Online Dating Merchant Services
Online Dating Merchant Account and Safe Payment Processing
PUREPAY OFFERS THE STRONGEST ONLINE DATING PAYMENT PROCESSING SOLUTION
One-off or Direct Sale
Recurring or Subscription
Our clients
PUREPAY ONLINE DATING PROCESSING DETAILS
Fees that PurePay will charge depend on factors like processing history, method of sales, destination countries, volume of sales, and products. All Dating Merchant Accounts are unique but included terms stay the same for most: merchant discount rate (MDR), transaction fees, monthly gateway fee, 0-6 month rolling reserve, chargeback fee, refund fee
MDR
from 2.50%
Setup Fee
from €0
Monthly Fee
€49.95
TRANSACTION FEE
from €0.15
AUTHORISATION FEE
from €0.20
WIRE FEE
€5
CHARGEBACK FEE
€35
REFUND FEE
from €0.30
ROLLING RESERVE
from 0%
ROLLING RESERVE HOLD
from 0 days
PAYOUT TERM
from daily +3
The main things that impact the terms are the level of revenues that you get and whether you have documented sales history of over 3 months, not only if you have history but also how well it looks.
Yes, we can do both normal and adult dating and it doesn´t have to effect the pricing, but it can effect which local payment methods you can get.
Yes, we do support certain local payment methods, but ultimately it comes down to the solutions to accept or decline.
Yes, we will contact you (usually within 6 working hours) with a custom offer if your monthly revenues exceeds 150 000 euro and/or if you have history of longer than 6 months.
Get your no obligation quote from PurePay.
We will get it back to you within 12 hours with a quote based on your information.
Dating Merchant Account
Since the groundbreaking launch of the first online dating website in 1995, finding partners via the internet has experienced impressive growth over time across the globe. According to Statista, about 276.9 million people currently use online dating services globally, with 20 million paying for premium features.
While the most popular dating websites currently are Tinder and Badoo, and the overall market size value of the online dating industry is expected to reach $11.03 billion by 2028. As the industry continues to witness the influx of more players, experts estimate that the total revenue of the industry will shoot up to $755 billion by 2024.
With figures as massive as this, there’s no denying the fact that the online dating industry will continue to experience substantial growth in leaps and bounds in the next couple of years. And yet, many entrepreneurs are faced with the challenge of getting merchant account services. If you operate in the online dating industry, having a proper online dating payment processing account is indispensable. Why? It’s not surprising that the online dating industry is categorized as high-risk, which is why many payment processors are reluctant to work with you or your company.
Whether you’re running a brand-new online dating startup or an already established company dealing with millions of customers, you won’t want to be involved in problems related to payment processing. And that’s why you need to partner with the best online dating payment processing service provider like PurePayPayments.
In this piece, we’ll take you through the A-Z of online dating merchant accounts. Sit back, relax, and while we get started. Ready? Let’s go…
What is a Dating Merchant Account?
For your online dating business to process payments effortlessly from debit and credit cards, you must get approved for a high-risk adult or dating merchant account. Usually, these accounts serve as a middleman between your business’s bank account and your customers. Apart from that, adult dating merchant accounts are often integrated with the shopping cart of your adult business website through an online payment gateway.
After this, the customers can now enter their card information to make payments and purchase your products successfully. However, these adult merchant accounts must be highly secured in order to ensure the safety and privacy of customers’ card details as well as the details of the supporting bank. That’s why a payment process is required to pair adult businesses with reputable banks to obtain a high-risk adult merchant account.
Why Are Online Dating Accounts Considered High-Risk?
If you’ve found yourself in this same situation where you face challenges with processing payments for your online dating business, you’re definitely not alone. Whether you’ve got a promising dating startup or an already established one, most merchants face serious issues with getting the most secure basic payment processing solutions to process their payments. The reason behind this isn’t farfetched – most profitable industries, including the online dating industry, face similar obstacles of being classified as high-risk. The online dating industry is classified as high-risk for several reasons.
High Rates of Chargebacks
Chargebacks in the online dating industry are undeniably a highly recurrent thing. Although, there are also several reasons chargebacks occur, the most common cause is when a member of an online dating community claims they stopped getting value for their money. This is mainly an element of buyer’s remorse, where they typically file a dispute instead of seeking a refund through the appropriate channel. When they file a dispute with their issuer, it triggers a chargeback.
The issue of chargebacks in the online dating industry can be likened to a friendly fraud.
Take a look at this scenario. The merchant provided the services the buyer paid for, and there are no genuine reasons for a customer to file a chargeback. Numerous similar cases of friendly fraud frequently occur in the online dating industry, which is why it is considered high risk.
Additionally, many married individuals also use the advantage of online dating to commit infidelity. Whenever their partner stumbles upon a transaction detailing the use of online dating services, the said partner will most likely deny their involvement in an online dating website and, therefore, file a chargeback.
Similarly, many online dating websites attract customers with exclusive deals or free trials. Once they sign up, they’ll be able to purchase the premium deals for advanced packages. There’s usually a service page where a customer unknowingly agrees to a monthly trial after the first free membership is up. Once this free trial expires, those customers usually resort to filing a dispute and triggering a chargeback in an attempt to get a refund of their money, even after agreeing to the terms and conditions. As reported by Deloitte, about 91% of online customers knowingly accept the terms and conditions before filing for chargebacks at a later time.
Whenever a chargeback occurs, it signals lost revenue. And, of course, the number of disputes triggering a chargeback will ultimately plunge your brand into suffering these losses. As a result, working with a payment processing provider who understands the nitty gritty of the online dating industry and knows the right fraud protection tools to be utilized will significantly reduce your risk overall, and partnering with any other than PurePayPayments is the last thing you would want to do.
PurePayPayments offers chargeback protection and prevention and dispute management services to reduce the impact of chargeback and fraud on your online dating business.
Recurring Payments
Most online dating businesses utilize a unique subscription model known as CNP transactions. This is because most online dating transactions are programmed to charge recurring payments with a monthly subscription-based billing cycle. For instance, a customer might be attracted to the free trial, agree with the terms of service, and decide to pool out just after one month or two.
The CNP transaction model has a notoriously higher likelihood of chargebacks than CP (Card Present). And this is because you cannot easily prove that the cardholder expressly authorized the use of the card. With most websites offering monthly subscriptions, among others, recurring payments frequently occur, thus making online businesses suffer huge losses.
Transaction Laundering
The issue of reputational risk is also a serious point of concern for the online dating community. For instance, dating websites can be exploited for illegal activities such as human trafficking or as a cover-up for escort services.
Transaction laundering is usually a form of money laundering which is commonly explored by criminal elements to process their credit card payments secretly. So, how do they achieve this? Whenever a merchant submits their credit card changes for a business different from the business approved for them by the acquirers. Most of these illegal activities are usually carried out fraudulent activities through a website rather than a regular brick-or-mortar store.
What To Consider Before Choosing an Online Dating Merchant Account
Admittedly, an online merchant account is the best solution to your business problems. But you’re still confused as to the benefits. Here are some benefits to consider before choosing an online dating merchant account.
Multiple Payment Processing
For many modern-day consumers, a fast, seamless, and secure payment experience is not an option but a necessity. And in fact, a payment processing solution that offers a wide variety of options is indispensable. Whenever an online dating service lacks a variety of payment options, it turns off the customers from using your services. In fact, 90% of customers, according to Statista, prefer to have a wide range of payment options for their checkouts. Therefore, an online dating merchant account offers various payment options for your customer’s checkouts.
Tracking Tools
Transaction monitoring is essential when it comes to online dating business – each step of the payment should be strictly monitored. Working with a full-service payment provider like PurePayPayments is the surefire way to get the tracking tools to monitor each step of your transaction. Not only will this save you time, but you’ll also save costs and the human resources you deploy in hunting missing or unsuccessful payments while ultimately enhancing your operational efficiency.
Automated Invoicing and Billing
With the best payment processing provider, you would enjoy the added convenience of automated invoicing and billing. Ultimately, your payment process will become simpler while offering you a steady flow of dollars. In addition, an online dating merchant account also offers customers an excellent opportunity to customize amounts to meet their budgets while they easily edit and update their payments.
Safe and Secure Payment Gateway Services
The safety and security of your online dating merchant account help you transfer transactions between payment portals and banks or front-end payment processors. An online dating merchant account offers excellent safety and protection of transactions, especially against fraud and chargebacks, by providing a buffer of end-to-end encryption, usually between you and your customer. With an online dating merchant account, rest assured you’ll benefit from fast loading times while reducing shopping cart abandonment.
How Long Does It Take to Get an Approved Online Dating Merchant Account?
Depending on the strength of your application, the approval duration for your online dating merchant account varies. However, fast approval is our watchword at PurePayPayments, as some accounts can be approved on the same day your application is submitted.
While other factors can contribute to the delayed approval of your online dating merchant account application, the standard approval duration set by the industry is 3-7 days. If you have all the essential documents at the point of contacting us at PurePayPayments, we’ll definitely speed up the entire process with optimum efforts
How to Ensure the Highest Security of Your Online Dating Payment Processing Account
At PurePayPayments, ensuring the security of your high-risk adult merchant account is our top priority. Our merchants and affiliate partners are offered payment gateways of our acquiring banks. Through our merchant account managers and underwriters, we conduct a thorough investigation and due diligence to ensure the safety and security of your high-risk adult merchant accounts against fraudsters and credit card scams. Let’s take a look at some of our security measures against fraud and scams.
PCI Compliance
PCI represents a layer of security standards set forth for every ISOs and payment service providers by the Card Industry Standards Council (PCI SSC) to ensure safety and security while handling credit card-related transactions. At PurePayPayments, PCI compliance is only one of the standards we meet to protect our clients and customers in the adult online dating industry against fraud. In addition, our PCI-Level 1 secure payment gateway is monitored 24/7 and regularly tested for security issues.
3D Secure Processing
Established by Visa, 3D Secure Processing is another excellent way to confirm credit card transactions. It is also used to connect acquiring banks with merchants to ensure that every transaction undergoes strict authentication.
In addition, we also ensure the safety and security of your account against fraud, scams, and chargebacks through address & identity verification, military-grade encryption, card brand security services, customized anti-fraud weapons, and many more.
Did Your Credit Card Processor Shut Down Your Online Dating Merchant Account?
Undoubtedly, there might be several other reasons behind your search for a payment provider, but the recent sudden shutdown of your previous processor is one. Of course, your businesses will be hugely affected by your inability to process payments.
What does this mean? Why was your account shut down?
It’s simply because you’re running a business labeled as high-risk while those processors only specialize in low-risk payments. Would you allow that setback to be the end of your adult business? Remember, it is within the rights of these payment processors to terminate your account immediately or even withhold your funds for a while. Even, the chargeback liability period for many payment processors is at least 180 days.
Should you have experienced this recently? PurePayPayments is the best payment service provider you should partner with right now.
What are the Fees Associated with Getting Approved for Your High-Risk Merchant Account?
The fees associated with opening a high-risk merchant account vary considerably from one payment provider to another. Though an adult online business is labeled high-risk, you would pay more than regular brick-and-mortar store accounts. However, the benefits you would get would outweigh the fees. Is the ability to process payments in a variety of currencies? Or the eliminated fear of losing your account to closure again? Or even having your funds held.
Good news! At PurePayPayments, our application/set up fee and early termination fees are absolutely waived. We do this to ensure safety and transparency.
Payment processing fees could significantly reduce your profit margins. Our goal at PurePayPayments is to ensure that we offer our payment processing services at an affordable rate for all our clients and customers. At the same time, we also offer you service-oriented processors that optimally match your needs.
Do Online Dating Apps Need a High-Risk Merchant Account?
YES. Whether you’re operating with your website or an app, your adult dating business is labeled as high-risk, and you would need a high-risk merchant account. Therefore, your payment processing will be handled through the CNP transactions daily.
Similar to online dating websites, online dating apps would also need to process credit card payments without the fear of losing their merchant accounts to a sudden termination. This is common to most dating applications such as Bumble, Match, Badoo, Tinder, PlentyofFish, and many more, as they fall into the high-risk category.
The chargeback challenges that large companies face in the adult online dating space also affect small and newer companies. Smaller businesses or startups with less economic space and experience are also subjected to having their online merchant accounts terminated.
As an online dating startup, ensure that you eliminate the risk of getting your account terminated by specializing in high-risk merchant accounts. And that’s why you should choose no other payment processing company than PurePayPayments.
Setting Up an Online Dating Merchant Account; What You Must Know
It could be a highly overwhelming task to navigate the ever-growing list of established high-risk payment service providers and credit card processors. Above all, it is pertinent to note that not all payment service providers have equal offers.
Therefore, you must conduct your research thoroughly, undertake due diligence, and compare your options. However, before your final decision on the online dating payment processing service provider for your dating website, let’s take a look at some of the features and functionalities you should examine before choosing a payment processing partner.
Merchant Category Code (MCC)
Your Merchant Category Code your business falls into is one crucial factor that can either increase or reduce your processing fees as well as currency conversion rates. Depending on the mainstream content and other factors, your adult online dating business can fall into different merchant category codes. For instance, it could be a high-risk business with a code of 5957 or a dating business with a 7273 code.
Security and Fraud Prevention
There’s no doubt about it. Chargebacks are unfortunate incidents frequently occurring in online dating, as discussed earlier in this piece. Other related incidents include increased overhead, added fees, and other losses that can negatively impact the bottom line of your business. True Cost of Fraud Study 2022 revealed that there is an average loss of $3.75 for every $1 loss to fraud cases. Therefore, a highly safe and secure payment processing solution coupled with an accurate anti-fraud tool is an excellent way to mitigate and guarantee optimum security and fraud protection on your online dating merchant account.
Global Presence
There’s no dissipation in the business of love simply because there’s a border. Your primary duty as an online dating business is to ensure the satisfaction of your customers. And one effective way is to mitigate fraudulent activities and the risks of chargebacks while ensuring that you accept payments from all users across the globe. And as such, accepting payments in multiple currencies is a game-changer and will allow you to penetrate a growing global market. Thus, expanding the tentacles of your business and opening a new world of opportunities for your business growth.
Advanced Technology Integration
Having the proper advanced level technology is a surefire way to succeed in your payment processing as an online dating business. However, this doesn’t mean a complicated solution that would expose you to a brick wall during the operation. Remember, the purpose is to take your business to the next level and outsmart others. Therefore, only partner with an online dating payment processing solution that utilizes industry-leading technology solutions to save you money, time, and other resources.
Transparent Pricing Structure
The payment processing industry is a bit complicated. And one of the factors that contribute to its confusing process is the payment processing services pricing. When searching for a payment processing provider, it is best to seek out one with a transparent pricing structure – no hidden fees. In addition, the pricing structure should include an explanation of the fees and potential costs, as well as a low-commitment contract. Of course, as the name suggests, “high-risk” translates to high fees compared to traditional ones. However, you should seek a high-risk payment service provider that offers an open and transparent pricing structure coupled with advanced tools and round-the-clock support.
Industry Leading Provider
Not all merchant service provider offers similar features and functionalities. That’s why you need to seek a payment processing provider with the required experience and who truly understands the nitty-gritty of the online dating industry. With a reputable payment provider, your business will be fully protected while saving you valuable time, effort, and resources.
When you choose PurePayPayments, we will not only help your online dating company secure top payment services, but we’ll secure a payment processor that offers the most competitive rates. As an industry-leading provider, rest assured our solutions will be specifically tailored toward the core objectives of your business.
How to Setup an Online Dating Merchant Account
When you set up an online dating merchant account, ensure that you do it the right way. Depending on the payment service provider, the application and setup process varies considerably. At PurePayPayments, our aim is to ensure that your high-risk merchant account application process is streamlined and seamless. From your application process to integrating the merchant account with your payment gateway, all hands will be on deck to ensure that you go live immediately after your application is approved.
Once you’re approved and properly integrated, the payment processing for your online dating merchant account begins immediately.
Why PurePayPayments Is Your Perfect Match
At PurePayPayments, our team of experts boasts of two decades of excellent experience and understanding of the online dating industry. Our success lies in our ability to tailor our solutions to meet the needs of our customers in the online dating industry.
Our desire is to get you approved and stay approved while growing your dating business to the enviable height you’ve always dreamed of.
REQUIREMENTS
- Incorporation Certificate.
- Memorandum & Articles of Incorporation.
- Color Passport for UBO / Shareholders / Directors.
- Office Lease Agreement signed by both parties. Or Rental Invoice under company’s name – not older than 90 days from the date of application.
- Business Bank Statement under company’s name and present address, showing IBAN and SWIFT – not older than 90 days from the date of application and for the last three concecutive months.
- If Processing History is available for latest 3-6 months from the date of application – under company’s name, showing processor’s name/logo, sales, refunds, and chargebacks for each month separately.
- If Processing History is unavailable then detailed business plan and cashflow forecast for minimum of one fiscal year. Get it here
- Utility Bill [electricity / gas / water / rental / tax bill] from UBO / Shareholders / Directors under their name and present address – not older than 90 days from the date of application.
- Proof of domain under company’s name, showing applying URL and date of domain renewal / expiry – preferably domain purchase receipt.
- Local signatory is a requirement for this vertical, therefore KYC from local signatory is needed.
- If fake accounts are used, it needs to mentioned in the terms as to why they´re there.
One of the first things needed for you as a merchant is to obtain a dating merchant account, in order to process and bill your customers. This can be done locally or via a worldwide solution. Different things like pricing and terms changes depending on whether or not it is a start-up or a ongoing project which currently accepts payments on the website / app. When it comes to your business being a start-up, it will come with a rolling reserve of usually 10% and it will mean “worse” terms but we try to stay competitive and help you get started cheapest possible.
If you are doing re-billing, you have to strictly monitor transactions for chargebacks, and the terms. With direct sale, terms and pricing will be more compelling. We can also support this business model which offers trial, but this comes with higher cost and longer approval time.
Fees that PurePay will charge depends factors like: Processing History, Method of Sales, Countries, Volume of Sales, and Products. All merchant accounts are unique but included terms stays the same for most:
Merchant discount rate
- Transaction fees
- Monthly statement fee
- Monthly gateway fee
- Four and a Half – Six-month rolling reserve (Depending on bank)
- Charge back fee
- Refund fee
PurePay offers payment processing in Europe, therefore the merchant has to have a European company plus fulfill requirements needed thereto which includes documents and website compliance. All Dating merchant accounts are categorized with the 5967 or 7311 MCC code, which help the payment processors identify the transactions and implement the laws.