The merchant account you do not have to apply for
The usual first step in selling online is an application: a company, projected volumes, processing history, an underwriter's opinion of your risk, and a wait. There is a second route. Sell beneath someone else's merchant account as a connected sub-account, and the underwriting question moves to them.
What the sub-account arrangement gives you
- No acquiring application
- We hold the master merchant account. There is no separate contract to be underwritten for, no projected-volume form, and no processing history to produce before you can build a checkout.
- An account that is still yours
- You own a connected sub-account beneath ours, and your money settles into it. This is not a house wallet you request withdrawals from — the payout account is in your name.
- Verification at the payout stage
- You can build a store and take a sandbox payment before proving anything. Identity and verification requirements apply where they matter, at the point you want real money, with KYC once you pass a volume threshold.
- Settlement to your own bank
- Daily automatic is the default schedule, switchable to weekly, monthly or manual. Payouts are supported in over 110 countries, each with its own settlement currency and minimum payout amount.
- A statement descriptor you set
- The line a buyer sees on their statement is editable. Setting it to something recognisable is one of the cheapest ways to prevent a confused customer becoming a dispute.
- The risk that stays with you
- Chargebacks land on us rather than on you, but a negative balance — a run of refunds, for instance — may be debited from your bank account. Worth knowing at the start rather than at the end of a bad week.
What onboarding actually looks like
- 01
Create a workspace
No card, no upfront payment, and no queue to sit in. The store builder even opens before you sign up, so you can see what you would be launching first.
- 02
Connect a payout account
This is the part with paperwork. Our payment provider runs its identity checks here, on the account that will receive your money, rather than as a gate on whether you may sell at all.
- 03
Take the first payment
The first payout is typically scheduled 7 to 14 days after your first payment arrives, and can take longer depending on your country and industry risk. Plan the first fortnight of cash flow around that.
- 04
Then it runs on your schedule
Daily by default. Brazil and India are always daily; Japan has no daily option and settles weekly on Fridays. Accelerated three-business-day availability is offered in Europe, the UK, Mexico and Canada for accounts meeting risk criteria, and instant payouts to a supported debit card arrive in about thirty minutes.
How this compares with holding your own account
An application is a judgment about your future
Underwriters price risk from history, and a new digital business selling worldwide with no processing record is exactly the profile that gets declined, rate-loaded or put on a rolling reserve. Selling beneath an established account skips that judgment entirely.
You do not own the acquiring relationship
This is the real trade. The terms are ours and the processor behind the account is our choice rather than yours. The rate itself is negotiable once you are selling at volume, but you are negotiating our margin rather than interchange. At large volume in a single market, your own contract will eventually beat this, and that is the honest signal you have outgrown the arrangement.
Digital goods only
No physical fulfilment, no card-present terminals, no marketplace paying out to third parties. There is also a prohibited business and products policy, and it is a much better read before you build a catalogue than after.
Nothing to pay for holding it open
No monthly gateway rental, no minimum, no statement fee, no annual PCI charge. A flat 5% + 50¢ on successful transactions, and nothing at all in a month where you sold nothing. Negotiable once you are selling at volume.
What sellers say once they have switched
★★★★★ 4.8/5 from 10 reviews on G2 →
Vadim Finayev “We work with quite a few merchants of record, but none comes close to the support and speed of implementation of Fungies. If you want a payment partner that actually gives you the feeling they want to work with you — rather than leaving you on read for three days or randomly restricting your account — you are in the right place.”
David Elliott “I researched the options and Fungies was the best fit for functionality and customisation within a store builder you can connect to your own domain. Taking a small percentage of sales, instead of charging a subscription for every environment and plugin, is refreshing.”
Elnura Abdimanap Kyzy “The platform is user-friendly, integrates easily with APIs and webhooks, and simplifies managing digital products and subscriptions. We were up and running quickly and support has been responsive throughout. Fungies is clearly tailored to the needs of SaaS businesses.”
Francisco Magnone Rienzi “Fungies has been a great partner — fast setup, competitive pricing, and real humans providing quick answers. They are constantly rolling out new features, and I am excited to see what is next.”
Merchant account questions
What the model is, who it suits, and how it compares.
Start selling before an underwriter has an opinion
Create a workspace, build a checkout, and run a test payment through it today. Connect a payout account when there is real money to receive.