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Dash/Process

Recurring & direct response

Standard program

Subscription and continuity payment processing

Recurring billing is a business model acquirers like and a dispute profile they do not. The gap between the two is descriptor clarity and cancellation friction.

Commonly assigned MCC

5968 · 5817 · 5734

The category actually assigned is set at boarding and can differ from these.

Reviewed

The short version

Subscriptions concentrate two problems. Disputes arrive on a lag, so a ratio that looks fine in month two can breach in month six. And a meaningful share of them are not fraud at all — they are customers who did not recognize a descriptor or could not find the cancel button.

Both are addressable, and addressing them is most of what a good processor does for a subscription merchant. Account updater matters more here than anywhere else: involuntary churn from expired cards is usually larger than voluntary churn.

What is actually being priced

What underwriting is looking at.

Lagging ratio

Disputes land months after the initial sale, so ratio measured against current-month volume understates real exposure.

Descriptor confusion

A descriptor that does not match the brand the customer bought from produces disputes indistinguishable from fraud in the data.

Cancellation friction

Click-to-cancel expectations are now regulatory in several jurisdictions, not merely good practice.

What their lists say

Stripe, Square and PayPal on subscription.

Their own published policies, quoted verbatim and dated, next to where the category stands with our acquiring partners.

Stripe

Allowed with conditions

“Negative option marketing, negative option membership clubs, and reduced price trials with unclear or hidden pricing”

Recurring billing is supported; the structures quoted are prohibited.

Square

Prohibited

“direct marketing or subscription offers or services”

PayPal

Not listed

Not named.

Dash Process

Standard program

Continuity, trials and negative option written on their disclosure and cancel paths, not banned by structure.

What we ask for
All twenty categories, with sources

In the product

What your application looks like from your side.

The same five stages we publish on the site, a named contact, and the document list for subscription in one place — received, requested, or not needed.

How it works
Meridian Botanicals/Application
Sandbox
  1. Apply
  2. Underwriting
  3. Approve
  4. Integrate
  5. Live

Underwriting in progress

Acquiring review · Subscription and continuity program · MCC 5968

In review

Documents · 3 of 4 received

  • Billing intervals, trial structure and price pointsReceived
  • Live cancellation pathReceived
  • Churn, refund and chargeback rates by cohort if you have themReceived
  • Descriptor as it currently appears on statementsRequested
Illustrative · figures are fictional, not a quote

What we put in place

  • Recurring billing with account updater across the major networks
  • Descriptor configuration per brand and per offer
  • Pre-dispute alerts that stop the next rebill before a chargeback posts
  • Retry and dunning logic tuned against your real decline reasons

What underwriting will ask you for

Assemble these before you apply anywhere. The list does not get shorter by waiting, and having it ready is the single biggest thing you control about how long this takes.

  • Billing intervals, trial structure and price points
  • Live cancellation path
  • Churn, refund and chargeback rates by cohort if you have them
  • Descriptor as it currently appears on statements
Why each document is on the list

Questions

About subscription.

Yes, when they are disclosed and cancellable. Mainstream lists prohibit trials with unclear or hidden pricing; our acquiring partners write the offer on its disclosure, its pre-billing notice and its cancel path rather than banning the structure.

On this account

What an account in this vertical usually runs on.

Next

Direct response marketing

Tell us about your subscription business.

We will tell you which of our acquiring partners writes it and what your file needs before it goes anywhere.

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