A subscription merchant account for continuity billing, priced on deposit volume.
Monthly boxes, trial-to-continuity funnels, auto-replenish and drip programs sit on the Grey Hat plan: $2,499 setup, then 9% of deposit volume. This page covers why rebills are underwritten as high-risk, what acquirers ask for, how the IBO package answers it and what you keep clean.
Why subscription and continuity billing is underwritten as high-risk
A rebill is a charge the cardholder did not click on that day. Everything an underwriter worries about follows from that.
Subscription billing runs on stored credentials and merchant-initiated transactions: the customer consents once, the merchant charges on a schedule. Every later charge is card-not-present, without the cardholder in front of a checkout, so the evidence of consent is what the customer saw and accepted on the original offer page. Acquirers underwrite that offer page as carefully as the product, because it is the whole defence when a cardholder tells the bank they never agreed.
Disputes in this vertical cluster at two moments: the trial conversion, when a free or discounted period turns into the full price, and a later rebill, when a customer who forgot the subscription sees a descriptor they do not recognise. Both produce chargebacks weeks after the sale, so the ratio card networks monitor lags the volume. Acquirers price that lag with reserves and volume caps; see chargebacks for high-risk merchants for how the ratio is monitored and what breaching it triggers.
The third exposure is the operator. A continuity brand run from outside the United States gives the acquirer no US-resident person to underwrite: no credit file, no background check, no US bank account to settle rebills into. That is the gap the high-risk merchant account pillar starts from, and why the file begins with the director rather than the offer. The industries hub maps every vertical to a plan.
What acquirers ask for on a subscription file
The standard high-risk file, plus a billing layer, as underwriters typically request it; every acquirer has its own template.
- Offer terms as the customer sees them
- The checkout and trial pages: price, billing frequency, trial length, the amount charged when the trial ends and how to cancel. Underwriters compare them with your refund policy and ads.
- Cancellation and refund policy
- A policy the subscriber can act on without calling anyone, visible before checkout and in the confirmation email. Acquirers read how fast a cancellation stops the next rebill.
- Fulfilment or access evidence
- For boxes and auto-replenish: supplier invoices, shipping method and delivery confirmation per cycle. For drip programs and clubs: how access is granted and what a member receives each period.
- Processing history with rebill data
- Statements from any previous MID with refunds and chargebacks by month, plus rebill rate and trial-conversion rate if you have them. Underwriters project the dispute curve from those numbers.
- A director who answers
- Government ID, proof of address and a credit file for the person on the application, plus the verification calls, at underwriting and whenever the acquirer re-verifies the file.
How the IBO package covers the file
The package delivers the entity, the director and the banking side. You bring the offer, the terms and the fulfilment.
- US entity with EIN. An LLC or C-Corp incorporated in the director's home state, never a Wyoming shell, with articles, operating agreement and EIN letter ready to upload.
- A director the underwriter can check. The Independent Business Operator (IBO) is a real US resident with zero criminal record, a credit score of 650 or more and a submission-ready KYC file. Exclusive to you, never used before.
- Verification calls answered. Before and after approval, the director takes the acquirer's calls and signs what the file requires, with no say in your offer, funnel or ads.
- A settlement account you control. A business bank account at Bluebanc or Relay in the company's name: inbound and outbound wires, debit card, no minimum balance. Rebills settle into an account you operate.
- Company email and US residential proxy. The application, the gateway login and the bank session come from an address on the company domain and a US IP.
- Optional add-ons. The document template pack ($499, one-time) includes refund policy and terms of service templates; bank pages ($2,499, one-time) and merchant account consulting ($899 per month) can be added on the same order.
What you keep clean: descriptor, refund policy, claims, fulfilment
The package gets the file through underwriting. Four habits keep a rebill MID alive afterwards.
Use a descriptor the subscriber recognises on every rebill: the brand name from the offer page plus a support URL or phone number, identical on the confirmation email and on the parcel. Send a reminder before a trial converts, and before renewals on longer billing cycles. Make cancellation as easy as sign-up and stop the next charge the moment a customer cancels; a rebill taken after cancellation is a dispute you will not win.
Refund before a dispute rather than after one: a refund costs the sale, a chargeback costs the sale plus the ratio. Keep claims inside what the product delivers, on your offer pages and on the affiliate pre-sale pages you control. Ship every box with tracking and keep delivery confirmation per cycle; grant digital access instantly and log it. Disclose new offers, price changes and trial changes to the acquirer before they go live: an undisclosed change in billing terms is treated like an undisclosed product.
- Descriptor: brand name plus support contact, identical on statement, email and parcel, on every rebill.
- Refund and cancellation: visible before checkout, one step to cancel, next charge stopped at once.
- Claims: what the product delivers, on your pages and on the affiliate pages you control.
- Fulfilment: tracking and delivery confirmation per cycle, access logged, billing changes disclosed first.
What is refused inside subscription and continuity
Some are refused by IBOCore before purchase; the others are refused by acquirers at underwriting or terminated later.
- Forced continuity and trial traps: a recurring charge the customer did not clearly agree to, a hidden price after the trial, or a cancellation path that needs a phone call nobody answers. Negative option billing is permitted only with clear disclosure.
- Rebilling after cancellation, or retrying a declined card beyond what network rules and your processor allow. Unauthorised rebills are a dispute pattern acquirers watch on every subscription MID.
- Running subscription volume on a White Hat package. Trial-to-continuity, monthly boxes and auto-replenish belong on Grey Hat; misclassification is the one thing that suspends a package.
- Routing the initial sale through one MID and the rebills through another so the first ratio looks clean, or changing the descriptor between the two. Acquirers read it as ratio gaming; extra MIDs are declared, not hidden.
- A prohibited product behind the subscription: adult content, gambling, prescription products. The billing model does not change the refused list.
Plan and price by billing model
The line between the two plans is structural: how you bill, not what you sell. State it honestly at purchase.
Prices as published on the homepage. Ongoing billing starts 30 days after delivery.
How to get the package and open the MID
Four steps, no KYC on you, no notary, no travel. Delivery is the same day; acquirer onboarding then takes 3 to 10 business days, on the acquirer's timeline.
- 1
Contact a representative on Telegram
Describe the offer, the trial and rebill schedule and where you process today. Merchants are reviewed on business proofs before dashboard access; the Grey Hat plan is confirmed here.
- 2
Choose the package and the Grey Hat plan
Pick an available entity in the inventory. Add the document template pack if your refund policy and terms of service are not yet written for a subscription file.
- 3
Pay the setup fee
$2,499 in USDT or USDC on ERC20 or TRC20. The 9% revenue share starts 30 days after delivery, so the onboarding window is not billed.
- 4
Receive the package and apply
Documents, director file and bank access arrive on Telegram the same day. Submit the application with your offer pages through your own ISO or directly; the director answers the acquirer's calls.
Packages for the Grey Hat plan are permanently in stock and delivered the same day the payment confirms. Company names are masked until you sign in.
Subscription merchant accounts, page-specific questions
The follow-up questions continuity operators ask on Telegram once the plan is clear.
Why is subscription and continuity Grey Hat when SaaS can sit on White Hat?
The risk curve differs, not the billing frequency. A SaaS seat with steady recurring revenue and minimal chargebacks behaves like a predictable MID. Trial-to-continuity, boxes and auto-replenish carry rebill disputes that arrive weeks after the sale; a flat fee would mis-price that, so the revenue share follows deposit volume.
Can I run a trial-to-continuity offer on an IBOCore package?
Yes. Hard-trial and trial-to-continuity offers are listed on the Grey Hat side of the industries hub. The condition is disclosure: the price after the trial, the billing frequency and the cancellation path shown before the customer enters a card. IBOCore has no opinion on your funnel; the acquirer underwrites it.
What does the acquirer want to see about my rebill terms?
The exact pages a subscriber sees: the offer, the checkout with the recurring terms, the confirmation email and the cancellation flow. Then, if you have processing history, rebill rate, trial-conversion rate and refunds and chargebacks by month. Consistent terms across every page matter more than polish.
How does the 9% revenue share work on a subscription MID?
The ongoing fee on Grey Hat is 9% of the deposit volume, invoiced monthly, starting 30 days after delivery, with no flat monthly plan fee on top. Because rebills are the bulk of a continuity business, the fee scales with what settles on the account, not with a volume guessed at launch.
What should the descriptor show on a rebill charge?
The brand name the subscriber saw on the offer page, followed by a support URL or phone number, within the character limit your processor gives you. Keep it identical on the first sale and on every rebill; a descriptor that changes between the two reads as an unknown charge.
Do recurring boxes need delivery proof for every shipment?
In practice, yes. A rebill disputed as not received is won or lost on the delivery confirmation for that cycle, not for the first box. Ship every cycle with tracking, store the confirmation with the transaction ID, and tell the acquirer before you change the shipping method declared at underwriting.
Related reading
Industries
Every vertical served, the plan for each, and the verticals refused.
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Continuity supplements, trial offers and CBD-adjacent products on the same plan.
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Paid content, gated communities and niche streaming billed monthly.
Read moreFitness apps and memberships
App memberships, virtual classes and tiered plans on recurring volume.
Read moreHigh-risk merchant account
What a high-risk MID is and why the file starts with a US director.
Read moreWhite Hat vs Grey Hat
The two plans side by side, with the billing models that decide between them.
Read more
Open a US MID for your subscription business.
A Grey Hat package with a director, an entity and a settlement account, delivered today; the offer and the terms stay yours.
No KYC on you, no notary, no travel.