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Adult Website && Online Payments

Having some free time I decided to create an adult website that I was thinking about for a while. Idea was really simple - game like photo trading with rankings, credits, badges etc. Using a ready HTML5 template I created mvp in 4 days and everything was ready for a payment gateway. I knew that using paypal or stripe was very risky and they would probably block my account. I own an LLC that is doing staffing and outsourcing, so really didn't want to do anything "illegal".

My only option was to contact companies like Instabill, CCBill .. PayKings and a few others. I understand that adult websites are considered "high risk" and some verification is needed, but after 3 weeks I'm nowhere near finding a company that will allow me to test my mvp.
Here is the list of requirements to "pre-qualify a business";

  • 3-6 months of processing history ( if you have it) Excel spreadsheets not accepted, actual statements are required (WTH?)

  • all shareholder/s Photo ID’s

  • Business registration certificate

  • Proof of address
    My company is not registered in the US... so even if I wanted to give them all those documents, I don't have any of them in english ;-)

Does it really need to be so complicated?

#ask-ih

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    I guess they protect themselves from illegal content such as stolen pictures and all the dark side of the adult sector. If you want to have a a payment process, you'll have to register your company I think, that's clearly the first step.

    That's probably why a lot of website earn from advertising (and most of the type, bad quality advertising).

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      I just wanted to created something fun for users and not another website with 10 popups and crazy ads.

      I was prepared to run this as a normal business - 14 day risk free money back guarantee, no recurring billing etc. I understand that they want to protect themselves, but really.. there are ecommerce sites connected to paypal that are less transparent + if you ever paid for any adult content, companies like CCBill actually make it really difficult to cancel subscription and hide extra charges... so my guess was, they will accept any website and don't really care.

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        These companies dont like risks :s You're still free to create easier process to cancel subs, display extra charges etc on ccbill I guess ^^ But I'm not enough expert in this subject.

        I had the same issue in the gambling world, I just decided to stop businesses where everybody is against you as it consumes a lot of energy (always more problems to fix).

        Be brave, there's probably cool solutions :D

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    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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