Continuity billing

Any business model where the merchant charges the cardholder on a repeating schedule, subscriptions, memberships, clubs, free-trial-to-paid flows. Visa and Mastercard impose specific continuity-billing rules around consent, cancellation UX, and recurring transaction flagging. Continuity verticals carry elevated dispute exposure.

In practice.

Continuity billing is treated as its own risk class by acquirers because disputes typically come from cancellation friction rather than fraud. Underwriters look for clear trial terms, easy cancellation and honest descriptors. Merchants with clean continuity practices get noticeably better terms than the segment average.

Related terms: MIT · Card-on-File · Account Updater · Recurring transaction