Why won’t Stripe, PayPal, or Square process vape, and what do you use instead?

Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, and Shopify Payments all explicitly prohibit vape in their merchant agreements. It’s not a glitch; it’s policy. They classify vape as “regulated tobacco product” alongside cigars and chewing tobacco. The reality:

• Stripe / PayPal / Square will close your account 30-90 days after first detection of vape transactions. They scan via MCC code (5993 = vape), product names, and chargeback patterns.
• They’ll freeze your reserve for 180 days, you lose access to anywhere from $5k to $500k+ depending on volume.
• Chargebacks fight to ~$50k typical, plus your domain reputation gets flagged.

What we wire instead:

• NMI gateway, most common, supports vape + CBD + nutra. ~2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, $25/mo gateway fee. Magento extension exists; we typically build a custom payment method module for cleaner UX.
• EVO Payments, European parent, US presence, vape-friendly MID underwriting.
• Easy Pay Direct (EPD), high-risk specialist, multiple backup MIDs (load balancing helps with chargeback ratios).
• eMerchantBroker, vape + adult specialist, fastest underwriting (3-5 days).
• ACH via Plaid, 0.75% per transaction, no chargeback risk. Add for repeat customers to cut effective rate.
• Crypto fallback (BitPay, Coinbase Commerce), ~3% of vape buyers prefer this; chargeback-resistant.

Typical effective rate after blend: ~3.8% (vs Stripe’s nominal 2.9% that doesn’t actually exist for vape). Budget accordingly.