Glossary

Approval rate

The approval rate is the share of payment attempts the bank approves out of all attempts.

If 820 out of 1,000 payment attempts go through, the approval rate is 82%. The metric shows how much revenue you lose to declines before the buyer even changes their mind.

Approvals depend on card and acquirer country, MCC, 3-D Secure, fraud screening quality, issuers' limits and even how clear your descriptor is. In high-risk niches the spread between providers can reach tens of percentage points.

Example: at 100,000 in monthly volume, the gap between 70% and 85% approval is 15,000 in revenue — often more than the whole difference in fees. Compare providers by net revenue, not just by rate.

Calculate your processing cost →

Related terms

Payment cascadingCascading means automatically retrying a declined payment through another provider or MID.3-D Secure (3DS)3-D Secure is an extra check of the buyer during online card payment: an SMS code, approval in the banking …MCC (merchant category code)An MCC is the four-digit code card schemes use to classify a merchant's type of business.

Payments glossary →

Can't find your GEO?

Submit a request — an operator will check providers that are not yet listed in the public catalog.

Get matched