What is payment processing and how does it work for peptide stores?
Payment processing is the infrastructure that moves money from a customer's payment method into your business bank account. For peptide stores, the process involves 5 parties: the customer, your website or terminal, a payment gateway, an acquiring bank, and the customer's issuing bank.
When a customer submits a payment on your peptide store, the transaction travels through the gateway to your acquiring bank, which routes it through the card network (Visa, Mastercard) to the issuing bank for authorization. The issuing bank approves or declines the transaction in under 2 seconds, and the approved amount is captured and settled in batches - typically within 2 to 3 business days.
How are payment fees structured for high-risk peptide merchants?
Peptide merchants pay 3 types of fees on every credit card transaction: interchange fees, assessment fees, and processor markup.
- Interchange fees: paid to the card-issuing bank, set by Visa and Mastercard, range from 1.15% to 2.4% depending on card type.
- Assessment fees: paid to the card networks (Visa, Mastercard), fixed at 0.13% to 0.15% per transaction.
- Processor markup: what Peptide Payments charges above interchange and assessment - our markup averages $0.10 + 0.3% per transaction.
Flat-rate processors (Stripe, Square) bundle all 3 fees into a single rate of 2.9% to 3.9%, which hides the true cost structure. Interchange-plus pricing separates each component, making your statement auditable and giving you the ability to optimize over time.
What is a merchant account and why do peptide stores need one?
A merchant account is a business bank account that holds authorized transaction funds before they settle into your regular business bank account. Peptide stores require a dedicated merchant account because the card networks mandate it for any business that accepts card payments.
During merchant account underwriting, banks evaluate 4 factors specific to peptide businesses: monthly processing volume, chargeback ratio, product classification, and compliance posture. High-risk classification means underwriting takes 24 to 72 hours and may include a rolling reserve requirement of 5% to 10% of monthly volume.
How do refunds and chargebacks affect a peptide merchant account?
Refunds reduce your net settled volume and trigger reconciliation entries but do not directly threaten your account stability. Chargebacks are different: each chargeback increases your dispute ratio, and a ratio above 1% triggers card network monitoring programs (Visa's VDMP, Mastercard's MATCH list).
Peptide merchants face elevated chargeback risk due to 2 factors: product shipping delays and customer confusion about research-use labeling. Maintaining a chargeback ratio below 0.5% is achievable with the right fraud prevention and dispute management tools.
How does ACH payment processing differ from credit cards for peptide businesses?
ACH (Automated Clearing House) payments move funds directly between bank accounts via the NACHA network. ACH processing costs 0.5% to 1.5% per transaction - compared to 2.4% average for credit cards - because it bypasses the card networks entirely. ACH settlements take 1 to 3 business days longer than card settlements, but the cost savings are significant at volume. A peptide store processing $100,000 per month saves approximately $1,400 per month by routing 40% of transactions to ACH.