A merchant account for your coaching business, from outside the US.
High-ticket coaching, consulting and done-for-you offers sell a service delivered over weeks, which is why acquirers underwrite them as high-risk. The IBOCore package supplies the US entity, the US-resident director and the bank account the file needs, on the White Hat plan.
Why coaching and consulting are underwritten as high-risk
The risk is structural, not moral: the acquirer settles a charge for a service that has not been delivered yet.
Coaching and consulting are paid before they are fulfilled, often months before the last session. Until delivery is complete the acquirer carries the exposure: if the program stops, the cardholder disputes the charge, the issuer takes the money back and the acquirer must recover it from a merchant who may no longer be there. That is future-delivery risk, however clean the operator is.
Ticket size makes it heavier. A single 1:1 program or done-for-you retainer can be thousands of dollars in one card-not-present transaction, so one dispute is a large share of the month's volume, with no tracking number to fight it. Add outcome-driven marketing, closing calls and payment plans that look like subscriptions, and the vertical typically lands on acquirers' high-risk lists.
IBOCore lists coaching and consulting as a White Hat vertical on the industries hub: high-ticket 1:1 or group coaching, agency services and done-for-you offers, with service-based revenue and manual fulfilment. Courses, paid communities and masterminds sit on the neighbouring info-products and courses page. Same mechanics, different fulfilment evidence.
Which coaching and consulting models fit this page
The hub names sales coaching, fitness coaching and business consulting. Expanded to what an underwriter sees:
Sales and business coaching
High-ticket 1:1 programs and group cohorts sold on a call and delivered live over a fixed number of weeks. The acquirer wants the enrolment agreement, the schedule and a refund policy that matches both.
Fitness coaching
Personal coaching with a defined plan and check-ins, billed once or in fixed instalments. Fitness apps and monthly memberships are a different billing model and belong on the Grey Hat fitness apps and memberships page.
Business and management consulting
Retainers, audits and strategy engagements invoiced to companies. Typically lower dispute exposure than consumer coaching, but the same future-delivery logic and the same non-resident problem for a consultant abroad.
Agency and done-for-you services
Ad management, funnel builds, outsourced sales teams. The deliverable is work product, so the acquirer asks how scope is agreed, how milestones are documented and what a cancellation triggers.
What the acquirer asks for, and what the package answers
What a US acquirer typically requests from a coaching business, and what arrives in the IBO package the same day you pay.
The package covers the entity, the person and the bank. The program, the website and the refund policy stay yours.
What you keep clean on your side
Underwriting reads the merchant as closely as the entity. These points decide the file once the package is in place.
- Descriptor. The statement descriptor must show the company name your clients recognise, with a reachable phone number or URL. An unrecognised descriptor is a frequent cause of confusion disputes.
- Refund policy. Written, visible before checkout, referenced in the enrolment agreement and applied consistently. A no-refund policy on a high ticket is not forbidden, but underwriters read it as a dispute driver.
- Claims. No income guarantees, no "results in 30 days", no client earnings presented as typical. Acquirers screen the sales page and the ads, not only the checkout.
- Fulfilment evidence. Signed enrolment agreement, session calendar, call logs, delivered work product: what answers a "services not rendered" dispute, and what the acquirer wants to know exists.
- Payment plans. A fixed number of instalments for a defined program is a payment plan. An open-ended monthly charge until cancellation is continuity: it belongs on the Grey Hat subscription and continuity page, and saying so at purchase is a condition of keeping the package.
- Support that answers. A client who gets an answer is less likely to take the charge to the issuer. Publish a support email on the company domain and staff it.
What acquirers refuse inside coaching and consulting
The vertical is accepted. These are the files inside it that acquirers typically decline or terminate, plus what IBOCore refuses on its own.
- Programs sold on guaranteed earnings, guaranteed clients or a "make your investment back" promise. Income claims are a common reason a coaching site fails the website review.
- Business-opportunity schemes where the product is the right to recruit or resell the same program. Acquirers treat this as a pyramid risk, whatever the sales page calls it.
- Health, fitness or nutrition coaching that makes medical claims: treating, curing or reversing a condition. The compliant version of this vertical makes no medical claim at all.
- Crypto education or trading-signal services presented as coaching, and open-ended memberships processed as one-shot coaching. Both are misclassifications: crypto-adjacent businesses and subscription billing are Grey Hat verticals with their own pages, and IBOCore suspends a misclassified package.
- Anything fraudulent: fake credentials, stolen course material, testimonials that do not exist. This is refused before any package is assigned.
White Hat plan: the price for a coaching business
Coaching and consulting run predictable one-shot or fixed-instalment volume, which is what the flat-fee plan is priced for.
The White Hat plan costs $1,999 as a one-time setup fee, then $4,499 per month. Monthly billing starts 30 days after delivery, not at sign-up, so you have a full month of acquirer onboarding before the meter runs. That onboarding typically takes 3 to 10 business days once the file is submitted: the acquirer's timeline, not a promise of approval.
The setup fee is paid in USDT or USDC on ERC20 or TRC20. Two add-ons matter for a coaching file: the document template pack ($499 one-time) for agreements, invoices, refund policy and terms of service, and merchant account consulting ($899 per month) to structure the application.
- One merchant per IBO: the director is never shared and never reused.
- Activate within 30 days or the package can be reclaimed; the setup fee is not refunded.
- No clawbacks if an acquirer terminates the MID; the package stays yours.
How to get a merchant account for a coaching business with an IBO package
Four steps to a delivered package, then the acquirer's onboarding. No KYC on you, no notary, no travel.
- 01
Step 01
Contact a representative on Telegram
Say what you coach, how you sell it, the ticket size and how you bill: one-shot or fixed instalments. Merchants are reviewed on business proofs before dashboard access; a short exchange confirms the White Hat classification.
- 02
Step 02
Choose an available package
Pick an entity in the inventory (names are masked until you sign in), select the White Hat plan and, if useful, the template pack.
- 03
Step 03
Pay the setup fee
$1,999 in USDT or USDC on ERC20 or TRC20. The package is already built, so a confirmed payment triggers delivery, not formation.
- 04
Step 04
Receive the package the same day
Entity documents, the director's file, bank access, company email and US proxy arrive in your private Telegram group with your account manager.
- 05
Step 05
Submit the MID application
With your own ISO or directly: the package documents, your website, the enrolment agreement and the refund policy. The director answers the verification call. Acquirer onboarding typically takes 3 to 10 business days.
Packages are permanently in stock and delivered the same day the payment confirms. Pick one, classify honestly, submit the coaching file.
Merchant accounts for coaching businesses, frequently asked
The follow-up questions coaches and consultants send on Telegram before their first package.
Is a coaching business White Hat or Grey Hat?
White Hat, the plan the industries hub assigns to coaching and consulting, when you sell a defined program paid once or in a fixed number of instalments. Grey Hat when the same content is billed as an open-ended monthly membership. The classification is declared at purchase; getting it wrong suspends the package.
Do payment plans count as subscription billing?
Not when they are finite. Three or six instalments for a program with a start and an end date is a payment plan and stays on White Hat. Recurring charges with no end date are continuity, priced on Grey Hat at 9% of deposit volume. Acquirers make the same distinction and ask for the instalment schedule.
Can I sell programs of several thousand dollars on this package?
The package does not cap your ticket; the acquirer sets the limits. Expect questions on your average and maximum ticket, delivery time after the charge and how refunds work. A high ticket with a signed agreement, a clear schedule and a written refund policy is a normal coaching file.
Can a coach based outside the US get a US merchant account with this package?
That is the use case the package is built for. It supplies what a non-resident cannot produce alone: a US entity in the director's home state, a US-resident signer with a KYC file, and a US bank account with full access. No KYC, notary or travel on you; IBOCore does review every merchant on business proofs first. The merchant account itself remains the acquirer's decision.
What should I prepare on the coaching side before applying?
A website describing the program, its price, its duration and its delivery; terms of service and a refund policy visible before checkout; an enrolment agreement; a support contact on the company domain; processing statements if you have any. The optional template pack ($499) supplies the agreement, invoice, refund policy and terms templates.
Who handles a dispute when a client charges back a coaching fee?
You do, with your fulfilment evidence: the signed agreement, the session log, the delivered work. IBOCore does not manage chargebacks and the director does not intervene in the business; the director stays available for verification calls and signatures. If the acquirer terminates the MID, there are no clawbacks on IBOCore's side.
Related reading
Industries we serve
Every White Hat and Grey Hat vertical, and the ones refused.
Read moreInfo-products and courses
Courses, communities and masterminds: the neighbouring White Hat vertical.
Read moreSubscription and continuity
Where open-ended memberships belong, on the Grey Hat plan.
Read moreHigh-risk merchant account
What high-risk underwriting asks for on top of a standard file.
Read moreChargebacks for high-risk merchants
Thresholds, reason codes and how to answer a dispute with evidence.
Read moreLive inventory
The packages available today, delivered the same day you pay.
Read moreGet the US package behind your coaching merchant account.
Fresh US entity, vetted director, full bank access, White Hat plan, same-day delivery from inventory.
Or reach out on Telegram first. No KYC on you, no notary, no travel.