Eleven years placing files nobody else would read.
Meridian Rails was built by underwriters, not by affiliate marketers. Every person who touches your application has sat on the bank side of the desk and knows what a credit committee actually objects to.
A desk of six, not a lead-generation floor
Dana Ruiz spent nine years underwriting card-not-present portfolios at two acquiring banks before founding Meridian Rails in 2015, after watching a fourth compliant dropshipping merchant get closed for a metric nobody had explained to them. Kwame Adeyemi runs risk and spent seven years on scheme-monitoring remediation, taking merchants out of VAMP and ECM programmes. Between the two desks — Wilmington and Tallinn — we carry six people and 210 live MIDs, and the person who underwrites your file is the person who answers your phone in month nine. We have never bought a lead and we do not pay for placement on comparison sites.
What we are for
To place legitimate card-not-present catalogues with banks that will underwrite them honestly, on terms the merchant sees before signature. A merchant who understands their reserve, their descriptor and their ratio is a merchant who is still processing in three years.
What we refuse to be
We are not a lead broker. We do not sell your application to a panel of ISOs, we do not advertise guaranteed approval, and we do not quote a rate we have not had a bank confirm. Where we cannot place a file, we say so on the same day and tell you who might.
Our Values
Published numbers
Our portfolio VAMP ratio, uptime and decision times are on the homepage with the methodology attached. If a number moves the wrong way, it still gets published.
Named sponsor bank
The bank issuing your MID is named in the merchant agreement before signature and disclosed in the footer of every page of this site, as Visa and Mastercard require of a registered ISO.
Everything in writing
Rate, reserve percentage, hold period, step-down date and settlement schedule are in the agreement. Nothing material is agreed on a phone call and left there.
A door that opens outward
Thirty days notice to cancel and a portable vault delivered within 30 days at no charge. A merchant who cannot leave was never really a client.
Our Locations
United States — underwriting and support
1201 N. Orange Street, Suite 700, Wilmington, DE 19801, United States
underwriting@meridianrails.com +1 (302) 555-0148European Union — EEA merchants and data residency
Rotermanni 8, 10111 Tallinn, Estonia
eu@meridianrails.com +372 555 0177Two operators, in their own words. Merchant results vary.
They told us on day one that two of our fourteen stores would not be boarded and why. Nobody else in this market says no before taking the paperwork. The twelve that went through have not had a single monitoring letter.
Agency principal, 14 client stores
Ecommerce agency · Boarded 2024 · Results vary by merchant
The reserve step-down date was in our agreement and it happened on that date without us chasing it. After two processors that had quietly extended holds, that alone was worth the switch.
Finance lead, home goods catalogue
Dropshipping · ~$2.0M/mo · Boarded 2023 · Results vary by merchant
Talk to an underwriter, not a call centre.
The direct line reaches the desk that reads files. If you want to know whether your catalogue is placeable before you assemble six documents, ask — the answer takes ten minutes and costs nothing.
Contact the underwriting desk →Registered ISO/MSP disclosure
Meridian Rails Payments, LLC is a registered ISO/MSP of Harbor Point Bank, N.A., Wilmington, Delaware. Merchant accounts are issued by the sponsoring bank, not by Meridian Rails. We are not a bank and we do not hold merchant funds; settlement is made by the sponsor bank directly to the account named on your application.
Approvals, discount rates, reserve terms and settlement schedules are set at underwriting and disclosed in full in the merchant agreement before you sign. No rate quoted in conversation is binding until it appears in that agreement.
Card-network marks shown on this site indicate the payment types accepted through our gateway. They do not imply endorsement or sponsorship by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover.
No approval is guaranteed. Every application is subject to underwriting, KYB/KYC verification and OFAC sanctions screening, and may be declined without a stated reason.
Scheme thresholds
Visa VAMP sets the merchant excessive ratio at 1.50% effective 1 April 2026, combining TC40 fraud with TC15 non-fraud disputes and removing the early-warning tier. Mastercard ECM remains 1.50% with 100 or more disputes in a month. Thresholds are set by the card networks and are subject to change.
How we hold the lineProhibited business
We will not board counterfeit or IP-infringing goods, unlicensed pharmaceuticals, unregistered financial services, or any business connected to a sanctioned jurisdiction. The full restricted list is published rather than disclosed after application.
Read the listComplaints
Write to complaints@meridianrails.com or call the underwriting desk. We acknowledge in writing within two business days and respond substantively within fifteen. Unresolved matters escalate to the sponsor bank compliance officer.
Escalation route- Registered entity
- Meridian Rails Payments, LLC
- Sponsor bank
- Harbor Point Bank, N.A., Wilmington, Delaware
- ISO/MSP registration
- Visa 4417-B · Mastercard 88-2210
- Registered office
- 1201 N. Orange Street, Suite 700, Wilmington, DE 19801