Take cards for your supplement brand and get paid the day you sell.
Processors shut supplement stores out over health claims they call “pseudo-pharmaceutical”, and over the disputes that trial and auto-ship rebills bring. Railbed takes your customers’ cards and settles every order as USDC to a wallet you control, with no chargebacks.
- Live in under a minute
- No setup fee
- No chargebacks
Press the card to run an example sale.
- Settles to
- Your own wallet, as USDC on Polygon
- Chargebacks
- None. A settled payment can’t be pulled back from your wallet
- To start
- An email and a payout wallet. No setup fee, no monthly fee
- Buyer ID checks
- The card provider decides. Smart Routing tries the least likely first
Why card processors turn supplement brands away
Most mainstream processors accept plain vitamins. Supplement brands lose their accounts over health claims a reviewer reads as medical, and over trial or auto-ship billing that brings disputes. Either way, the processor holds your balance while it decides, and that’s the part Railbed takes away.
- MCC 5968The card code for trial and auto-renew billing, which Visa and Mastercard make processors registerVisa
- 100,000+Complaints about negative option programmes the FTC cited when it restarted its rule in March 2026FTC
- $9,725The fine one supplement seller says was charged over a product that is legalShopify Community
…fined for $9,725 for a product that is perfectly legal
Stripe’s prohibited and restricted businesses list bans “pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals that are not safe or make harmful claims” and “reduced price trials with unclear or hidden pricing”. In the US, Shopify Payments runs on Stripe and follows the same list. PayPal’s acceptable use policy prohibits products that “present a risk to consumer safety”, and Square’s payment terms rule out “direct marketing or subscription offers or services” and up-sell merchants.
The card networks single out the way much of nutra bills. Negative option billing, where a trial or subscription keeps charging until the customer cancels, has its own merchant category code, 5968. Visa’s Integrity Risk Program classes it as high integrity risk, and every such merchant must be registered with Visa before it takes a payment. Mastercard’s security rules require the same for physical products and name “vitamins” as an example.
Free trials carry rules of their own. Visa’s trial rules require a reminder with a cancellation link at least seven days before the first charge. A federal appeals court struck down the FTC’s click-to-cancel rule in July 2025. When the FTC restarted the rulemaking in March 2026, it cited “more than 100,000 complaints in the past five years” about negative option programmes.
Every dispute counts against you. Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program adds fraud reports and disputes together. Since 1 April 2026, a merchant with 1,500 or more a month is excessive once they reach 1.5% of its card-not-present transactions. So nutra brands end up at high-risk merchant accounts, where one nutra application asks for lab results, product labels, three months of statements and screenshots of your claims and cancellation pages, and may hold back a rolling reserve of up to 10%.
What merchants report
- A Shopify store owner got an email “from a bot stating my site is selling ‘pseudo-pharmaceuticals’” and couldn’t find out which product caused it.
- In 2025 a seller of a male supplement wrote that they were “fined for $9,725 for a product that is perfectly legal”, and that Shopify “keeps blaming Mastercard”.
Underneath it all, someone else holds your money between the sale and the payout, and they can decide to stop.
How Railbed fixes it
Railbed is card checkout that never holds your money. Customers pay with the card they already have, and each order settles as USDC straight to a wallet you control, usually minutes after they pay. Railbed has no automatic billing, so every order is a purchase the customer makes on purpose.
| What goes wrong today | With Railbed |
|---|---|
| A reviewer reads your label as “pseudo-pharmaceutical” and shuts off payments | If it’s legal where you sell it, we don’t judge it. Money you’ve been paid is already in your wallet |
| Payouts held for weeks with no reason given | Each order settles to your own wallet as soon as the payment clears |
| Trial and auto-ship rebills bring disputes from customers who didn’t expect the charge | No rebills. Every order is a payment the customer starts |
| Each chargeback costs a fee and counts toward a 1.5% threshold | No chargebacks. A settled payment is final, and disputes stay with the card provider that charged the card |
| Weeks of underwriting before your first sale | Sign up with an email and a payout wallet. No credit check, no documents |
| One acquiring bank decides which cards go through | Smart Routing sends each customer to the card provider most likely to approve them |
An independent, licensed card provider charges the customer’s card and buys USDC with it, and the USDC is forwarded to the Polygon wallet you saved in Railbed. Nobody in that chain can recall it afterwards, so no chargeback can reach you. If a customer disputes the card charge, that’s between their bank and the card provider that charged them.
Railbed can’t run auto-ship or trial rebills. Surprise rebills are a top cause of disputes, and without them there’s no negative option programme to register either.
Sign up with an email and a Polygon wallet you control, and try a test order in Test mode first.
How a sale works
A customer picks a three-month supply in your store or from your link.
Railbed’s checkout asks for an email address. Smart Routing sends the customer to the card provider most likely to approve their card, based on their country, the amount and the currency.
The customer pays on the provider’s page, in a new tab. The provider decides whether to ask for identity details, and Smart Routing tries the providers least likely to ask first.
The provider buys USDC with the card payment, and it’s forwarded to your wallet on Polygon. Railbed checks that the right amount reached the right wallet before it marks the order Paid.
The checkout tab shows the result, and the paid order lands in Shopify, WooCommerce or your Railbed dashboard, ready to ship.
Fees and getting paid
Railbed shows every fee before anyone pays, and all of them come out of the USDC that arrives. The card provider takes its own fee and exchange spread, shown to the customer on its page. Then come a 1% network fee and the Railbed fee shown in your dashboard, locked when the customer starts paying.
Set prices in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD or AUD. Settlement is always USDC on Polygon, and each settlement is a public transaction you can check from your dashboard. To move money to your bank, send USDC from your wallet to any exchange or off-ramp you use and withdraw it there.
Refunds stay your policy. Railbed can’t reverse a settled payment, so you send any refund back yourself, in whatever way you and the customer agree.
What stays your responsibility
We don’t judge your products. Our acceptable use policy welcomes supplements and nutraceuticals sold legally and without medical claims the law doesn’t allow. These are the main US rules to plan for:
- Structure/function claims. A supplement may say how it affects the normal structure or function of the body. It may not claim to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent a disease. Notify the FDA within 30 days after you first market a claim, and carry the disclaimer from 21 CFR 101.93 on the label (FDA guidance).
- Evidence for health claims. The FTC’s Health Products Compliance Guidance expects “competent and reliable scientific evidence”, generally randomised controlled trials in people. Testimonials can’t claim more than your evidence supports.
- Automatic renewals sold elsewhere. Railbed never renews anything. If you also bill subscriptions through another checkout, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (15 U.S.C. §8403) requires you to disclose all material terms before taking billing details, get express informed consent and give a simple way to stop charges. California’s automatic renewal law, as amended from July 2025, covers free trials and requires separate consent to the renewal.
Rules differ by state and country, so check with a qualified adviser before you launch a new product or market.
Railbed compared with a nutraceutical merchant account
| High-risk merchant account | Railbed | |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | Days to weeks of underwriting | Under a minute |
| To apply | Lab results, labels, statements and screenshots of your claims | An email and a payout wallet |
| Chargebacks | A fee for each, and a Visa monitoring threshold of 1.5% since April 2026 | None. A settled payment is final |
| Repeat orders | Auto-ship and trial rebills, after Visa and Mastercard registration | A reorder link you send. Nothing renews automatically |
| Payouts | 3–5 business days, with up to 10% held back as a rolling reserve | Each order, to your own wallet, as soon as it settles |
| If you’re dropped | Balance held, and a possible five-year MATCH listing | Settled funds are already yours |
| Card approvals | One acquiring bank decides | Smart Routing across several card providers |
Questions
Shopify Payments or Stripe closed my supplement store. Can I use Railbed?
Yes. A past closure or a MATCH listing doesn’t rule you out, and you don’t send statements, labels or lab results to sign up. If your products and claims are legal where you and your customers are, you can be live today without moving your store.
Why did Shopify flag my supplements as “pseudo-pharmaceuticals”?
Because Shopify Payments follows Stripe’s list in the US, and that list bans nutraceuticals that “are not safe or make harmful claims”. Merchants report getting the notice without being told which product caused it. Railbed welcomes supplements sold legally and without medical claims the law doesn’t allow.
Can I run free trials or auto-ship subscriptions?
No. Railbed has no automatic billing, so it can’t turn a trial into a paid plan or rebill an auto-ship order. Sell multi-month supplies up front, and send a reorder link when a supply runs low.
Do my customers need crypto or a crypto wallet?
No. Customers pay with the card they already have. The conversion to USDC happens after they pay, and only you need a wallet.
Will customers be asked for ID?
Sometimes, and the card provider decides. Smart Routing sends each customer to the provider least likely to ask for ID at their amount and location. Light checks of name, date of birth and address are common, and large or unusual payments may need a fuller one.
What happens if a customer disputes an order?
No chargeback comes back to you. The card provider that charged the customer’s card handles the dispute under its own rules, and a settled payment can’t be pulled back out of your wallet. A provider may decline future payments from a customer who disputes.
Can Railbed freeze my money?
No. Every paid order settles straight to a wallet you control, so there’s no balance with Railbed to hold. If an account breaks our acceptable use policy we can stop new payments, but we can never touch USDC that has already reached your wallet.
How do I get the money into my bank?
Send USDC from your wallet to any exchange or off-ramp you use, then withdraw to your bank account. You choose when and how much.
Sources
- Stripe: Prohibited and restricted businesses, last updated 22 September 2026, checked 5 October 2026
- Shopify: Shopify Payments terms of service (US), checked 5 October 2026
- PayPal: Acceptable use policy, last updated 29 October 2022, checked 5 October 2026
- Square: Payment terms (US), last updated 30 July 2026, checked 5 October 2026
- Visa: Visa Integrity Risk Program guide, April 2023
- Mastercard: Security Rules and Procedures, Merchant Edition, 6 August 2024, copy hosted by Moneris, checked 5 October 2026
- Verifi: Visa’s rules for subscription merchants with free trial offers, checked 5 October 2026
- Federal Trade Commission: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking on negative option programmes, March 2026
- Visa: Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program fact sheet, 2025
- Durango Merchant Services: Nutraceutical merchant accounts, checked 5 October 2026
- Shopify Community: payment gateway issues due to “pseudo-pharmaceuticals”, 7 March 2021
- Shopify Community: held payments, and a supplement seller’s reply about a fine, 28 May 2025
- eCFR: 21 CFR 101.93, Certain types of statements for dietary supplements, and FDA: Structure/function claims, checked 5 October 2026
- Federal Trade Commission: Health Products Compliance Guidance, December 2022
- Cornell Law School: 15 U.S.C. §8403
- Cooley: Eighth Circuit vacates the FTC’s negative option rule, 11 July 2025
- Kilpatrick: California’s automatic renewal law amendments take effect in July 2025, October 2024
Last updated .
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