Card Network Compliance Costs and Prohibited Processors (2026)
Mandatory VIRP fees on top of processing rates
- Merchant registration: $950 per acquirer relationship
- Per-transaction fee: $0.10 + 10 bps (MCC 5967/7273/7995, US card-absent)
These are paid through your processor — they appear as line items in your billing, not as separate invoices.
VAMP ratio — the chargeback math that actually terminates accounts
VAMP Ratio = (TC40 fraud + TC15 disputes) ÷ settled CNP transactions. Threshold: 1.5%, no warning tier. Fine: $8/transaction over threshold since October 2025. Acquirers enforce internal caps at 0.5–1.0%. A weak billing descriptor or hard-to-cancel subscription converts directly into a business-ending ratio problem faster than content violations do.
Billing descriptor must match your brand/DBA and be ≤22 characters. Mismatch drives Mastercard 4863 "does not recognize" disputes. Subscription checkbox must be unchecked by default. 7-day pre-charge trial reminder required. One-click cancellation required.
Prohibited processors — do not use these for adult
Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, Braintree, Square, Cash App, and Authorize.Net all explicitly prohibit adult content. Funds will be frozen on detection. MCC miscoding to use them is a VIRP violation: $25,000/merchant fine + MATCH listing.
Legitimate adult-friendly processors
CCBill, Epoch, Segpay, Verotel, RocketGate, NETbilling, Vendo, Paxum, Zombaio. Always disclose affiliate relationships. Underwriting approval is discretionary — having compliant legal pages in place before applying materially improves your approval rate.