How is online acceptance different?
Online sales are card-not-present, meaning the card is never physically read. That raises the fraud exposure, so interchange is higher and underwriting looks more closely at delivery timelines, refund policy and dispute history. It is a different risk profile, not a lesser one.
Why does delivery timing matter to underwriters?
The gap between taking payment and delivering the product is the window in which a business can fail to deliver. Longer windows mean more exposure for the sponsor bank. Immediate digital delivery is assessed differently from made-to-order goods shipping weeks later, and pre-orders differently again.
Which online business types are straightforward?
- US-domiciled ecommerce brands shipping their own inventory
- Subscription and SaaS billing
- Professional services taking card payment
- B2B invoicing
Each has verifiable fulfilment and an identifiable customer relationship.
Do I need to be a US business?
For a US merchant account, yes. The business must be genuinely domiciled in the United States with a US tax ID and a US settlement account. A US-registered business with non-US owners is assessed case by case rather than being automatically excluded.