Tactics & Strategy
Strategy consultation is included with every account. And for the FinTechs and PayFacs building what comes next, direct advisory access to the expertise behind Total-Apps.
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Included With Every Account
The Only Payments Engineer That Actually Looks at Your Whole Business
Every client who onboards with Total-Apps gets a minimum of one hour of strategy consultation, included as part of our white-glove concierge service — a level of engagement no other payments expert in this industry offers. We don't just configure your merchant account and walk away. We look at your advertising campaigns, your customer service scripts, your supply chain, and every other factor that actually affects your processing performance, because a clean chargeback ratio depends on more than just how your account is set up.
That relationship doesn't end after onboarding. As your business grows, so does our investment in it — the bigger the opportunity, the more strategic time we put in, from periodic check-ins to ongoing monthly calls on operations and performance for our largest accounts. It's not a fixed package. It's a relationship that scales with what you're building.
For FinTechs & PayFacs · Paid Advisory
Consulting for the People Building the Next Generation of Payments Tools
Everything else on this site is about how we help merchants navigate payments. This is different — this is for the people building the next generation of what merchants and PayFacs will use. If you're a FinTech, a PayFac, or a payments company building chargeback solutions, fraud scrubbing systems, CRMs, UX/UI, or customer acquisition tools, we offer direct hourly access to expertise most product teams never get close to.
That expertise isn't theoretical. I've helped design fraud-scrubbing logic still used inside one of the industry's largest payment gateways, authored a 100-page compliance guideline covering CBD and peptide processing, and personally launched, secured approval for, and certified four separate PayFac licenses. Consulting is available on an hourly or per-contract basis, purely advisory — no implementation, no managed service, just direct expertise applied to what you're building.
A Taste of How We Work
See Your Account the Way an Underwriter Does
Before a bank ever approves you, someone sizes up your business against a set of risk factors most merchants never see. Here is a simplified version of the same read we do for every client. Answer a few questions and watch your risk profile build in real time. It takes about a minute, and nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere.
Answer the questions and your risk profile builds here, live.
Nothing you enter is saved or sent.
What Actually Moves Your Risk Profile
After 85,000 merchants, the factors that decide whether an account thrives or gets shut off are remarkably consistent. Here is what banks and processors are really looking at, and why each one matters.
- Chargeback ratio
- The single loudest signal on the account. Push past roughly one percent and generic processors panic, hold funds, or shut you off. A clean ratio buys you leverage on rates, reserves, and limits.
- Where your traffic comes from
- Your traffic source predicts your disputes. Affiliate-network traffic is notorious for chargebacks and can quietly wreck an otherwise healthy account. Search, paid ads run by a real agency, and direct traffic convert far cleaner. Quality traffic is quality processing.
- Ticket size
- The bigger the average and maximum ticket, the more a single dispute or refund costs, and the more exposure a bank is underwriting on your behalf. Larger tickets are absolutely placeable, they just change how the account has to be structured.
- Fulfillment speed and proof of delivery
- Slow shipping and no delivery confirmation are what turn ordinary orders into “I never got it” disputes. Signature on delivery and age verification do more than keep you compliant, they win the chargebacks you do fight.
- Billing model
- Subscription and continuity billing invite “I didn't authorize this” disputes unless your terms, descriptors, and cancellation flow are airtight. It is a great model, but it has to be built carefully.
- How cards are taken
- Card-present and online checkout carry less risk than phone and mail-order sales, where the card is never seen and disputes climb. Each channel calls for different controls.
- History and financials
- A startup with no processing history is an unknown, and unknowns get priced conservatively. Strong financials and a clean track record let us negotiate better terms and higher limits on your behalf.
- The controls you put in place
- Fraud scrubbing, chargeback alerts, professional dispute response, and delivery verification all lower your real risk, and a bank that can see those controls will treat your account very differently. This is the part we engineer for you.
A clean chargeback ratio depends on more than how the account is configured. It depends on your ads, your customer service, your whole operation. That is why every client gets real strategy time, not just a setup and a handshake.
Rey PasinliPayments Engineer · Total-AppsRisk Profile Questions, Answered
The factors underwriters actually weigh when they price, limit, or decline an account, answered plainly by Rey Pasinli.
What has the biggest impact on my merchant account risk?
Does my traffic source affect payment processing risk?
How does average ticket size affect a merchant account?
How do shipping speed and delivery confirmation affect chargebacks?
Is subscription or continuity billing higher risk?
Are phone and mail-order sales riskier than online checkout?
How do business history and financials affect underwriting?
What risk controls lower merchant account risk?
Testimonials
Total-Apps was able to get me approved for a merchant account in 2011 as I started my company, NOIPFRAUD.com. They were there for me every step of the way, increasing my processing volume quickly, answering the phone or email with customer support out of the US. They treat me like a valued customer and with the best intentions for my company.
We decided to go with Total-Apps because they have a comprehensive offering. Rey and Rebekah helped us by building relationships with the merchant banks, design a robust shopping cart for our customers… Total-Apps has become a trusted advisor during our successful launch.
I have been a long-standing customer since 2010… Rey, the owner of Total-Apps, stepped in and guided us through the setup process to find the best fit for our business. My account manager Rebekah has been more than amazing; if I ever had any processing issues she has taken care of my business needs immediately. I highly recommend using the services of Total-Apps.
Contact Your Total-Apps Team
From custom setup to improving performance to stopping business-critical problems, Total-Apps brings 27 years and 85,000 merchants of payments expertise to businesses in the U.S. and abroad.
Prefer to talk? Call us today:1-949-274-8975