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PODCAST
Hosted by Maria Sparagis, president of DirectPayNet, and payment solutions expert for entrepreneurs in the high risk industries of supplements, dating, business opportunities, gambling and more. On this podcast, Maria shares her knowledge on how to reduce decline ratios, add thousands of dollars to your bottom line with a few simple conversion hacks, and maximize revenue while keeping your high-risk merchant accounts happy and healthy. As a cryptocurrency advocate since 2012, Maria will also share her knowledge on the digital currency markets.
Maria has worked with several high level entrepreneurs in Direct Marketing including Christian Hudson, Julian Reyes, Jeremy Schoemaker “ShoeMoney”, Mike Chang and many more.
She has been featured in American Banker, Vice, Inside Bitcoins, Coindesk, and Yahoo.
Connect with Maria mariasparagis.com or directpaynet.com
Visa's New 2025 Rules That Might Destroy Your Sales
🚨 Visa’s New Chargeback Rules Could Shut You Down – Are You Ready? 🚨
Visa is flipping the script on chargebacks—and if you're an online business owner, this affects you. I'm breaking down the new VAMP (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program) regulations that are already live in Europe and heading to North America.
From stricter chargeback thresholds (dropping to 0.9% in 2026) to new penalties for merchants who ignore card testing fraud, Visa's changes are tightening the noose on risky behavior. Even if you rely on Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR), guess what? Those alerts are now counted against you.
🔍 Learn:
- What VAMP is and why it matters
- Why relying on RDR is no longer safe
- How to calculate your chargeback ratio properly
- Why 3DS may become mandatory—and what that means for your conversions
- The silent risk of losing your payment processor even if you’re under 1%
⚠️ Don’t wait until you're fined or shut down. Get ahead of the changes and safeguard your business. ⚠️
👉 Subscribe for more insights on payment compliance, fraud prevention, and keeping your online business safe.
0:00 Intro
0:32 Previous Chargeback Guidelines
1:08 What’s Changing
6:58 Payment Gateway Fraud Protection
8:08 Even More Changes
10:18 Rules Coming to the US
12:08 The Reason Why
13:22 Lower Your Chargebacks
18:33 Outro
Need a merchant account? Get in touch! ➡️ directpaynet.com/contact-us
Stripe's New License and How It Affects Your Business
Stripe has officially applied for a Money Transmitter (MALPB) license in Georgia. It's a move that will change what we know about Stripe in payment processing...at least in the U.S.
But what does this really mean for your business?
In this episode, I, Maria Sparagis, payment processing expert and founder of Direct Payment, break down the real implicationsof Stripe becoming its own payment processor.
From bypassing big banks like Wells Fargo and Barclays to potential changes in who Stripe approves (or rejects). These are the questions many aren’t asking: Is this truly good news for online merchants, or just a power and profit play?
🔍 What you'll learn:
- What Stripe’s MALPB license means and why it matters
- Why Stripe isn’t actually a payment processor (yet)
- The truth about Stripe’s approval process
- How this could impact high-risk and online businesses
- What to watch for in Stripe’s terms & conditions going forward
- Why legacy banks might be forced to innovate now
⚠️ Heads-up: this might not be the win for merchants you were hoping for.
📩 Have questions about payment processing or need a backup for Stripe? Reach out to me and my team at Direct Payment. [email protected]
📋 Or apply directly at directpaynet.com/contact-us/
👍 Like, 💬 Comment, and 🔔 Subscribe for more insights on payment processing, tech trends, and business growth strategies.
