White Hat vs Grey Hat Plan: Which One Fits Your Billing Model

The plan follows your billing model, not your budget. One-time sales on a standard high-risk vertical sit on White Hat: $1,999 setup, then a flat $4,499 per month. Subscription, continuity and other recurring models sit on Grey Hat: $2,499 setup, then 9% of deposit volume. Both ongoing fees start 30 days after delivery, the package contents are identical, and declaring subscription volume as one-time sales gets the package suspended.

The choice between White Hat and Grey Hat is made by your billing model, not by your budget. If your customers pay once per order (a dropshipping store, a course, a coaching program, a compliant wellness brand), you belong on White Hat: $1,999 setup, then a flat $4,499 per month. If your revenue comes from subscriptions, continuity, trials that roll into recurring charges, memberships or paid content, you belong on Grey Hat: $2,499 setup, then 9% of deposit volume. The one recurring model the industries page keeps on White Hat is SaaS with steady monthly seats and minimal chargebacks. Both ongoing fees start 30 days after the package is delivered, the package itself is identical on both plans, and the only thing that gets a package suspended is presenting one model as the other. Below: the four inputs that decide it, the prices, the add-ons and worked illustrations with round numbers.

The four inputs that decide the plan

Your representative on Telegram confirms the fit before you pay, but the decision rests on four inputs you already know about your own business. Billing model comes first. Chargeback exposure follows from it: acquirers typically treat recurring billing as higher risk than one-time sales, because every rebill is a fresh opportunity for a cardholder to dispute a charge, and because trial offers attract disputes by design. Vertical is the shorthand the industries page uses for the same distinction, one plan per vertical. Volume matters for forecasting the fee, not for choosing the plan: a large one-time store stays on White Hat and a small subscription business stays on Grey Hat. The reason there are two fee structures is stated plainly on the site: a flat monthly fee would mis-price a subscription-heavy operation whose volume compounds over time, so that plan bills a share of deposit volume instead.

White Hat: $1,999 setup, then $4,499 per month

White Hat is the flat-fee plan for standard high-risk e-commerce. You pay $1,999 once at checkout, receive the package the same day the payment confirms, and the $4,499 monthly fee begins 30 days after delivery. The fee does not move with the volume the MID settles, which is why the plan suits operators with predictable monthly throughput on a single MID who want a known cost per package. The industries page lists six verticals on this plan:

• High-ticket dropshipping: single or multi-product stores with paid traffic and one payment per order.
• Info-products and courses: digital courses, paid communities and certifications sold one-shot or on a multi-payment plan with a fixed end.
• Coaching and consulting: high-ticket coaching, agency services and done-for-you offers with manual fulfilment.
• White-hat e-commerce: branded D2C stores, apparel, accessories, niche inventory.
• Health and wellness (compliant): supplement, skincare and cosmetics brands with clean labelling, no medical claims and no continuity mechanics.
• SaaS and digital tools: monthly seats and usage-based products, listed on White Hat when the recurring revenue is steady and chargebacks are minimal.

Grey Hat: $2,499 setup, then 9% of deposit volume

Grey Hat is the revenue-share plan for subscription-heavy operations. You pay $2,499 once at checkout, receive the same package the same day, and from 30 days after delivery the ongoing fee is 9% of deposit volume, invoiced monthly on the volume the package deposited. A flat fee would mis-price a business whose volume starts small and compounds as subscribers accumulate, so the share tracks the curve instead. The line between the plans runs through product categories, not around them: a supplement brand that sells a bottle at a time is White Hat, the same brand on an auto-ship program is Grey Hat, and a SaaS product with steady seats is White Hat while a gated community sold on a trial that rolls into a monthly charge is Grey Hat. What matters is how the card is charged. The six Grey Hat verticals on the industries page:

• Subscription and continuity: monthly boxes, trial-to-continuity offers, auto-replenish programs.
• Nutra and supplements: continuity-driven nutra, weight management, joint and cognitive products.
• Streaming and subscriptions: premium content, gated communities and niche streaming billed monthly.
• Crypto-adjacent businesses: education, trading signals and software around crypto; exchanges and custody are refused.
• Paid media and publishing: newsletters, premium research and paywalled journalism on recurring or tiered billing.
• Fitness apps and memberships: app memberships, virtual classes and coaching apps with recurring volume.

Worked illustrations with round numbers

The figures below are illustrations, not quotes: round numbers, no settlement timing, no reserves, no acquirer fees. They show what each plan bills once the ongoing fee starts, 30 days after delivery. Your own deposit volume decides the real amounts, and the plan is assigned by billing model, not by which number is smaller.

Two arithmetic facts help with forecasting. First, 9% of monthly deposits equals the $4,499 flat fee at roughly $50,000 of deposits; below that volume the share is the smaller number, above it the flat fee is. This is not a decision rule: a $150,000 continuity business pays the share and a $40,000 course business pays the flat fee, because the plan follows the billing model and is confirmed with your representative at purchase. Second, twelve billing cycles on White Hat cost $1,999 plus twelve times $4,499, which is $55,987; the same twelve cycles on Grey Hat cost $2,499 plus 9% of whatever the package deposits over that period, so the Grey Hat total is only known in hindsight.

Add-ons: what they cost and who adds them

Three optional add-ons can be attached at checkout on either plan. Two are one-time amounts added to the setup invoice; one is a monthly amount billed alongside the plan from 30 days after delivery. None of them is required to receive or use the package. The bank pages and the template pack strengthen the underwriting file; bank pages are deployed on request for sensitive verticals where the underwriter asks for banking evidence beyond the standard documentation. The consulting concerns the acquirer choice and the application itself, and is useful whenever you do not already have an ISO relationship you trust.

Why misclassification suspends the package

Honest classification at purchase is one of only two operating conditions IBOCore imposes, and misclassification is the only thing that gets a package suspended. The reason is structural. The plan prices the billing model the package will carry: a subscription business declared as one-time e-commerce pays a flat fee sized for a different volume curve, and its underwriting file describes a model that is not the one being processed. Acquirers typically treat a gap between the declared billing model and the observed one as an undisclosed change, and an undisclosed change can end a MID rather than adjust it. Since the director on the package is the name the acquirer underwrote, that finding lands on the package itself, which is why the declaration binds.

The second operating condition, the 30-day activation clock, matters for the choice too. On both plans the setup fee is paid in USDT or USDC on ERC20 or TRC20, the package is delivered the same day the payment confirms, and the ongoing fee starts 30 days later. Acquirer onboarding typically takes 3 to 10 business days, so it fits inside that window. If no merchant account has been opened by day 30 and the package sits idle, IBOCore can reclaim and reassign it, and the setup fee is not refunded. Declare the plan for the business you will actually run on the package. If you run a one-time store and a separate subscription offer, buy two packages, one per plan, rather than pushing both models through one entity and one declaration. Whatever the plan, a MID termination by the acquirer brings no clawbacks and no penalties; the package stays yours and can be used with another acquirer.

Questions merchants ask

Does Grey Hat include anything White Hat does not?

No. Both plans ship the same package, from the US entity with its EIN and the nominee director (the IBO, Independent Business Operator) to the bank account with full access, the documentation, the email, the proxy and the Telegram support group; the full list is on the inventory page. The plans differ only in the setup fee ($1,999 against $2,499) and in how the ongoing fee is computed. Grey Hat is not a premium tier; it is a pricing structure for recurring billing.

My SaaS bills monthly. Is that White Hat or Grey Hat?

The industries page lists SaaS and digital tools on White Hat when the recurring revenue is steady, seats are the product and chargebacks are minimal. Subscription-heavy models built on trials, continuity or memberships sit on Grey Hat. If your SaaS looks more like a gated community with a free trial rolling into a monthly charge, describe it to your representative on Telegram; the classification is confirmed with you before purchase, and it is your declaration that binds.

What if I am not sure which plan applies?

Ask before you pay. The first step of the process is a conversation with a representative on Telegram, and the second is choosing the package and plan with that representative confirming the fit. Give the billing model, the vertical, the expected monthly deposit volume and whether any trial or rebill mechanic exists. A misclassified package is suspended, so a two-minute message is the cheapest insurance in the whole process.

Concrete terms: IBO, MID, DBA and KYB

An IBO (Independent Business Operator) is the US-resident officer on your entity. A MID (Merchant ID) is the processing account an acquirer assigns once underwriting clears. Your DBA (doing business as) is the billing descriptor cardholders see on statements; vague DBAs drive friendly fraud disputes. KYB (Know Your Business) is the acquirer review of ownership, website, refund policy and processing history before a MID goes live.

• EIN: US tax ID; every MID application references it.
• Authorized signer: the person legally accountable on bank and processor paperwork (your IBO).
• Personal guarantor: US-resident with SSN whose credit file the acquirer pulls.
• BOI report: FinCEN beneficial-ownership filing; must match reality.
• Package URL: the document bundle IBOCore delivers same day after acquisition.

Mistakes that cost operators their first MID

1. Hiring a $300 Telegram signer with no contract or credit file.
2. Listing a signer who is already guarantor on a dozen fresh MIDs (velocity flags).
3. Skipping BOI or hiding the real owner from FinCEN.
4. Expecting same-day processing when only the LLC was delivered, not the IBO layer.

FAQ: quick answers

How fast can I get an IBO package on IBOCore?

Available inventory ships the same day after payment. You receive Articles, EIN letter, registered agent details, bank onboarding pack and signer contact through your merchant dashboard. Processor onboarding typically follows over the next one to two weeks.

Where can I look up payment-processing jargon?

Use the Resources glossary on IBOCore (/resources) for 580+ definitions: MID, chargeback ratio, MATCH, rolling reserve, MCC, RDR, KYB and high-risk vertical vocabulary.