Who this is for
- E-commerce stores needing card acceptance at scale
- Subscription and continuity merchants with elevated chargeback ratios
- International sellers processing cross-border card volume
- CBD, nutra, adult, and other restricted-MCC merchants
- Merchants who need 3DS2 + SCA to ship into EU/UK
- Businesses that need chargeback alerts to stay under VAMP thresholds
Why card processing is harder for high-risk businesses
Card networks classify merchants by Merchant Category Code (MCC). Each MCC has historical chargeback and fraud baselines, and acquirers price risk based on those baselines. Standard retail (MCC 5411 grocery, 5812 restaurants) sees chargeback ratios under 0.2%. High-risk MCCs (7995 gambling, 5967 adult, 5993 tobacco, 5912 drug stores for nutra) routinely run 0.8–1.5%.
Under Visa's Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP, effective 2025) and Mastercard's Excessive Fraud Merchant program, sustained ratios above 0.9% disputes-to-transactions trigger network fees, mandatory remediation programs, and ultimately MATCH listing. Aggregators (Stripe, Square, PayPal) avoid this by simply prohibiting high-risk MCCs.
A high-risk credit card processing program builds in the tools — chargeback alerts, pre-dispute deflection, 3DS2 liability shift, fraud filters — that keep your ratio inside network limits while accepting the full breadth of cards your customers want to use.
Industries served
Card processing features included
Full network coverage. Amex via OptBlue at standard interchange — no premium.
Verifi RDR + Order Insight (Visa) and Ethoca (Mastercard) deflect disputes pre-chargeback.
Frictionless authentication + SCA challenge for EU/UK. Shifts fraud liability to issuer.
AVS/CVV scoring, velocity rules, BIN blocking, IP geolocation, device fingerprinting.
Authorize in 60+ currencies, settle in USD/EUR/GBP/CAD/AUD.
Card vault with network tokenization and automatic card-on-file updates.
PCI SAQ-A hosted forms, or direct API with SAQ-D for full control.
Transaction-level dashboard, exportable batch reports, webhook events.
Underwriting documents you'll need
- Merchant application
- Government-issued ID (25%+ owners)
- Voided business check
- 3 months business bank statements
- 3 months prior processing statements (if any)
- EIN letter / formation docs
- Compliant website with SSL, refund, terms, privacy
- PCI-DSS SAQ (we provide the right form for your integration)
Pricing factors
Card processing pricing is the largest line item in your MID. We default to interchange-plus pricing — interchange + assessments + a transparent markup — so you can see exactly what the networks charge versus what we charge.
Markup ranges from 0.45% + $0.15 for established lower-volatility merchants to 2.5% + $0.30 for highest-risk verticals (gambling, crypto on-ramps, MATCH rehabilitation). Amex OptBlue is priced at standard Amex interchange — no premium.
Chargeback alerts add ~$15–$30 per alert deflected, paid for many times over by the chargeback fee ($25 each) and the volume protection.