Is SSN a must to open a merchant account - Stripe preferred?

Is SSN a must to open a merchant account - Stripe preferred?

I was going to form a LLC in US after researching a lot and reading posts like: http://blog.freshdesk.com/how-to-incorporate-a-us-corporation-from-outs/

But I came to the conclusion that, this won't be enough for a Stripe account because it seems that an SSN is a must.

[1] Is this the case with merchant account providers too? [2] Generally speaking, for a start-up, outside US, that wants to charge credit cards and sell subscriptions, what would be the easiest route?

(Creating a good product is hard as it is and these kind of restrictions absorb the energy that would otherwise be used for the product)

Looks like a good service. Looked at the API and they use SOAP. instant turn off. Also I did see anywhere if they also accepted credit cards. Do they?

Thanks for the suggestion, there is also http://www.paymentwall.com/ which is similar but from my experience using products like these are not very effective, providing a simple and clean payment solution is a must