When Every Processor Says No
Getting declined for a merchant account doesn't mean your business isn't viable. It usually means you're in an industry that mainstream processors won't touch. CBD retailers, nutraceutical brands, firearms dealers, and subscription-based companies all face this problem, and it's not always obvious until you've already invested time in applications that go nowhere. Soar Payments exists specifically for these merchants, offering high risk credit card processing through a network of banking partners that specialize in hard-to-place accounts. We score it 6.4 out of 10 for the credit card processing category, reflecting strong placement capability and customer service weighed against limited pricing transparency and a thin independent track record.
The company operates as a broker-style processor, matching your business with the banking partner most likely to approve your application based on your industry, volume, and risk profile. That's a different model from processors like flat-rate providers that approve or decline you against a single set of criteria. When one bank says no, Soar can route your application to another partner. For merchants who've exhausted the obvious options, that flexibility is the whole point.
Soar Payments launched in 2015 out of Houston, Texas, and now operates from The Woodlands with an additional office in Dallas. It's a small, privately held operation, which means you're working with a tight team rather than navigating a large corporate support structure. The company has also built a media presence through two podcasts: PayPod, a fintech interview series with hundreds of episodes, and the newer High Risk Merchant Accounts 101, focused specifically on helping business owners understand high-risk payment processing.
How Soar Payments Places Hard-to-Approve Merchants
The core of Soar's service is matching merchants with appropriate banking partners. The company maintains relationships with multiple acquiring banks that specialize in different risk categories, so your application gets routed to the institution most likely to approve your specific business type. This isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. A CBD eCommerce brand and a firearms retailer have different risk profiles, different chargeback exposure, and different regulatory considerations. Soar's job is knowing which bank handles which profile best.
The application itself takes about five minutes online. You'll receive an instant quote delivered through DocuSign, followed by a pre-approval decision within 24 hours. Full underwriting typically completes in three to five business days, with processing capability going live within a day after approval. For highly regulated industries, underwriting can take a few extra days while the bank completes additional compliance checks. That timeline is standard for the high-risk space, where manual underwriting is required and same-day approval simply doesn't exist.
Once your account is active, Soar supports the full range of acceptance methods: retail smart terminals with touchscreen and built-in printing, mobile card readers for iPhone and Android, virtual terminals for phone and mail orders, and eCommerce payment gateways. Gateway options include Authorize.Net, NMI, and USAePay, all of which integrate with major shopping carts like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and ClickFunnels. The company also offers ACH and eCheck processing, which can be particularly useful for high-risk merchants since eCheck carries lower risk than card transactions and is often easier to get approved.
Soar also provides integrated chargeback management tools as part of its processing relationships. For high-risk merchants, chargeback prevention isn't optional. Maintaining a chargeback ratio below 2% is typically required for continued processing in the high-risk space, and having dispute management built into the processing relationship adds real protection against account instability.
The Cost of High-Risk Credit Card Processing
You won't find a pricing page on Soar's website. That's common among high-risk specialists because rates depend heavily on your industry, processing volume, chargeback history, and credit profile. Every merchant gets a custom quote. The company promotes an "Industry Minimum Pricing" guarantee, meaning they'll price your account at the lowest rate their banking partners offer for your particular risk category. They'll also attempt to match or beat a competitor's written offer if you have one.
In our evaluation, the key decision for any prospective merchant hinges on the contract details you receive after application. The critical items to scrutinize are the pricing model (tiered vs. interchange-plus, which typically depends on your risk classification), the complete fee schedule (gateway fees, monthly minimums, chargeback and dispute fees, PCI compliance fees), reserve terms and caps, and the early termination clause. Lower-risk merchants routed through Soar can expect interchange-plus pricing on flexible terms, while mid- and high-risk merchants should expect tiered pricing on multi-year contracts. Soar doesn't charge application or setup fees, which is a genuine advantage since some high-risk specialists charge $200 or more upfront.
Soar states that its rolling reserves have predetermined caps and that the reserve release period is shorter than what most high-risk processors require. That's a meaningful detail, because reserves tie up a percentage of your daily processing revenue, and a shorter release schedule means less of your cash sits locked at any given time. After three to six months of stable processing, merchants can request a rate review, which can reduce per-transaction fees if your chargeback history stays clean.
To frame the cost realistically: high-risk tiered pricing typically runs between 2.5% and 4.0% per transaction depending on risk category, plus per-transaction gateway fees and monthly account charges. A mid-risk eCommerce merchant processing $15,000 per month at a 2.75% effective rate across 300 monthly transactions could expect roughly $412 in processing fees plus gateway and monthly charges, totaling in the range of $500 to $550 per month, or $6,000 to $6,600 annually. A higher-risk merchant with a 3.5% effective rate on the same volume would see processing costs closer to $525 per month, or roughly $6,300 annually, before additional fees. These are illustrative estimates. Your actual rate depends entirely on your specific risk assessment and the banking partner Soar places you with.
Who Soar Payments Actually Serves
Soar lists over 40 industries on its website, ranging from CBD and nutraceuticals to firearms, subscription products, credit repair, debt collection, fantasy sports, pawnbrokers, and SaaS companies. The company also serves lower-risk merchants in categories like catering, furniture, pet products, and nonprofits, though its competitive advantage is clearly in the high-risk tier.
Consider a scenario: you're launching an online nutraceutical brand selling subscription-based dietary supplements. Your first application to a mainstream processor gets approved, but three months in, a handful of chargebacks from customers who forgot to cancel their subscriptions triggers an account review and termination. You're now on the MATCH list, a shared industry database of terminated merchants, and your next three applications are declined before anyone even looks at your business model. That's the exact situation Soar is built for. The company can work with merchants on the MATCH list, helping them through the documentation process to get removed and then placing them with an appropriate banking partner.
There are limits. Soar doesn't serve adult entertainment, debt relief, gambling, offshore businesses, or companies with very poor credit (generally below 600 credit score or recent bankruptcy). Owners must have a valid Social Security Number and US-issued identification. If your business is headquartered outside the United States, Soar can't help.
Where Soar Payments Stops
The most obvious gap is pricing transparency. Every rate requires a custom quote, and contract terms aren't published on the website. You won't know your costs until you've submitted an application and received a proposal. For merchants who are comparison-shopping across multiple high-risk processors, that means filling out several applications before you can make an informed decision.
The early termination fee on mid- and high-risk contracts is steep. While it's waived after the initial term, that's a significant commitment for a merchant who may still be validating whether their business model works. If your processing needs change or your risk profile improves enough to qualify for lower-cost options, leaving early costs real money.
Because Soar is a specialized placement provider rather than a software platform, the practical diligence step is operational: confirm who provides gateway support, who provides acquiring and funding, what the funding schedule is, and what events can trigger reserves or holds during early processing. Volume spikes, unusual ticket sizes, and rising dispute rates can all prompt compliance reviews, which is standard in high-risk processing but can create cash flow pressure for new merchants who aren't expecting a hold on their first batch of transactions.
There's also no self-service dashboard with the kind of analytics and reporting that full-service platforms provide. You're working with a dedicated support team, not a software platform. That's fine for merchants whose primary need is simply keeping their processing active, but it means you'll rely on separate tools for business intelligence and transaction reporting beyond what your gateway provides.
Recent Developments
In mid-2025, Soar added a dedicated Shopify integration page with step-by-step instructions for connecting a high-risk merchant account through Authorize.Net's alternative payment provider settings. This is a practical addition, since Shopify's built-in payment processor doesn't support high-risk industries, and many merchants on the platform need a third-party solution without losing access to Shopify's storefront tools.
The company also launched its second podcast, High Risk Merchant Accounts 101, focused on practical guidance for business owners in the high-risk payment processing space. The original PayPod podcast, which covered broader fintech and payments topics through interviews with industry leaders, has been archived after a multi-year run.
Is Soar Payments the Right High-Risk Credit Card Processing Partner?
Soar Payments doesn't try to be everything to every merchant. It fills a specific gap for businesses that can't get approved through conventional channels, and it does that job well. The combination of multiple banking relationships, responsive in-house support, and a process designed for complex underwriting scenarios gives hard-to-place merchants a realistic path to stable credit card processing. The limitations are real, though. No public pricing, multi-year contracts with exit penalties, and above-average chargeback fees all require you to do your own due diligence before signing. Treat the signed fee schedule as your source of truth and reconcile it against your first statement before moving significant volume. If you're a merchant in a high-risk industry who's been declined elsewhere and needs a dedicated processing partner who'll actually pick up the phone, Soar Payments is worth the five-minute application to see what rates they can offer. If you're a standard-risk business with volume large enough to qualify for interchange-plus pricing from a transparent processor, there are better-documented options available.