A Payment Service Provider (PSP) enters into a contract with an Acquirer (Merchant Bank). The PSP handles payment processing, risk management, and compliance to ensure all transactions adhere to relevant laws and strict regulations, such as PCI (Payment Card Industry) data security standards.
PSPs register sub-merchants (website owners) and enable them to accept and settle transactions without needing to establish direct relationships with acquiring banks. As a result, sub-merchants can focus on core business activities.
New CCBill merchants can complete the Merchant Application process and apply for Visa and/or Mastercard payment processing by agreeing to the MasterCard and/or Visa terms during that process.
If you are an existing CCBill merchant and wish to add Visa and/or MasterCard processing to your CCBill account, please contact CCBill Merchant Support.
High risk is a term used by financial institutions to classify specific business models based on those models' overall history of chargebacks, returns, and refunds. High risk business models are burdened with higher levels of abuse carried out by both businesses and consumers.
If your business is considered high risk, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is at a higher risk of chargebacks and refunds. It only means that your business model is classified as high risk.
For further details, read our article on Risk Differences Between High Risk and Low Risk Accounts and our blog post on High Risk Merchant Accounts.
Card associations estimate that high risk merchant accounts cost more to manage than low risk accounts. High risk business models often incur higher chargeback rates and require close monitoring for fraud. Additionally, high risk businesses need to adhere to more card association rules and regulations.
The annual registration fee helps card association rules offset the costs associated with high risk payment processing and ensures that participants are responsible industry members and business people, and provides more transparency.
No. While CCBill accepts the fee from you, the entire annual registration fee is immediately sent to credit card associations.
No. Visa and MasterCard require the annual registration fee to be paid for each Merchant account. Paying the annual registration fee enables you to accept Visa and MasterCard for processing on your main account and all of your subaccounts.
A business entity with multiple merchant accounts may be eligible for a single card brand registration fee if the principal and business information are the same. For more information, please contact Merchant Support.
Your account may qualify and automatically be placed on an installment plan depending on sales volume and other factors.
CCBill automatically deducts the $500 renewal fee from your main account balance in installments of $100 for 5 weeks.
Installments begin 5 weeks prior to your anniversary date so that the total amount is collected before the anniversary date. If you want to keep using the service, simply do nothing, and we will auto-renew your MasterCard registration.
Alternatively, you may be required to pay the renewal fee by credit card or cashier’s check/money order. Sixty days before your anniversary date, you will be sent an email that provides instructions for the payment of your MasterCard renewal fee.
Instead of paying a one-time $950 Visa Renewal fee manually, you may qualify to pay the fee in 6 weekly installments. CCBill automatically deducts $153.33 from the main account for five weeks and then $153.35 for the final week.
This option is enabled by default if:
Effective April 1, 2024, VISA, Inc. increased its high-risk merchant registration fee from $500 to $950 annually.
The Visa renewal process begins approximately three months before your anniversary date. You will be sent an email that provides detailed instructions for the payment of the Visa renewal fee.
To manually renew your Visa registration:
Just like with your initial registration payment, you may pay online with a credit card or with a money order. Personal checks are not accepted.
To manually renew your Mastercard registration please contact CCBill Merchant Support. A Merchant Support Representative is going to provide you with a Mastercard Renewal payment link.
CCBill informs merchants that their annual Visa or Mastercard registration has expired by sending weekly email notifications to the email address on file.
Typically, Visa and Mastercard registrations are canceled in between the 2nd and 3rd email notifications. If that happens, you will be required to manually pay the $950 Visa or $500 Mastercard registration fee.
CCBill strongly encourages you to renew your Visa and Mastercard registrations on time.
Disclaimer: CCBill has no control over Visa or Mastercard acceptance of applications for Sub-Merchant status nor the renewal of that status.
In order to check your Visa payment history:
Please contact CCBill Merchant Support to receive an overview of Mastercard fee payment history.
CCBill is a member of the Visa Sponsored Merchant Program and the MasterCard Payment Facilitator Program, and in order for Merchants to accept and process Visa and/or MasterCard transactions with us, you need to have a business and legal presence within a designated region (U.S., Canada, or a Europe participating country). As part of the application process, you shall be asked to provide valid proof that you are based in a country that falls within one of the participating Regions.
Merchants based in the U.S., Canada, EU, U.K., or elsewhere can join in easily!
Full list of countries designated for any processing via CCBill:
| Andora | Austria | Bear Island |
| Belgium | Bulgaria | Canada |
| Channel Island | Cyprus | Czech Republic |
| Croatia | Denmark | Estonia |
| Faroe Islands | Finland | France |
| Germany | Gibraltar | Greece |
| Greenland | Hungary | Iceland |
| Isle of Man | Ireland | Italy |
| Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania |
| Luxembourg | Malta | Monaco |
| Netherlands | Norway | Poland |
| Portugal | Romania | San Marino |
| Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain |
| Sweden | Switzerland | United Kingdom |
| United States | Vatican City | |
Under card brand regulations, PSPs are required to provide card brands with each sub-merchant's monthly sales, chargeback, and credit data for each of the sub-merchant's billing URLs.
After review of this information by card brands, the sub-merchants who are out of compliance on chargeback ratios may be terminated at the discretion of card brands.
CCBill offers processing payments with other global and regional payment cards and methods, such as Discover, JCB, Diners Club, Maestro, ACH Online Checks, EU Debit, SEPA Direct Debit, and DirectPay EU.