

Ask HN: How can a Non-US Founder, accept credit cards for US company - sathishmanohar

Hi,<p>I'm from India, never been to US.<p>I'm looking forward to launch a SaaS Project, for this I'm in the verge of incorporating in Delaware. In my research so far, I've looked into Stripe and braintree payments for payment processing.<p>They both require Social Security Number (which I don't have), while braintree payments requires one full-time employee in the US.<p>Is there a way to accept subscription payments through credit card for US companies, without requiring SSN? Has anybody done the same?
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skrish
@sathishmanohar, Hello from Chenna!. :)

It is this specific case that we are solving for Indian startups along with a
global billing solution at ChargeBee.

Regardless of whether you need ChargeBee or not, shoot me an email (in
profile) and will be happy to share the options available.

Specific to your question: Without SSN even after incorporation in Delaware it
is a struggle to get a merchant account. I have helped a few businesses in
India get merchant account there and it is from my experience. I incorporated
ChargeBee in Delaware, but thankfully I have SSN. Without revenue not many
merchant account providers that claim to do this won't touch you; that is just
reality.

My suggestion to startups is: use the easiest available options to get started
- we do it with PayPal, 2Checkout etc., I know it is not anywhere near what
you can do with Stripe or a BraintreePayments, but you can do with the
available options, build traction and focus on the hardest problem - which is
getting attention of your customers and get some early adopters. In the
meantime, we can help you started with other options and seamlessly switch
over for new signups. You will save $1k USD initially plus all the additional
paper work, franchisee tax (even incorporating in October will entitle you to
pay $440 USD in tax in March next year - delay it by couple of months you save
that as well).

But, if you do want to go ahead with incorporation here are couple of blogs:
Girish of Freshdesk wrote about this and I wrote a followup on payments as
well.

You can read those here:

[http://blog.freshdesk.com/how-to-incorporate-a-us-
corporatio...](http://blog.freshdesk.com/how-to-incorporate-a-us-corporation-
from-outs/)

[http://blog.chargebee.com/payment-integration-options-for-
st...](http://blog.chargebee.com/payment-integration-options-for-startups-in-
india/#sthash.LtgLLhw4.dpbs)

We are also working with couple of Indian banks and in turn with Reserve Bank
of India to solve it well. We should have something soon to avoid all this
round about way of incorporating outside to do something straightforward.

~~~
sathishmanohar
Hi krish,

I was seriously contemplating about charge bee.

I was in last OCC meet, and Siddharta personally recommended chargebee as
well.

As per your advice "use the easiest available options to get started", I just
signed up. :)

~~~
skrish
Thanks. Glad to help.

Shoot me an email before you signup with 2Checkout - I have a $49 coupon code
I can share.

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pseingatl
As a foreign national with US-source income, you can obtain a tax
identification number (equivalent to a SSN) by filing a W-9 form with the IRS.

~~~
sathishmanohar
Thanks, Stripe and Braintree, have mandatory requirement for SSN it seems.

Do you know any payment processors, that are okay with tax identification
number only.

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creativeone
You might also be able to open an LLC and receive a Tax ID number. It probably
depends on your state.

How do you plan to take the money back to India? I know that Charles Scwhab
has a checking account with no foreign transaction fees, including free ATM
usage worldwide.

~~~
sathishmanohar
I'm not planning of taking money back to India at all, currently I'm only
concerned about, if I can make money with my product at all.

I'll worry about that, why I actually have money in my bank account :)

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swastik
I think, for a start, 2Checkout would do the job. I've used them and they are
pretty good. They can also give you better rates. There are some discount
codes floating around using which you can sign up without the $49 fee.

The folks at <http://spreedly.com> also seem to be pretty good but I've not
used them so can't say anything.

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fidanov
I don't know when you've looked at Braintree but you can accept credit cards.
Just look at here: <https://www.braintreepayments.com/tour/international>

It is not fully international but at least EU and Canada. Another option is
PayPal.

