eCom Pay is a payment gateway for online pharmacies, with GPhC and MHRA aware onboarding and a dedicated Risk Analyst. Applications are handled by experienced underwriters who understand healthcare and guide you step by step, so a legitimate, registered pharmacy gets approved and live in days, not months.
24 hrs
approval, once documents are in
150+
currencies processed
4.4
Trustpilot rating
2010
processing payments since
It is rarely about your business. An online pharmacy merchant account simply needs deliberate, sector-aware underwriting from the start, and that is a specialism, not a checkbox.
Check your approval oddsGeneric risk models read category codes, not businesses. Prescription only medicines and pharmacy product codes need a human reader who understands GPhC registration and how a legitimate pharmacy actually operates.
Visa and Mastercard treat card not present pharmacies under Merchant Category Code 5912 as high risk by default, so a nervous generic acquirer would rather avoid the category than underwrite it properly.
When payments stop, patient orders stall, repeat prescriptions miss their window and suppliers go unpaid. A pharmacy needs a payment setup underwritten properly from day one, so trading simply continues.
Every application is read by a person who knows a registered pharmacy is a legitimate business, not a category to avoid. Your account sits on acquiring that deliberately underwrites healthcare, and a real time fraud engine is tuned to stop fraud without blocking a returning patient mid repeat order.
Patients on long term medication should not re-enter card details every month. We bill repeat scripts automatically with recurring payments, and stored cards are held as secure tokens, never raw card numbers.
Health purchases attract disputes and friendly fraud. We prevent them with 3D Secure 2 and real time fraud screening, then manage any that land. Our guide on how to minimise chargebacks covers the full playbook.
Selling to patients overseas should not mean juggling providers. Process in 150 plus currencies, settle in 25 plus, and reconcile everything in one dashboard with next working day settlement.
Whether you run on WooCommerce, Shopify, Adobe Commerce or a bespoke build, the gateway drops into your existing checkout with hosted payment pages and a full API.
For qualifying orders, Open Banking moves money bank to bank with no card network involved, which means no chargebacks at all.
Patient card data never touches your server. Hosted payment forms and tokenisation keep you on the right side of PCI DSS, with strong customer authentication built in.
Fair. So here is what UK merchants say after switching to eCom Pay, in their own words.
It was such a pleasure working with eCom Pay for my company, very straightforward to set up and the team were so helpful. No hidden fees, cost efficient, and from using other platforms before I can say this has been the best so far.
Verified merchantvia Trustpilot
We found eCom Pay to be a simple, efficient payment system to integrate, with a lot of support behind it. Would recommend them over competitors who charge far too much.
Verified merchantvia Trustpilot
Great customer service from eCom Pay. Needed a card reader for my business, they had me set up fast and gave me better rates than the last company. Highly recommend.
Verified merchantvia Trustpilot
Super impressed with eCom Pay. The transaction fees are competitive, and I love that my customers have multiple payment options, which has noticeably improved my sales.
Verified merchantvia Trustpilot
Good service from eCom Pay. The card machines are reliable and easy to use. I like that there are no hidden fees and everything is explained upfront.
Verified merchantvia Trustpilot
Would highly recommend. Easy, simple, and always answers when I need help. The best payment gateway I have come across, with a wide variety of packages available.
Verified merchantvia Trustpilot
You operate under real oversight, and underwriters know it. We are not the regulator and we do not advise on clinical matters. What we do is make the payment side line up with the regulated side.
Underwriters want to see a pharmacy registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and the MHRA distance selling logo where required. Meeting that bar makes you a stronger applicant, not a weaker one.
Visa and Mastercard recognise third party certification such as LegitScript for card not present pharmacies under MCC 5912. We are not the certifier, but we help prepare your records and website so the review runs in parallel with acquiring.
The checkout supports the age and identity checks your model needs, with strong customer authentication throughout. Adjacent regulated lines such as CBD and supplements sit on the same account.
No two pharmacy models look the same to an underwriter, and a gateway that only understands one of them is no use to you. We take payments across all of these.
Whatever your platform, the gateway fits it rather than the other way round. There is a developer first plugin for WooCommerce pharmacy checkouts, a flexible route for Shopify when Shopify Payments will not support medicine sales, and a full REST API for bespoke online doctor builds. Hosted payment pages keep card data off your own servers throughout.
Present these well and approval is straightforward. We help you pull them together before the application goes in, so it lands right the first time rather than coming back with questions.
Cash flow is the lifeblood of a pharmacy, and it deserves an underwriting approach built for the sector from day one. Here is ours.
High risk accounts are often saddled with long delays or rolling reserves that lock up your takings. We settle next working day and size any reserve around your real trading history, not a category label.
Every transaction is traceable and every refund and dispute is logged. For phone and prescription line orders, a virtual terminal and Pay by Link take payment with full 3D Secure authentication.
Process in over 150 currencies and let patients pay in their own while you settle in over 25. Local payment methods and Open Banking widen acceptance, and everything reconciles back to one clear view.
Disputes are not solved with a single tool. We work them in four layers, from prevention through to managing the ones that still land.
3D Secure 2 authenticates the cardholder and shifts fraud liability away from you, while a real time fraud engine screens transactions and is tuned to avoid false declines that cost you genuine patient orders.
For qualifying orders, Open Banking takes the card network out of the equation. No card, no chargeback, with strong authentication handled inside the banking app.
Tokenisation replaces stored card data with a meaningless token, so repeat prescription billing is seamless and far less exposed to the fraud that drives disputes in the first place.
When a chargeback does land, dispute tools sit in your dashboard and your Risk Analyst helps you respond with evidence. See our guides on minimising chargebacks and fraud prevention.
Yes. A registered UK online pharmacy can get a dedicated pharmacy payment gateway and merchant account through eCom Pay. Our specialist acquiring underwrites healthcare deliberately, with human review rather than an automated decline, so legitimate pharmacies get approved.
It is the products, not your business. Automated risk models flag prescription only medicines, pharmacy product codes and healthcare merchant categories by default, and the card schemes monitor the sector closely. A legitimate, GPhC registered pharmacy ends up labelled high risk simply by association.
For a UK online pharmacy, yes. Underwriters expect registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council and the MHRA distance selling logo where it applies. Meeting that bar makes you a stronger applicant. We help present your registered pharmacy the way underwriters need to see it.
Visa and Mastercard treat card not present pharmacies under Merchant Category Code 5912 as high risk and recognise third party certification such as LegitScript as part of that registration. We are not the certifier, but we help prepare your regulatory and website detail so the review goes smoothly.
Yes, for appropriately registered pharmacies dispensing within their regulatory permissions. We are a payment company, so the clinical and prescribing side stays with you and your regulator, while we make the payment processing line up with how a compliant pharmacy operates.
Through recurring payments and tokenisation. Patients on long term medication are billed automatically on a schedule, with their card held as a secure token rather than raw data. It means no re-entering details each month and a smoother, lower friction repeat order.
Yes, and most pharmacies that come to us have been declined or offboarded elsewhere. A previous decline usually reflects a poorly presented application, not a problem with your pharmacy. We process the application again properly and place it correctly.
Straightforward cases complete in a few working days. Heavily regulated setups can take a little longer because underwriters review documentation properly. We manage that process for you throughout and keep you updated rather than leaving you chasing.
Yes. You can process in over 150 currencies and settle in over 25, with reconciliation in a single dashboard and next working day settlement. Patients abroad pay in their own currency while you keep one clean view of every transaction.
Written by the eCom Pay team. Reviewed August 2026. Last updated August 2026.
Private, judgement free and answered by a UK team that has approved pharmacies before. See where you stand in minutes.
Looking at the wider category? See all high risk payment solutions.