The pages a payment gateway checks before approving you
Payment gateways review your website before they let you take payments, and incomplete sites are a common reason for rejection or delay. Each gateway publishes its own requirements, but most look for the same set of pages.
The usual list
- Privacy policy: what personal data you collect, why, who you share it with and how customers can contact you about it
- Terms and conditions: the rules of buying from you, including who you are and which law applies
- Refund and cancellation policy: when customers can cancel, how refunds work and how long they take
- Shipping or delivery policy: where you deliver, how long it takes and what it costs, or how a service is delivered
- Contact page: your business name as registered, a full address, phone number and email
- About page: who runs the business and what it does
All of them should be linked from the footer of every page, written for your actual business rather than copied from another site.
What else reviewers look at
- Clear prices on products or services, in the currency you'll charge in
- Real products or services: a site full of dummy items or "coming soon" pages looks unfinished
- Matching details: the business name and address on the site should match your registration and bank documents
- A working site on your own domain with HTTPS
- Nothing prohibited: every gateway lists businesses and products it won't serve
Why applications get rejected
The most common reasons are missing policy pages, policies copied from another business with the wrong name in them, no physical address, prices missing, or a website that's still half built. Each one is easy to fix, but each rejection costs time.
Write policies you'll actually follow
Policies are promises to customers as well as boxes to tick. If your refund page says seven days, you'll be held to seven days. Write what you really do, in plain words, and keep it consistent with what you tell customers on WhatsApp. If you're unsure about legal wording, have a lawyer review it.
Then test before going live
Once approved, test payments in the gateway's test mode, including failed payments and refunds, before switching to live keys. My payment gateway integration service covers the whole process, and my page on ecommerce websites covers the store around it.