Merchant account

When a customer pays by card, the money doesn't go straight to your bank account. It moves through a chain: the payment gateway passes the card details, the processor and card network route the charge to the customer's bank, and the approved funds settle into a merchant account held with an acquiring bank. From there they are paid out to your business bank account, usually a day or a few days later. Two ways to get one: - Your own merchant account, opened directly with an acquiring bank or processor. It takes an application and underwriting, and usually comes with custom rates. - A shared (aggregated) account, where a provider such as Shopify Payments, Stripe or PayPal holds the account and you are one of many sellers under it. Setup takes minutes, and fees are usually a flat percentage plus a fixed amount per charge. Things that matter for recurring charges: - Support for saved cards, so renewals can be charged without the customer present. - Clear handling of declines and retries, so you can recover failed payments. - Reserves and payout holds, which providers can apply to higher-risk businesses. - Chargeback rules, because a high dispute rate can put an account at risk. How Chargezen handles it: Chargezen Subscriptions charges renewals through Shopify subscription contracts, so payments run through the payment setup your Shopify store already uses.