Online payments
NMI payment gateway with a merchant account, set up by Stratamize
What NMI is and is not, the merchant account behind it, and what we set up: virtual terminal, card on file, recurring billing, invoicing and checkout.
Online payments
NMI or Authorize.net for high-risk merchants: the gateway and the merchant account, set up together
NMI or Authorize.net for a business that underwriting reviews closely: which gateway fits which industry, what the review asks for, reserves and terminations.
A high-risk payment gateway is not something you can buy on its own. NMI and Authorize.net are both gateways: the software that carries a card payment from your checkout, your invoice or your keyboard to the card networks and back. Neither one approves a business. The approval is the merchant account behind the gateway, and that is where underwriting looks at what you sell, how you sell it and what your history looks like. What people call an Authorize.net high-risk account is a merchant account that will accept the business, set up to use Authorize.net; the same is true for NMI. Stratamize boards the merchant account and provisions the gateway from one application.
This page is for the business that already knows the review will be a close one: CBD and hemp, vape, firearms, supplements, subscriptions and trial offers, coaching, credit repair, adult and debt collection. The gateway is ours to recommend; the merchant account decision belongs to underwriting, and we say so wherever that is the honest answer.
What we set up
- Review what you sell and how you sell it before the application, so the file reaches underwriting complete.
- Board the merchant account and provision NMI or Authorize.net from one application.
- Check your website against the underwriting list: secure connection, policies, descriptions, contact details, card logos, age gate where needed.
- Connect hosted checkout, your cart plugin or your subscription app, and run a test transaction with you.
- Turn on the fraud filters, velocity rules and address and security-code checks that fit your sales pattern.
- Set up a second merchant account on the NMI gateway where continuity or separate product lines call for it.
- Enable ACH where your merchant account is boarded for it.
- Stay on after go-live and watch the chargeback ratio with you.
What merchants ask about NMI and Authorize.net for high-risk businesses
Does Authorize.net accept high-risk businesses?
Authorize.net is a gateway, so it does not accept or decline businesses; the merchant account behind it does, and that account is underwritten by the processor that opens it. An Authorize.net high-risk account is a merchant account that will take the business, connected to the Authorize.net gateway. Authorize.net also has its own acceptable-use terms, so a product line can be approved for a merchant account and still be a better fit on NMI. We answer that per product and per sales channel, not with a blanket yes.
Is NMI better than Authorize.net for high risk?
For most businesses on this page, NMI is the gateway we reach for first: it can carry more than one merchant account on a single gateway, its hosted checkout keeps your site out of card-data scope, and its fraud module has the velocity and card-testing filters these categories need from the first day. Authorize.net is the better fit when the store runs on Shopify, when your developer already knows its API, or when a platform you depend on only connects to Authorize.net. Neither gateway gets you approved; the merchant account does. Our NMI versus Authorize.net page has the full decision table.
Do I need a dedicated merchant account, or can I use an aggregator?
An aggregator such as Stripe, PayPal, Square or Shopify Payments boards you under its own master account with no underwriting up front, which is why signup takes minutes and why the account can be closed later, when its risk team reads your site and finds a category on its prohibited list. A dedicated merchant account is underwritten before you take a payment, carries your own merchant ID, and is opened by a processor that knows what you sell. For the industries on this page it is the only durable answer; NMI or Authorize.net is the software that connects to it.
What does underwriting look at before approving my business?
Your website first: a secure connection, refund and shipping policies, terms and a privacy policy that are easy to find, a working contact page, card logos, product descriptions that match what ships, and an age gate where the product calls for one. Then your history: recent processing statements, your chargeback ratio against the card-brand thresholds, average ticket, monthly volume, and how long after the sale the customer receives the product. Then the business: ownership, time in business, licensing where required, a bank account in the business name. A complete file is the biggest thing you control, so we go through this list with you before the application goes in.
Will I have a rolling reserve?
Sometimes, and we tell you before you sign rather than after. A rolling reserve is a portion of each settlement that the processor holds and releases on a rolling schedule, as a cushion against chargebacks and refunds that arrive after the money has reached you. Whether you get one, how large it is and how long funds are held depend on underwriting: the industry, your chargeback history, the ticket size, and how far ahead of delivery you charge. Clean statements and prompt shipping often mean a smaller reserve or none; a trial-offer or pre-order model usually gets one. We do not publish a figure because an honest one does not exist until underwriting has read your file.
How fast can you approve me?
Approvals usually come back within hours, three days at most. That holds when the file arrives complete, which is what the pre-application review is for. A file that needs a lab report, a license or a missing policy page takes as long as it takes to get that document to underwriting, and no honest provider promises a time before seeing the file. Once the merchant account is approved we provision the gateway and set it up with you on a call: login, keys, fraud settings and a test transaction. A hosted checkout link is ready on that call; a cart plugin or subscription app follows your developer's schedule.
What if my account was shut down last week?
Tell us the same day. Bring the termination notice, your last statements, your chargeback ratio and a plain account of why you think it happened; underwriting will ask for all of it, and a surprise found later costs more time than a hard truth told now. If an aggregator closed you for a category on its prohibited list, that is the most common case and the easiest to re-board, because the business was never underwritten in the first place. If the closure came from a chargeback ratio, the processor will want to see what changed first. While the new account is in review we rebuild your checkout, vault and recurring schedules on the gateway so it goes live the moment the approval lands.
Can I split volume across more than one merchant account?
On NMI, yes: one gateway can carry several merchant accounts and route transactions between them by rule or by load. The honest limits: each account is underwritten on its own, the card brands' chargeback monitoring applies to each one, and spreading volume to hide a chargeback problem is a breach of the processing agreement, not a strategy. The legitimate reasons are continuity, so a closure on one account does not stop your checkout; product lines that underwrite differently; and capacity when volume outgrows one account's limit. We set up a second account only where one of those applies.
What fraud and chargeback tools come with the gateway?
Both gateways check the billing address and the card security code on every transaction and let you decline on a mismatch. NMI's fraud module adds velocity rules, so a card-testing attack that fires hundreds of small authorizations is throttled or blocked, plus country and card-range filters and duplicate-transaction checks. Authorize.net's advanced fraud tools cover the same ground with a different interface. Chargebacks are reported in the gateway as well as on your statement, so you see a dispute early enough to respond with evidence. We tune these to your sales pattern at setup, because the defaults are either too loose for a high-risk category or tight enough to decline real customers. Ask us about 3D Secure; we confirm the current state on each gateway before we promise it.
Transparent pricing
We quote the gateway fee and processing together so there is no second surprise; ask us for a quote.
Ready to take payments online?
Tell us how you sell and we will recommend the gateway and the setup, in writing. Our team is based in Newnan, Georgia, and we work with businesses nationwide.
- Apply online with your need already selected.
- Confirm your email, then complete the secure application.
- After approval, we provision your gateway and set it up with you.