Switching PSPs is painful. Doing it twice in a year is brutal. This is the checklist we wish every operator ran before signing — it predicts revenue better than the rate card does.
Commercial
- Setup fee — should be $0 for a serious provider.
- Processing fee tiers — written, with monthly volume thresholds.
- Rolling reserve — start ≤ 5% for established operators, with a 180-day cap.
- Settlement currency and cadence — daily, T+2, weekly?
- Refund and chargeback fees — flat or %, and who eats representment cost.
Technical
- One REST API covering deposits, payouts, refunds, and webhooks.
- Hosted payment page and server-to-server option.
- 3DS 2.x with exemption flagging (TRA, low-value).
- Idempotency keys on every write — non-negotiable for retries.
Coverage & risk
- Local APMs for every geo on your roadmap — not just "cards everywhere".
- Smart cascading across 2+ acquirers per method.
- Named risk & AM contact, not a shared inbox.
Red flags
"We support 100+ countries" without naming the local methods. "Approval rate is industry-leading" without a number. Long onboarding (> 3 weeks) for a vanilla iGaming book. Reserves > 10% on a clean operator.
If you want the long version of this checklist as a PDF, message us.