Author: Maria Sparagis

Maria Sparagis is President of DirectPayNet, where she's spent over 20 years helping businesses scale to six-, seven-, and eight-figure revenue through optimized payment processing. She works hands-on with business owners to solve merchant account challenges, reduce processing costs, and implement payment strategies that support real growth. Maria is a regular speaker at fintech conferences and writes about practical approaches that help businesses break through revenue plateaus.

The Real Cost of Chargebacks: Beyond the Transaction Amount

Fraud prevention - implementation of a strategy to detect fraudulent transactions and prevent these actions from causing financial damage, text concept button on keyboard

Chargebacks cost merchants far more than the disputed transaction value. For every dollar lost to fraud, businesses incur up to $4.61 in total costs, with some reports showing merchants losing 3.4 times the original transaction amount when all expenses are calculated. Understanding these comprehensive costs helps merchants develop effective strategies to minimize their financial impact. […]

What Does “Transaction Not Permitted (Amount/POS/MCC)” Mean?

Man holding open his wallet in front of a laptop screen with a "DECLINED" stamped over a failed payment

Getting hit with a “transaction not permitted (amount/pos/mcc)” error is frustrating because of how non-descript it is. This message appears when your card issuer blocks a purchase based on three key factors: the amount, the point of sale (POS), or the merchant category code (MCC). Let’s break it all down. LESS DECLINES, MORE CONVERSIONS Breaking […]

Visa’s New VAMP Program Ruins Chargeback Alerts

Four VISA credit cards stacked on top of each other

The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) now treats fraud alerts differently than before, making chargeback alert programs for fraud useless. Starting April 2025, TC40 fraud alerts resolved through Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR) now count toward your VAMP ratio. This means chargeback alerts for fraud reasons won’t protect businesses the way they used to. Previously, these […]

Everything You Need to Know About Flat-Rate Pricing

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Stripe, Shopify, PayPal, Square. What do they all have in common? Super simple pricing and sign-up processes. That’s because they all offer flat-rate pricing instead of more detailed options like interchange plus or tiered pricing. Let’s get into what flat-rate pricing is and why it might or might not work for your business. BETTER PAYMENT […]

How to Skip Shopify’s 1% Additional Fee (Without Breaking Their Terms)

In this photo illustration, the Shopify app logo is displayed on a smartphone screen

You’ve built a thriving Shopify store, but that extra 1% fee for using a third-party processor stings every time you see it on your monthly statement. If you’re processing thousands in sales each month, that seemingly small percentage adds up to real money walking out of your business. Legally, you don’t have to accept this […]