Every question we hear most weeks.

A merchant account labelled by acquirers as higher underwriting risk. The label reflects things like chargeback exposure, cross-border activity, delivery timing, or regulatory scrutiny. It is not a judgement on your business. It is an underwriting bucket that sets your terms, fees, and reserves.

Forex, iGaming, CBD, nutraceuticals, travel, subscriptions, crypto, and e-cigarettes are our primary verticals. We approve inside those on the merits of the file: licences, model, volume, and geography. If your business sits outside the eight, we still take the call and tell you honestly whether we can help.

Decisions are typically returned inside 24 to 48 hours of receiving a complete file. Incomplete files stall the clock. If we need more, we ask once, in plain language.

No. Prior termination is a fact we underwrite, not a disqualifier. We ask why, look at what has changed since, and set terms that reflect the real risk. Many of our merchants come to us with a MATCH listing or a fresh termination letter.

Not in verticals that require a licence to accept card payments. Gambling, forex in regulated jurisdictions, and virtual asset service providers all need the applicable registration. We tell you at first contact whether your structure is workable.

Stripe and Adyen price for low-risk, low-dispute merchants they can shut off tomorrow at almost zero cost to themselves. High-risk acquirers price for the risk they actually carry: higher dispute exposure, higher scheme fees, reserves, and remediation cost. IC++ shows every line so you can see where the money goes.

A percentage of processed volume held back to cover future refunds and chargebacks. Typical ranges are 5% to 10% of gross, held 90 to 180 days on a rolling basis. Reviewed for reduction after six months of clean processing.

Yes. Rate, reserve, and payout schedule are all reviewed quarterly. Merchants who process cleanly typically see reductions after two to four quarters. It is written into the MSA, not left to a favour.

No. If Rizk Pay is not working for you, you can leave without an exit fee. Reserves are released on the standard schedule after your final chargeback window closes.

Visa, Mastercard, and major regional schemes across 190+ countries and 30+ settlement currencies. Local acquiring is used where available to lift approval rates and reduce cross-border declines.

T+1 settlement is available for eligible merchants. Slower schedules (T+3 to T+7) apply to higher-risk files, reviewed quarterly for improvement. Payouts are reconciled to your dashboard line by line.

Yes. 3DS2 is applied dynamically: frictionless authentication for trusted transactions, step-up challenge only when risk or regulation requires it. Exemptions (trusted beneficiary, low value, transaction risk analysis) are used where allowed to preserve conversion.

Yes. Merchant-initiated transaction flags, account updater support, and decline-code aware retry logic are built in. First transaction is SCA-authenticated where required, subsequent rebills stay frictionless.

We work with merchants above 1% in the short term with a written plan to bring the ratio down. Sustained ratios that push you into a scheme monitoring program carry higher reserves until the ratio recovers. We would rather help you fix the ratio than exit the account.

Ethoca and Verifi surface cardholder disputes before they become chargebacks. Refunding inside the alert window closes the case without a chargeback counting against your ratio.

Program exit is decided by the scheme, not the acquirer. What we do is bring the ratio down, keep it there for the required consecutive months, and file the remediation reporting the scheme expects. Most merchants who follow the plan exit at the earliest allowed review.

Yes. Alert networks charge a per-alert fee, plus the refund. For high-dispute verticals it is typically far cheaper than the chargeback fees and ratio damage it prevents. The alert cost line appears on your monthly statement.

REST API, hosted checkout, WooCommerce, plus modules for OpenCart, PrestaShop, Magento, and Shopware. Sandbox credentials arrive with your approval so you can build against test cards before switching to production keys.

Signed HMAC deliveries for payment, chargeback, and payout events. Automatic retries with exponential backoff and a manual replay from the dashboard for any event you need to reprocess.

Yes. Hosted checkout keeps card data off your servers entirely, reducing your PCI scope to the lightest self-assessment questionnaire. API merchants who tokenise on our side achieve equivalent scope reduction.