Short answer: ask about approval rate by market, who the acquirers are, reserve and settlement terms, and how the contract ends. The headline rate matters least of the five.
Most brokers compare PSPs on rate and discover the real cost later: a reserve that is never released, settlement that slips, and an acquirer that drops the account with a week’s notice. The twelve questions below surface those problems before you sign. For each one: what a good answer sounds like, and what should make you walk away.
The questions at a glance
| # | Question | A good answer sounds like | Red flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which acquirers will my traffic run on? | Named acquirers per market, and more than one. | “We can’t disclose that,” with no reason given. |
| 2 | What is your approval rate in my markets? | A number per country and per method, from the last 90 days. | One global average. |
| 3 | What happens when a deposit is declined? | Soft declines are retried on another route. | “The trader can try again.” |
| 4 | What is the rolling reserve, and when is it released? | A percentage, a period and a written release date. | “Reviewed case by case”; with no dates. |
| 5 | How and when do you settle? | A fixed schedule, named currencies, to bank or to USDT. | Settlement “on request.” |
| 6 | What ends the contract, and what happens to my funds? | A notice period and a fixed timeline for releasing balances. | An open-ended holdback on termination. |
Questions 7 to 12 cover chargebacks, integration, support, onboarding time, references and pricing.
1. Which acquirers will my traffic run on?
A PSP that routes everything through one acquirer has one point of failure, and so do you. Ask how many acquirers you would be live on in each market, and what happens to your traffic if one of them leaves.
[Two sentences from the risk desk: how many acquirers per market, and how failover works.]
2. What is your approval rate in my markets?
A single global average hides the markets where your deposits fail. Ask for approval rates by country and by method over the last 90 days, from merchants like you.
[Questions 3 to 12 follow the same pattern: the question, why it matters, how PayAlma answers it.]