Affiliate & commercial disclosure.
This disclosure outlines how The Decline File is monetized, how affiliate referral links operate across this publication, and our policy regarding editorial independence.
1. Broad category coverage with one monetized recommendation
The Decline File covers high-risk payment gateways, domestic merchant accounts, crypto-only checkouts, and offshore acquiring broadly across guides and vertical briefs. However, we monetize this publication by recommending exactly one specific provider: RiskPay.
When you click an outbound link to RiskPay and register or process transactions through their platform, we earn an affiliate referral commission. All affiliate links across this website are formatted with rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" attributes in accordance with FTC guidelines and search engine standards.
2. It costs the reader nothing extra
Using our referral link never increases your processing fees, monthly subscription rates, or integration costs. You pay the provider's standard published rates (12% on Free, 10% monthly / 7% yearly on Scale, 8% monthly / 6% yearly on MAX).
Referral commissions are paid directly by the payment provider from their standard operating margin to compensate us for research, documentation, and maintenance of this site.
3. Commission does not alter our analysis or published downsides
We do not accept paid reviews, sponsored rankings, or payment to suppress negative aspects of any provider.
We explicitly publish the limitations, higher percentage fees, and mathematical breakeven thresholds across all pages. Our commercial relationship does not change the numbers: higher-fee gateways represent an expensive processing tier that is only viable when lower-cost domestic merchant accounts are unavailable or when margins support the cost.
4. Who should not use our recommendation
We openly identify business profiles that should not use our recommended provider:
- Low-margin merchants: Businesses with gross profit margins under 25% will find 6%–12% processing fees unsustainable.
- Unrestricted standard retail: Merchants operating standard, low-risk e-commerce who qualify for mainstream 2.9% + $0.30 domestic processing through Stripe, Shopify Payments, or Authorize.Net.
- Businesses unable to receive USDC: Merchants that cannot or do not wish to hold or off-ramp Polygon USDC cryptocurrency payouts.
- High-ticket single-item retailers with tight margins: Where fixed dollar margins are compressed by variable percentage fees.
5. We are not an agent, reseller, or representative
The Decline File is an independent educational website. We are not an agent, reseller, broker, partner, or representative of RiskPay, Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, or any bank or financial institution.
We have no role in merchant underwriting, transaction settlement, account approvals, customer disputes, or technical support for any gateway. Any relationship you enter into with a provider is strictly between you and that company.
6. Policy on updating or withdrawing recommendations
If our recommended provider changes its fee structure, acceptable use terms, payout reliability, or integration model in a way that materially disadvantages merchants, we will update our evaluations or withdraw our recommendation entirely.
7. Questions regarding disclosure
If you have questions regarding this disclosure or our affiliate monetization, please reach out via our contact form.