Podcast
Click & Convert with Maria Sparagis
Hosted by Maria Sparagis · EN
Maria Sparagis has spent 20+ years helping online businesses find the revenue they didn't know they were losing. As president of DirectPayNet and a payment solutions expert, she knows that the difference between a good business and a great one often comes down to how you handle payments and conversions.
On Click & Convert, Maria shares the strategies, tools, and insider knowledge that ecommerce founders and online entrepreneurs need to scale to 6 and 8 figures — from optimizing your checkout flow to maximizing what hits your bottom line.
Featured in American Banker, Vice, Coindesk, and Yahoo. Connect at mariasparagis.com or directpaynet.com.
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
#238 What Happens If Stripe Shuts You Down Tomorrow?
Jun 400:11:21Tap to summarizeTake back control of your payments before Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, or Square take control of your business.Many ecommerce brands build their entire payment infrastructure around a single payment service provider. While platforms like Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, and Square are great for getting started, they shouldn't be the foundation of your business as you scale.The biggest risk isn't just an account review or shutdown. It's discovering too late that your processor controls the customer payment data you need to make a smooth transition.In this episode, Maria walks through a step-by-step roadmap for moving away from Stripe and other PSPs safely — without disrupting your customers, subscriptions, or revenue. This isn’t theory; it’s a practical migration framework designed to help you rebuild your payment stack with redundancy and control.She breaks down the exact process of how to leave Stripe safely without disrupting subscriptions or payment flow:Secure your backup solutionDecouple your billingMigrate your dataGradually move sales volumeBuild your payment stack👉 Need help building a scalable payment stack or planning a processor migration? Contact us here!____________________________________________🎯 Key Concepts Covered🟩 Stripe Account Terminated — Why Stripe closes merchant accounts, what a Stripe account suspension means for your business, and what to do if Stripe holds your funds or shuts you down with no warning.🟩 How to Switch from Stripe — Step-by-step process for migrating off Stripe to a new payment processor without losing customers, breaking checkout, or interrupting recurring revenue.🟩 Stripe Data Migration — How to export customer payment methods, saved cards, and billing history from Stripe — and what Stripe won't let you take with you.🟩 Migrate Subscriptions to a New Processor — How to move recurring billing, subscription plans, and automated invoicing from Stripe to another payment gateway without failed charges or churn.🟩 Best Stripe Alternatives for Business — Payment processors and merchant account providers that offer more control, better support, and fewer surprise shutdowns than Stripe.🟩 Dedicated Merchant Account vs Stripe — Why a direct merchant account gives you more stability, lower risk of holds, and more negotiating power than a payment aggregator like Stripe.🟩 Payment Processing Backup Plan — How to set up a secondary payment processor, failover gateway, or backup merchant account so one provider shutting you down doesn't kill your business.
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#237 Why Having Low Chargebacks Is No Longer Enough to Keep Your Account Safe
May 2800:15:56Tap to summarizeYour account can get flagged long before you ever hit a 1% chargeback rate.For years, 1% was treated like the magical chargeback threshold. As long as your business stayed under it, most merchants assumed their account was safe. But a lot of ecommerce brands are now finding out that low chargebacks alone won’t protect you from reserves, payout holds, or account reviews anymore.Payment processors are looking at a much broader picture of risk today — including refund rates, dispute activity, customer complaints, sudden spikes in volume, and overall account behavior. Even a small shift in your metrics can increase scrutiny, despite having a “healthy” chargeback ratio on paper.In this episode, Maria breaks down why the old 1% rule no longer tells the full story, what payment processors are actually monitoring behind the scenes, and why some businesses with low chargebacks still get flagged. She also covers the key risk metrics merchants should be tracking every month to reduce the chances of reserves, payment holds, or shutdowns.What metrics processors look atEarly warning signs your account is at riskHow to minimize chargebacksHow to avoid account closuresHow to protect your businessIf you use Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, or another payment processor, understanding how modern risk monitoring works is becoming essential for protecting your payouts and keeping your account stable.👉 Need help reducing payment risk or stabilizing your merchant account? Contact us!____________________________________________🎯 Key Concepts Covered🟩 Chargeback Ratio — The percentage of transactions that turn into chargebacks. One of the main metrics payment processors use to assess merchant risk.🟩 Payment Processor Risk Monitoring — The automated systems used by Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, etc. to evaluate merchant behavior and flag potential risk.🟩 Payment Holds — Temporary freezes or delays on payouts triggered by risk reviews, dispute spikes, or unusual transaction activity.🟩 Merchant Account Reserves — Funds held back by a payment processor to cover potential chargebacks or financial risk exposure.🟩 Merchant Account Shutdowns — The suspension or termination of a payment account due to elevated risk signals or compliance concerns.🟩 VAMP Ratio — Visa’s monitoring metric used to track fraud and dispute levels across merchant accounts.🟩 Refund Rate — The percentage of orders refunded, often used by processors as an indirect signal of customer dissatisfaction or risk.
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#236 Your Payment Processor Is Silently Blocking Sales
May 2100:13:08Tap to summarizeAI fraud scoring systems may be silently declining your transactions without you realizing it. Most online businesses see higher failed payments or lower conversion rates and assume it’s ads, checkout, or pricing — but have you checked if an AI fraud scoring system is to blame? Risk engine and automated payment gateway settings may be blocking legitimate customer orders. These systems are designed to prevent losses, not maximize revenue, which leads to false declines. In this episode, Maria breaks down how to spot when AI fraud tools are impacting your payments, and shows you which fraud settings to adjust so they actually fit your business model instead of generic default rules. You’ll learn how to recognize false decline patterns, what’s triggering them, and how to improve approval rates without increasing fraud risk: How to identify which Fraud AI mechanisms are active in your gatewayHow to know if Fraud AI is working against youHow to adjust your Fraud AI scoring filtersHow to test your new settingsTop fixes every merchant needs to knowIf you’re using Stripe, Shopify, or any payment gateway and seeing unexplained declines or high payment failure rates, this is likely where the problem is coming from — and what you can do to fix it. 👉 Need help with payment processing, fraud settings, or reducing false declines? Contact us!
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#235 How to Reduce Stripe Chargebacks in 3 Steps
May 1400:09:38Tap to summarizeStripe chargebacks are not just costing you money — too many disputes can put your entire account at risk.If customers are filing disputes, calling their bank, or not recognizing your charges, the problem is not always fraud — often it’s avoidable friction, unclear communication, and weak checkout or billing practices.Maria breaks down 3 simple ways to reduce Stripe chargebacks, improve customer trust, and protect your Stripe account from excessive dispute rates. Learn how to make your charges more recognizable, reduce customer confusion, and create a better post-purchase experience that prevents disputes before they happen:Create a “what is this charge” pageUpdate your billing descriptorSet up chargeback alertsYour chargeback prevention checklistIf you are using Stripe and struggling with chargebacks, these are some of the fastest and easiest fixes you can implement to lower disputes and keep more revenue.👉 Need help with payment processing, Stripe risk issues, or reducing chargebacks? Contact us now!____________________________________________🎯 Key Concepts Covered🟩 Stripe Chargebacks — Payment disputes filed by customers through their bank that reverse a transaction and can increase processing risk for your Stripe account.🟩 Friendly Fraud — Chargebacks caused by customer confusion, forgotten purchases, or unrecognized billing descriptors rather than true fraud or stolen card activity.🟩 Billing Descriptor — The business name or transaction label customers see on their credit card statement that helps them recognize a purchase and avoid chargebacks.🟩 Chargeback Prevention — Strategies used to reduce customer disputes before they happen, including clear communication, recognizable charges, and accessible customer support.🟩 Stripe Dispute Fee — The non-refundable fee Stripe charges merchants each time a customer initiates a chargeback, regardless of whether the dispute is won or lost.🟩 Stripe Dispute Rate — The percentage of Stripe transactions that become chargebacks, which Stripe monitors closely when evaluating merchant account risk.🟩 Stripe Account Suspended — When Stripe restricts or disables a merchant's account due to excessive disputes, high chargeback rates, or elevated payment processing risk.
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