The billing infrastructure recurring-revenue businesses run on: compliant trials, rebill management, dunning, and chargeback control — for mainstream and high-risk subscription models alike. Subject to underwriting.
Recurring billing is its own discipline within payments. A subscription business lives or dies on mechanics one-time retailers never think about: trial-conversion disclosure, credential-on-file rules, retry logic that stays inside network reattempt limits, account updater coverage, and dispute ratios measured monthly against card network thresholds. Centurion builds merchant accounts around those mechanics — for mainstream subscription businesses and for the high-risk verticals where recurring billing is the core of the risk itself.
This page is the hub for our recurring-billing work. If your subscription business is in a high-risk vertical — adult, dating, AI, VPN, psychic services, digital content — the vertical pages linked below layer industry-specific underwriting onto everything here.
Storing a card for future billing requires disclosed terms and cardholder consent at storage, under both Visa and Mastercard framework rules. Retrofitting consent later doesn't fix a non-compliant start.
Card network rules and FTC negative-option requirements both demand explicit conversion pricing at enrollment, notification before billing begins, and simple cancellation — 'click to cancel' is the regulatory direction everywhere.
Networks cap how many times and in what pattern a declined recurring charge may be retried. Dunning logic that ignores the caps generates fines and flags.
Monthly dispute ratios near 1% put merchants into network monitoring programs with fines and remediation demands. Subscription models drift toward thresholds without active prevention.
A B2B SaaS with invoiced annual contracts is a standard-risk recurring merchant. Consumer subscriptions with trials — especially in adult, dating, AI, wellness, and content verticals — are where recurring billing itself becomes the risk: trial conversions drive disputes, statement discretion drives disputes, and forgotten renewals drive disputes. High-risk recurring accounts are underwritten by acquirers that price this honestly, and the operational playbook (disclosure, reminders, descriptors, alerts, fast refunds) is what keeps ratios under thresholds. It's the same playbook across verticals — what changes is the content and compliance layer, covered on each industry page.
We structure recurring billing to network rules from day one, place merchants with acquirers matched to their vertical and volume, and set up the updater/dunning/alerts stack that protects recurring revenue. Processing options may be available depending on underwriting, business model, location, processing history, and other factors.
Recurring billing underwriting reviews the mechanics themselves:
Documentation requirements vary by processing partner and business model. This list is a general guide, not a universal checklist.
Subscription mechanics are universal; underwriting is vertical-specific. These industry pages layer category requirements onto the recurring-billing foundation:
Subscription billing for adult content platforms and membership sites.
The deepest recurring-billing vertical in the adult space.
Subscriptions, trials, and credits for dating platforms.
Subscription and token billing for AI products.
Global subscription billing for privacy software.
Subscription clubs and per-minute billing for spiritual services.
Subscription apps and digital report billing.
Subscriptions and credit packs for adult digital media.
Specialists in subscription and recurring billing payment processing. No obligation. Response within 1 hour.
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In-depth answers to the questions high-risk merchants ask most.
Every document high-risk underwriters ask for, why they ask, and how to prepare a file that moves quickly.
The dispute lifecycle, prevention tools like alerts and RDR, and how to win representments with compelling evidence.
How rolling, upfront, and capped reserves work, what percentages are typical, and how to negotiate them down over time.
Why merchants land on the Mastercard MATCH list, the reason codes, how long it lasts, and options if you're already listed.
Speak with Centurion Payment Services about your business model and available processing options. Processing options are subject to underwriting and vary by business model, location, and processing history.