A merchant account is a specialized bank account that allows your business to accept electronic payments, such as credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transfers. It functions as an intermediary holding area for funds collected from customer transactions before they are settled into your primary business bank account.
Why do you need one?
For a deeper dive into merchant accounts, including how they work and how to choose the right one for your business, please check out our comprehensive guide.
Stripe and Shopify Payments are known as payment aggregators or third-party processors. That means your business shares a pooled merchant account with many other merchants. While this makes setup fast and easy, it also comes with stricter rules and a higher risk of sudden holds, freezes, or shutdowns—especially for high-risk industries.
A dedicated merchant account, on the other hand, is set up specifically for your business. It gives you:
If you’ve ever had issues with Stripe, Square, or Shopify Payments, or your business is processing over $25k/month, chances are you’ve outgrown a basic payment service provider. A merchant account gives you the infrastructure and flexibility to scale reliably—especially if you're in a high-risk or fast-growing vertical.
We serve businesses based in the USA, the UK, across Europe and the European Economic Area (EEA) as well as Canada. Whether you're processing locally or looking to expand internationally, we can help set up the right payment infrastructure for your region and industry.
If you’re outside our areas of service, drop us a line and we can help you find the right payment processing partner for your business.
Yes, you can. We support international payment processing, allowing you to accept debit and credit card transactions from customers around the world. We’ll help set up the right merchant accounts and gateway configurations to support multi-currency payments, cross-border transactions, and region-specific compliance.
If you're expanding globally or already serving international customers, we’ll ensure your setup is optimized for smooth, secure, and scalable payments.
We support a wide range of payment types tailored to your sales channels and customer preferences:
Need a specific payment option? Just ask our team. If we don’t already offer it, we’ll connect you with a trusted partner who does.
Yes, we do! You can easily enable Apple Pay and Google Pay through DirectPayNet’s gateway solution, allowing you to manage all your payment options from one secure platform. This streamlined setup eliminates the need for costly third-party integrations and keeps your checkout process fast, simple, and compliant.
Yes, we support full recurring billing and subscription payment setups. Whether you're offering monthly, quarterly or yearly payment memberships, SaaS products, instalment plans, or ongoing services, we can configure your merchant account and gateway to handle automated billing, dunning management, and retry logic.
We’ll help ensure your recurring payments are processed smoothly, reduce failed transactions, and keep your customer retention high.
Yes — DirectPayNet integrates with Shopify and most major shopping carts through quick, secure built-in connections.
Don’t be fooled into thinking you have limited options just because you’re using Shopify or another e-commerce platform. Most shopping carts can support multiple payment processors — they just don’t advertise it.
Tell us about your tech stack, and we’ll make sure your DirectPayNet merchant account connects smoothly, securely, and hassle-free.
Yes. Once your merchant account is approved, we’ll help you connect it to your existing CRM or billing platform—whether that’s GoHighLevel, Keap, Salesforce, Zoho, Recurly, or others. We work closely with you to ensure your merchant account integrates smoothly with the tools you already use to manage payments, subscriptions, and client billing.
Yes! We will work with you and your current provider to transfer your customer data and subscriptions to our gateway. The process is simple and hassle free for you. We work with PCI compliant providers to ensure the transfer is done safely and securely without compromising any of your customer data.
You will not lose any customer data or subscriptions. Best of all, this is always YOUR data so we will never hold it ransom. You can move it to any provider at any time.
Yes. We offer gateway integrations with popular platforms like NMI, Authorize.Net, and many others. If you already have a payment gateway in place, we can integrate your new merchant account with it— no need to start from scratch. If you’re keeping your existing stack, our team will audit your setup to confirm all configurations and features are up to date — ensuring higher approval rates and stronger fraud protection.
We’ll help you configure or migrate your setup to ensure everything runs smoothly, whether you’re using an existing gateway or looking to explore better options.
DirectPayNet provides secure, PCI-compliant gateway solutions that meet the highest industry standards for data protection and reliability. All transactions are processed through fully compliant, encrypted systems designed to safeguard sensitive customer information.
You can rest assured that you’re working with a trusted partner that takes security — and your customers’ privacy — seriously.
Most applications require a few standard documents to verify your business and reduce risk. Typically, you'll need:
Additional documents may be required depending on your industry, processing volume, or risk level. We’ll guide you through exactly what’s needed to streamline approval.
Approval time can vary based on the business type.
For online businesses with straightforward operations and a clean history, approvals can take as little as 3–5 business days once all documentation is submitted.
However, it may take longer depending on factors like your industry, processing volume, and any previous account shutdowns or risk concerns. We work to make the process as smooth and fast as possible and keep you updated every step of the way.
If you have a business with a physical location, approval can be as quick as 24 hours.
Approval depends on several key factors, including:
We handle submitting your information to underwriters and act as your advocate throughout the process. If additional documents or clarifications are needed, we’ll reach back out to you promptly to keep your application moving forward smoothly.
We work with complex business structures, high-risk merchants, business owners with poor credit as well as MATCH list merchants. Just reach out to us and explain your situation, our team of experts can guide you through the best option for your business situation.
We can work with non-residents that have a US based business. There are stricter requirements for approval and more financials may be requested such as:
Other requirements may be needed depending on your business.
Yes, you can still apply for your Puerto Rico based business. It is a special status account but it will allow you to accept payments and receive your settlements within a Puerto Rico based bank account.
Merchant account fees can vary but usually include:
Fees vary based on your business type, processing volume, and risk profile. We’ll help you understand your specific pricing so there are no surprises. We send you a no obligation quote with all fees listed so you are know what to expect when you get your processing statement.
Discounts are available for high volume businesses and may lead to pricing lower than popular payment processors like Stripe, Shopify Payments, Square or PayPal.
There are several effective ways to lower your fees:
We’ll work with you to identify the best strategies tailored to your business to keep costs as low as possible.
Payment processors consider a business “high-risk” if it has a higher likelihood of chargebacks, fraud, or regulatory issues. Common factors include:
Being labeled high-risk means payment processors may require more documentation, higher fees, or stricter underwriting/approval processes. We specialize in helping high-risk businesses find stable, compliant payment solutions tailored to their needs.
Even if your business is compliant and ethical, the perception of risk is enough for banks to classify you as high risk. If you’re not sure if you need a high-risk merchant account, please contact us and we will explain your options.
Being classified as a high risk merchant doesn’t mean you have to overspend or get lower quality results. With over 15 years in business, DirectPayNet can get you the best pricing and terms for your high-risk business.
Yes, DirectPayNet can help. Many popular payment service providers like Stripe, Shopify Payments, and Square have very low risk thresholds and may shut down accounts quickly. If you’ve been shut down by your payment processor, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of options.
However, if your business has been placed on the TMF (Terminated Merchant File) or MATCH list—a payment industry blacklist—it can complicate the approval process and require additional steps and documentation. We have experience navigating TMF and MATCH list businesses and will work with you to find the best solutions to get you processing again.
The Mastercard MATCH list (Member Alert to Control High-risk merchants) is a centralized database used by payment processors to track merchants who have had their accounts terminated for risk-related reasons, such as excessive chargebacks or fraud.
Being on the MATCH list makes it harder to open new merchant accounts because processors share this information to protect themselves from high-risk businesses.
If your business is on the MATCH list, you’ll likely face extra scrutiny during approval, but with the right guidance and documentation, it’s still possible to get approved.
The VISA TMF list (Terminated Merchant File List) is a centralized Visa database used by payment processors to track merchants who have had their accounts terminated for risk-related reasons, such as excessive chargebacks or fraud.
Being on the TMF list makes it harder to open new merchant accounts because processors share this information to protect themselves from high-risk businesses.
If your business is on the TMF list, you’ll likely face extra scrutiny during approval, but with the right guidance and documentation, it’s still possible to get approved.
Yes, we can help, but with some important caveats. Removing your business from the MATCH list requires contacting the processor that placed you there and Visa or Mastercard to prove the issue was resolved or was a mistake. This process can be complex and is typically only worth pursuing for businesses with a solid track record and stable processing history moving forward.
We’ll evaluate your situation carefully and, if you qualify, guide you through each step to improve your chances of successful removal.
Preventing fraud and chargebacks starts with proactive measures, including:
We can help you set up these protections and guide you through best practices to minimize fraud and chargebacks while keeping your customers happy and reducing losses from fraud and chargebacks.
PCI compliance means meeting the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) designed to keep cardholder data safe. Requirements vary depending on your transaction volume but generally include:
DirectPayNet will help you understand your specific PCI requirements and guide you through maintaining compliance to protect your business and customers.
Our payment gateways and solutions are all PCI compliant to the highest standard to ensure your customer data is safe and secure.
By working with DirectPayNet, you can rest assured that you will get the best advice and steps to maintain or become PCI compliant for your business needs.
Visa VAMP (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program) is a risk management initiative that monitors merchants for excessive chargebacks, fraud, or non-compliance with Visa’s rules. Under recent updates, Visa has lowered the thresholds for what qualifies as "excessive" and is applying stricter enforcement—especially for merchants in high-risk industries.
If your chargeback or fraud ratios go above certain limits, your business could be flagged and placed into monitoring or enforcement tiers, which may lead to higher fees, stricter oversight, or even account termination.
We can help you navigate Visa VAMP by:
Our goal is to keep your business below Visa’s risk thresholds and ensure long-term processing stability.
Yes. We provide dedicated support and can answer any of your payment processing questions. If you run into any issues, just let us know. Our support agents will communicate with the right teams and work to resolve things quickly for you.
We provide dedicated telephone and email support Monday through Friday, from 8 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time. For urgent issues outside these hours, we have emergency access to assist you as quickly as possible.
Very soon, we’ll also be adding live chat support right on our website to make it even easier to get help when you need it.
Whether you have questions about merchant accounts, payment processing, or optimizing your checkout flow, our dedicated team is ready to assist you. We understand the complexities businesses face and are committed to providing clear, personalized support tailored to your unique needs.
Get in touch today to explore how we can help streamline your payments, reduce costs, and boost your revenue. We look forward to partnering with you and helping your business thrive in a competitive market.
