Payment processors that accept adult: what we learned applying

If you sell something adult online, the first choice is not a processor but a model. A billing company like CCBill, Segpay, Epoch or Verotel sells to your customer under its own card registration and pays you net of its fees. A gateway like CardCorp connects you to a bank that gives you a merchant account of your own. A crypto processor like NOWPayments takes payments that cannot be charged back. The card networks set the rules for all of them, and most of what an application asks for comes straight from those rules.

We are going through these applications ourselves for Jimp, and we are at the stage of asking, not of announcing a contract. What follows is what the processors and the card networks say on their own public pages, which is where the useful part of what we learned came from.

First, check that you need one

A tube that earns through affiliate programs does not take payments. The cam platforms, the tube networks and the ad networks collect the money and pay you, and what you need is a way to receive it: a bank account that accepts the transfers, or an e-wallet. ExoClick, JuicyAds and TrafficStars all list Paxum, wire transfer and crypto among their payout methods, and Paxum's own page presents it as an e-wallet and payout service, not a way to take card payments.

You need a processor when you sell directly. Memberships to a paysite, a creator's videos, a subscription to a service. Everything below is about that case.

What Visa and Mastercard require of adult merchants

Every processor's checklist traces back to two sets of rules.

Visa's network integrity page says adult content merchants "go through an enhanced registration process and are subject to closer performance monitoring", and its merchant data manual files them under merchant category code 5967, "Adult Content and Services", on its list of high integrity risk codes.

Mastercard was more specific. In its April 2021 announcement, it extended its specialty merchant registration and required the banks that serve adult sellers to certify controls that include documented age and identity verification for everyone depicted and everyone uploading, review of content before publication, a complaint process that handles illegal or non-consensual content within seven business days, and an appeals process for anyone depicted to have content removed.

Read those two paragraphs and you have the skeleton of every application form below. The processor is the one that answers to the bank for your site, so it asks you to prove each point before it takes you on.

The billing companies: they sell, you get paid

The four best-known names in adult billing work the same way. The customer pays the billing company, which appears on the card statement, and the billing company pays you after its fees. It carries the card registration for the adult category, which is why onboarding can be short: Segpay says that once it has a complete KYC package, bank approval and card registration take 24 to 72 hours for high-risk accounts.

Company	What its pages say it is	Published fees	Reserve and payout
Epoch	A Visa and Mastercard payment facilitator; "Epoch.com" appears on the statement	15% down to 13.25% by weekly volume; $1,950 initial and annual fee for the card registration; $12.50 per chargeback	"We do not require a security deposit nor do we withhold a reserve"
CCBill	A payment facilitator in the US, a payment institution in Ireland and the UK	No rates published; lists high-risk registration fees of $950 (Visa) and $500 or $1,000 (Mastercard)	Not stated on the pages we read
Segpay	An ISO and payment facilitator, licensed as a payment institution in the UK and Ireland	No rates published	Payouts every Tuesday
Verotel	A payment service provider and payment facilitator since 2012	Basic at a fixed 15.5% plus €500 a year; Premium from 14% to 13% by volume; +2.5% if chargebacks reach 1%	A 10% rolling reserve for six months

What the table does not show is how much the application asks for, and here Segpay is the most useful document we found, because it publishes it. Its adult content website checklist asks for a business registered in the US, the EU or the UK with a director in the same country, the 18 U.S.C. 2257 statement in the footer, age verification for visitors, a complaints and content removal link, terms and a clear refund policy, and login credentials so the reviewer can see the whole site. CCBill's merchant requirements cover the same ground: incorporation and a principal in the same supported country, a live site with clear pricing, contact details, terms and a privacy policy, and temporary access to the members area. Its acceptable use policy asks merchants to determine how they comply with 2257 and lists the themes it refuses.

The lesson we took from reading them side by side: prepare the site before you apply, not during. Every item on those lists is something a reviewer checks on the live site, and an application with the 2257 page missing does not get a second look faster.

Your own merchant account, through a gateway

The other route is a merchant account in your company's name, with your own merchant ID, at a bank that accepts adult. You get more control over your funds, and you carry the registration and your own chargeback ratio.

CardCorp is an example of that model. Its pages say businesses "will be required to enter into and maintain a separate contract with an acquiring bank nominated by CardCorp", and its high-risk page contrasts it with aggregators ("you get a direct account with your own MID"). It names cam sites, clip stores and dating among the businesses it serves, and it is explicit about geography. It works with acquirers in the EU and the UK and cannot support businesses registered or operating mainly elsewhere. Its documentation puts settlement at typically daily, one or two days in arrears, and weekly for higher-risk or very small businesses, with rolling reserves possible.

Where your company is registered came up on almost every page we read, and it is the lesson we would give first. Before comparing rates, check which processors can take a company from your country at all.

Crypto: no chargebacks, fewer buyers

A crypto processor settles in a way the card networks do not touch. NOWPayments has a page for adult merchants, quotes fees from 1% down to 0.3%, and says there are no chargebacks or refunds unless you initiate them. Its KYC page says crypto-only merchants are asked to verify only when a transaction is flagged, while merchants who convert to fiat go through verification.

What crypto does not give you is the buyer who has no wallet. It is a good second option at checkout and a way to keep selling while a card application is under review. We would not build a paysite on it alone.

What we would tell someone starting

Pick the model before the name. A billing company if you want to sell soon and accept its fees and its presence on the statement; your own merchant account if you have the volume, a company in the right country and the patience for a bank's review; crypto next to either.

Read the pricing pages for what they say about reserves and chargebacks, not only the percentage. A rolling reserve holds part of your revenue for months, and a chargeback threshold can raise your rate after the fact. Several processors publish both; for the others, ask before you sign.

And treat the card networks' rules as the brief. Age and identity records for everyone depicted, content reviewed before it goes live, a working complaint and removal process, clear terms and prices. A site that has those in place can apply anywhere. A site that does not will be asked for them everywhere.

On Jimp, what a subscription costs is on the pricing page, and the plans and billing page of the docs says what happens to a site if a payment stops. None of this is legal advice; for that, read the processors' own terms with a lawyer.