Dropshipping payments that survive underwriting.
Stripe froze the balance and Shopify Payments closed the file. We place card-not-present catalogues with banks that already underwrite third-party fulfilment — domestic and offshore, with reserve terms negotiated before you sign, not sprung on you in month two.
24–48 hrs
Written decision on a complete file
38
Acquiring banks under active agreement
11 yrs
Placing card-not-present files
The underwriting ledger
Methodology: portfolio ratio is a rolling 90-day figure across every live MID, calculated the way Visa VAMP calculates it — TC40 fraud plus TC15 non-fraud disputes over settled CNP transaction count — and restated on the first business day of each month. Uptime is measured at the gateway edge across all authorisation endpoints over the same rolling 90 days. Settlement timing is per merchant agreement and varies by acquirer. Figures last restated 1 August 2026.
Accepted marks and standards
Card-network marks indicate the payment types accepted through the Meridian Rails gateway and do not imply endorsement or sponsorship by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover. Our PCI DSS v4.0.1 Attestation of Compliance is available to any merchant or acquirer on request; your own SAQ scope is confirmed in writing at boarding.
Built for third-party fulfilment
Six things an underwriter raises the moment a dropshipping file lands on the desk. Here is what we send back, and what we will need from you to send it.
18–30 day fulfilment windows
Long supplier lead times are the single largest driver of TC15 disputes in this category. We board them with pre-shipment delivery disclosure at checkout, tracking uploaded to the gateway at dispatch, and delivery confirmation attached automatically to every representment.
No inventory on your balance sheet
Underwriters read a zero-inventory business as a fulfilment risk, not a fraud risk. Supplier agreements, a 90-day dispatch log and one supplier reference usually settle it. We tell you which of the three your file is missing before it goes to the bank.
A prior processor termination
A closed Stripe or PayPal account is a fact to be explained, not concealed. Send the termination notice with the file. Banks decline concealed history far more often than disclosed history, and an unexplained gap in statements reads worse than a chargeback spike.
A ratio above the monitoring line
Visa moved the VAMP merchant excessive threshold to 1.50% on 1 April 2026 and merged TC40 fraud with TC15 disputes into one ratio with no early-warning tier. If you are over it, remediation goes into the file alongside the numbers — alerts, 3-DS step-up rules and descriptor changes with dates.
Reserve terms you can survive
Where a bank requires a rolling reserve we negotiate the percentage, the hold period and the step-down review date before signature, and put all three in the merchant agreement. A reserve you learn about at first settlement is a cash-flow event; one you priced in is a line item.
MID diversification for portfolios
Agencies and holdcos running five to fifty stores get separate MIDs per entity with independent descriptors, load balancing across acquirers, and one consolidated weekly ratio report so a single store cannot pull the whole portfolio into a monitoring program.
Submit, underwrite, board, monitor
Four steps, each with the elapsed time we actually hold ourselves to. There is no application fee and no credit pull at the enquiry stage.
Day 0Submit
Three months of processing statements, your storefront URL, incorporation documents and beneficial-owner ID. Fifteen minutes of your time. If you were declined elsewhere, send the decline email — the reason code tells us which banks to skip.
15 minutes- Cost None
- Credit pull No
Days 1–2Underwrite
KYB and KYC verification, OFAC sanctions screening, MATCH inquiry, site review against scheme CNP requirements, and a read of your ratio history. You get a written decision naming the sponsoring bank, the rate, the reserve and the settlement schedule.
24–48 hours- Output Written decision
- Binding On signature
Days 3–7Board
MID issued by the sponsor bank, descriptor set and test-charged so you can see exactly what the cardholder sees, gateway keys delivered, 3-D Secure 2 rules configured and the alert networks connected before the first live authorisation.
2–5 business days- Integration Hosted fields or API
- Vault Portable
OngoingMonitor
A named analyst, a weekly ratio report against the current VAMP and ECM thresholds, alert-to-refund automation inside the 24-hour window, and a call the week a metric moves — not the month after the bank writes to you.
Weekly reporting- Analyst Named
- Review Reserve step-down at month 6
Files other processors closed
Merchant results vary. Approval, pricing, reserve terms and settlement timing depend on underwriting and on the sponsoring bank, and nothing described here is a prediction of any outcome for your business.
“Terminated by our previous processor over a 1.9% ratio with 40% of the balance held. Meridian read the decline notice, put alerts and 3-DS step-up on before boarding, and we were at 0.6% by the second month. The reserve stepped down on the date in the agreement.”
Home & garden catalogue
Dropshipping · ~$380k/mo · Boarded 2025
“Our supplier ships from Asia in 21 days and every processor treated that as fraud exposure. They boarded it with pre-shipment disclosure at checkout and tracking pushed to the gateway. First written decision came back in 31 hours.”
Print-on-demand apparel
Third-party fulfilment · ~$95k/mo · Boarded 2024
“We needed MID diversification across entities, not one account with a bigger limit. Separate descriptors per store, two acquirers, one weekly ratio report. When one store spiked, it stayed contained to that store.”
Ecommerce holdco, 22 stores
Agency portfolio · ~$2.1M/mo · Boarded 2023
The five questions every frozen merchant asks
Answered the way an underwriter would answer them, which sometimes means the answer is no.
Ask the underwriting desk directly
Reply within one business day, 08:00–19:00 ET / 14:00–01:00 CET. No sales queue.
underwriting@clearing-bell.comGet a written decision in 48 hours, not a silent hold.
Send three months of statements and the decline email you were given. We will tell you which of our 38 banks will read the file, what the reserve is likely to be, and where the file is weak — before you sign anything.
24–48 hrs
Median written decision
$0
Application fee
38
Acquiring banks
Registered ISO/MSP disclosure
Meridian Rails Payments, LLC is a registered ISO/MSP of Harbor Point Bank, N.A., Wilmington, Delaware. Merchant accounts are issued by the sponsoring bank, not by Meridian Rails. We are not a bank and we do not hold merchant funds; settlement is made by the sponsor bank directly to the account named on your application.
Approvals, discount rates, reserve terms and settlement schedules are set at underwriting and disclosed in full in the merchant agreement before you sign. No rate quoted in conversation is binding until it appears in that agreement.
Card-network marks shown on this site indicate the payment types accepted through our gateway. They do not imply endorsement or sponsorship by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover.
No approval is guaranteed. Every application is subject to underwriting, KYB/KYC verification and OFAC sanctions screening, and may be declined without a stated reason.
Scheme thresholds
Visa VAMP sets the merchant excessive ratio at 1.50% effective 1 April 2026, combining TC40 fraud with TC15 non-fraud disputes and removing the early-warning tier. Mastercard ECM remains 1.50% with 100 or more disputes in a month. Thresholds are set by the card networks and are subject to change.
How we hold the lineProhibited business
We will not board counterfeit or IP-infringing goods, unlicensed pharmaceuticals, unregistered financial services, or any business connected to a sanctioned jurisdiction. The full restricted list is published rather than disclosed after application.
Read the listComplaints
Write to complaints@meridianrails.com or call the underwriting desk. We acknowledge in writing within two business days and respond substantively within fifteen. Unresolved matters escalate to the sponsor bank compliance officer.
Escalation route- Registered entity
- Meridian Rails Payments, LLC
- Sponsor bank
- Harbor Point Bank, N.A., Wilmington, Delaware
- ISO/MSP registration
- Visa 4417-B · Mastercard 88-2210
- Registered office
- 1201 N. Orange Street, Suite 700, Wilmington, DE 19801