Coaching Merchant Accounts for Secure Online Payment Processing.

It's a merchant account for coaches, consultants and course creators. It lets you take one-time payments, payment plans and recurring memberships by card, from a processor that has approved coaching up front, so your account isn't frozen when a big program launch brings in a wave of sales.

Coaching is sold as a promise of results, often at high prices, and paid before the work is done. That leads to "not as described" disputes when clients feel they didn't get what they paid for. Programs that suggest clients will earn money get the most scrutiny from banks and the FTC.

Many coaches start there. Stripe prohibits "get rich quick" schemes, deceptive or fake testimonials, high-pressure upselling and telemarketing, and PayPal bans get-rich-quick schemes. Square won't support membership clubs, subscription offers or up-sell merchants. High-ticket programs and launches are where accounts get frozen.

No card network code is made for coaching, so your acquirer picks the closest fit: 8299 Schools and Educational Services for courses and group programs, 7392 Management, Consulting and Public Relations for business coaching, 7299 Miscellaneous Personal Services for life coaching, or 7399 for seminars and events.

Life, business, executive, health and fitness, relationship and dating coaches, course creators, masterminds, high-ticket programs, consultants, seminars and events, membership communities, and trading and investing education.

Business documents and your EIN, ID for each owner, a voided check, recent bank statements and any processing statements. Underwriters also look at your business model and expected monthly volume, your coaching agreement, refund policy and landing pages, and how you sell, whether by webinar, sales call or checkout page.

Yes. New coaching businesses without processing history may start with a monthly processing limit or a small reserve that comes down as you build history. A clear website, agreement and refund policy help.

Often, yes. Many coaches come to us after surprise holds or sudden terminations at Stripe, PayPal or Square. We look at why it happened and what's changed. We also work with merchants on the MATCH list.

Yes. Tell us your launch dates and expected volume and we set your processing limits ahead of time, so a successful launch goes through instead of tripping a hold.

Yes. Visa requires the client's express consent to an installment agreement that shows the total price, the number and amount of payments and your cancellation and refund policy, kept separate from your general terms. You can't charge interest, and any late fee must be a flat fee.

Sometimes. Buy now, pay later lenders set their own rules, and Affirm through Stripe doesn't accept consulting or business services codes and restricts education codes. Most coaches offer their own payment plans through their merchant account instead.

Yes. Get express consent for the recurring charge, make cancelling simple and online if clients signed up online, and send a reminder before any trial or intro price ends. ROSCA and state automatic renewal laws apply to coaching sold to individuals.

Be careful. Visa treats business opportunities that suggest income will be generated as misrepresentation, and those disputes can't be defended with a disclaimer. The FTC has shut down many "make money online" coaching programs over earnings claims, including Automators AI, Ascend Ecom, Click Profit and Air AI.

Yes, through its general rules against deceptive claims and the Telemarketing Sales Rule, which covers sales calls for business and investment opportunities even when the client books the call. The FTC has proposed extending its Business Opportunity Rule to coaching, but that hasn't been adopted.

Your cost has three parts: a percentage of each payment, a small per-transaction fee and any monthly fees. For high-ticket programs the percentage matters most, so compare full pricing in writing, and ask whether it's flat-rate or interchange-plus pricing. ACH is cheaper for large payments. There are no setup fees with Adaptiv.

No. There are no setup fees or application fees.

It depends on your history and how you sell. New coaches, large pay-in-full programs and launch-heavy sales can mean rolling reserves. Coaches with clean processing history often start with a low reserve or none.

Visa's VAMP program flags merchants at a 1.5% fraud-and-dispute ratio with at least 1,500 disputes and fraud reports in a month, and Mastercard starts at 1.5% and 100 chargebacks. Banks usually act well before that, so aim to stay under 1%.

Most coaching disputes say the program wasn't as described or the service wasn't provided. Clients who don't get the results they hoped for, buyer's remorse on high-ticket programs and cancelled memberships still being billed are the usual causes.

Your signed agreement, the refund policy the client accepted at checkout, session attendance and recordings, course login and progress records, and emails showing the client used the program. Send them with a short summary that matches the dispute reason.