Underwriting and Approval Questions
Questions about what a processor assesses, what triggers a reserve or a review, and what to supply before you need a higher limit.
How B2B merchants are underwritten, what triggers reserves, and how transaction limits are set and raised.
What this category covers
This category covers what a processor assesses, what triggers a reserve or a review, and what to supply before you need a higher limit. The answers are written to give you the structure of the decision - what has to be true, who decides it, and what to get in writing - rather than a single number that stops being accurate the moment your volume or card mix changes.
Where an answer depends on your own account, it says so and points at the statement line that would tell you. A page cannot know your effective rate, and any page that claims to is guessing.
Why it matters operationally
Limits set when your account opened do not grow with your business unless somebody asks.
The cost of getting this wrong is rarely dramatic. It is a few basis points on every transaction, every month, which is exactly why it goes unexamined for years.
Where operators go wrong
- Requesting a limit increase during an order rather than before one.
- Not disclosing customer concentration, then being surprised by a reserve.
2 questions in this category
What triggers a processing reserve?
A reserve is a held portion of your settlement, released on a schedule, imposed when a processor judges its exposure has increased. The common triggers in B2B are rapid volume growth, average ticket size rising substantially, customer concentration where a small number of customers make up most of your volume, an increase in disputes or refunds, and a business model where payment is taken well before delivery.
Updated September 30, 2026
How are B2B merchants underwritten?
Underwriting assesses the processor's exposure if you fail to deliver what a customer paid for. In B2B the factors that matter most are financial strength, average and maximum ticket size, customer concentration, the gap between payment and delivery, and dispute and refund history. Retail-oriented factors like chargeback ratio matter less; delivery risk matters more, because the amounts are larger and the delivery windows longer.
Updated September 30, 2026
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What to read next
/high-ticket-payment-processing explains what underwriting wants before it raises a limit.