High-risk accounts
Adult business merchant accounts
Stratamize places merchant accounts for lawful adult businesses: we prepare your business model, policies and content controls for underwriting.
About two minutes. Our team follows up.
What we set up
- Merchant accounts for adult retail, ecommerce and content
- Consent, age and content-review procedures organized for underwriting
- Recurring billing and recognizable charges set up after approval
Adult businesses
Who we work with
Lawful adult businesses, from retail stores to subscription content, go through some of the closest underwriting in card processing. As a registered ISO, we place merchant accounts for these businesses and help you prepare the documentation underwriting asks for before you apply.
We work with lawful adult businesses: retail stores, ecommerce brands selling physical products, and subscription or pay-per-view content sites. Each one is reviewed differently. Physical products have shipping and returns; digital access has renewals and cancellations; a business that does both is reviewed for both.
Underwriting
What underwriting asks for
- Your website, product categories or content categories, and how customers find you.
- For content businesses: who creates or uploads content, how age and identity are verified, how consent is documented, and how content is reviewed and removed when there is a complaint.
- For retailers: the catalog, suppliers, fulfillment process and return policy.
- Your pricing, billing frequency and cancellation method exactly as the customer sees them.
- The business name customers will see on their card statement.
- Recent processing statements, if you take cards today, and any notice from a provider that closed your account.
Mastercard's published standards for adult content require documented consent, age and identity verification, content review before publication and a process for removal requests. Underwriting asks to see those procedures written down, so having them ready is the most useful preparation you can do.
Setup
How setup works
After approval we set up the gateway, NMI or Authorize.net, with a hosted payment form, so card numbers go straight to the processor and never through your website or our team. On the setup call you get your login and keys, and we run a test transaction with you.
For memberships, recurring billing runs from the gateway and each renewal is recorded against the customer, so your support team can answer a billing question from one record.
Reserves
Reserves and chargebacks
Underwriting may set a reserve: a share of each settlement held back as a cushion against chargebacks and released on a schedule your agreement states. Whether one applies, and its terms, depend on the review. What keeps an account in good standing afterward is ordinary practice done consistently: a business name customers recognize on their statement, a refund policy they can find, and a support line that answers before a customer calls their bank.
For adult businesses this matters more than most: customers who don't recognize a discreet charge dispute it. Billing should be discreet, but it still has to identify you clearly enough that a customer recognizes the purchase.
Selling online? The gateway is set up with the account: see the high-risk payment gateway. From our blog: Adult platform payments: consent, takedowns and billing need one operating plan.
Can you place physical products and digital content on one account?
Show us the complete business. Some combinations are reviewed together and some need separate accounts; we tell you which before you apply.
Can my billing stay discreet?
Yes, within limits. The statement descriptor can use a business name rather than a site name, but it must identify the merchant accurately. We don't recommend disguising the business category; it leads to disputes and closed accounts.
Can recurring billing connect to my membership site?
Most membership platforms connect to NMI or Authorize.net. Tell us which platform you use and we confirm how renewals and cancellations will flow.
High-risk accounts
Get your application ready for underwriting.
We tell you what underwriting will ask for and prepare the file with you before it goes in.
Approvals usually come back within hours, three days at most.
Book a call