Eurodebit checks through an online debiting checking account we're implementing for Europeans. It's an ACH, clearing house system, like online checks purchased here," explains Nguyen.
According to Bryant, "Europeans are far less likely than Americans to have credit cards. As high as 80 percent of Europeans use debit cards, as opposed to credit cards," she asserts.
MSBill doesn't only cater to a clientele on the other side of the Atlantic. "We have a niche market - lots of animation," Nguyen tells AVN Online. "Many of our customers are Asian, and we specialize in the animated Asian adult cartoon content. Clients include www.aniamerica.com and www.amazonhentai.com. Although we specialize in animation, we have plenty of adult content, such as videostreaming chat, including many clients based in Las Vegas. We also have numerous U.S. corporate customers, such as online universities, which use our videostreaming to teach online; Rent On Web for searching online for housing; Rolling Stocks, which does stock exchange online," Nguyen says.
MSBill has been in business almost four years, and are based in downtown Los Angeles, with a new office in Munich, Germany. Nguyen was born in Asia, grew up in California, and attended UCLA. Bryant is a former math teacher from Berkeley, California. As of late 2000, MSBill had 8 in-house staffers, although according to Nguyen, the firm is expanding to include a 24/7 customer service department.
"We have been growing in a very stable environment," she declares. "We are not as big as other credit card processors out there, but people who stay with MSBill have been with us from the beginning. We're known for personal customer service. If a Web master needs something in the middle of the night, our cell phones are on. Our new live customer service department is for helping clients with any technical problems, from hosting to programming. Lots of our customers live in Europe or Asia, so we're trying to accommodate them around the clock," states Nguyen.
