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
4.5
Trustpilot rating
2010
processing payments since
One underwritten by people who understand GPhC registration, MHRA distance selling rules and prescription fulfilment. eCom Pay applications for online pharmacies are shaped by Samantha West, a former pharmacy dispenser, approved in 24 hours once documents are in, with next working day settlement.
eCom Pay supports GPhC registered online pharmacies selling prescription only and pharmacy medicines with a prescriber in the loop, including recurring prescription billing, tokenised repeat orders and chargeback management. The application is built around your registration and clinical governance.
Rates are agreed against your turnover and average order value rather than a published card rate, and are written into your merchant agreement before you sign. There is no setup fee to apply and settlement is next working day.
Hosted checkout or API, with plugins for WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop, Adobe Commerce and OpenCart, and in-house developers if the site is custom. Integration is handled alongside the application so the account is live and connected in one step.
Look for PCI DSS Level 1, 3D Secure, tokenisation so card numbers never touch your servers, fraud screening tuned to pharmacy order patterns, and underwriters who know pharmacy.
A direct application to a large acquirer is decided by an automated risk model that scores your category. Your file is one of thousands and the outcome makes little difference to the acquirer. eCom Pay is a separate underwriting stage that sits before the acquirer sees your application, where experienced people build the case for your business and secure the terms.
Next working day settlement and no rolling reserve. Every eCom Pay merchant, including those in high risk and specialist sectors, is settled the next working day with no reserve held back. That is the outcome the specialist underwriting stage exists to deliver, and it is written into your merchant agreement before you sign.
Yes, in most cases. A decline from an automated model tells you how the category was scored, not whether your business is approvable. The application is built around your controls, documents and trading, presented properly to specialist acquiring, and approved in 24 hours once your documents are in.
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.
Start your applicationGeneric 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 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
Omar, Director of YourMedical, an online pharmacy, came to eCom Pay facing unfair chargebacks, unexpected account freezes and the lost trading and downtime that followed. We underwrote the pharmacy properly, tuned the risk rules to the way the business trades, managed the chargebacks end to end and moved settlement to the next working day.
Read the full YourMedical case studyMost mainstream processors restrict prescription and pharmacy sales, so the real question is who underwrites the sector deliberately. Pharmacies are classed high risk for the same reason as sectors like online vape stores, regulatory complexity rather than fraud. Provider policies correct at the time of writing.
| Provider | UK online pharmacy | Pricing | For pharmacies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Prescription and pharmacy restricted on standard accounts | Flat published rate | Automated onboarding, prescription businesses commonly declined |
| PayPal | Pharmacy and prescription sales restricted | Flat published rate | Standard risk model, holds and reviews common for the sector |
| Shopify Payments | Prescription products a prohibited category | Flat published rate | Not available to prescription pharmacies |
| Square | Pharmacy excluded under acceptable use terms | Flat published rate | Not built for the sector |
| Worldpay | Case by case, established pharmacies considered | Bespoke, enterprise | Possible for larger, established pharmacies |
| eCom Pay | Yes, GPhC registered pharmacies | Bespoke, matched to your pharmacy. No PCI fee on platform integrations | Specialist underwriting, branded checkout, free conversion optimisation audit |
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. Your GPhC registration, your MHRA distance selling logo and, where you hold it, LegitScript certification are exactly the signals our underwriters read and automated models miss.
A UK online pharmacy is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and carries the MHRA distance selling logo where required. Our pharmacy specialists know both registers and present your pharmacy properly.
Visa and Mastercard recognise third party certification such as LegitScript for card not present pharmacies. 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.
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.
An online pharmacy account works when it is set up by people who know the sector and configured so it stays stable as you grow. This is how a pharmacy account with eCom Pay is put together.
GPhC registration and your responsible pharmacist. A valid General Pharmaceutical Council registration and a named responsible pharmacist are the foundation of a UK online pharmacy, and of the account. It is what separates a pharmacy from a general retailer selling health products.
MHRA position and the distance selling logo. Pharmacies that sell medicines to the public at a distance are registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and display the common distance selling logo that links back to the register.
Your product mix. Prescription only medicines, pharmacy only lines and general sale list products all run on one account, priced and configured around what you sell.
Your prescribing and dispensing model. An online doctor service, NHS and private prescription fulfilment, repeat and subscription dispensing and over the counter sales each behave differently. The account is shaped around your model, including the refund, chargeback and settlement pattern that comes with it.
Cross border and international sales. Selling to patients outside the UK adds currency, settlement and regulatory considerations. With processing in more than 150 currencies and settlement in over 25, your account is configured so international orders are handled cleanly and reconciled in one place.
Because the account is set up properly from the start by an experienced underwriter, and a dedicated Risk Analyst stays on it afterwards, there are no surprise freezes once you are live. It is worth reading how we minimise chargebacks and how the wider high risk payment solutions fit together.
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. Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council, and the MHRA distance selling logo where it applies, is the starting point. Your specialist guides you through the rest of the application step by step.
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. If a specific platform declined you, see pharmacy processing after a Stripe decline, or if your account was frozen, see restarting a frozen pharmacy account.
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.
You are in the right place. Aggregator platforms filter pharmacy merchant categories out automatically, so a decline there reflects their model, not your business. eCom Pay underwrites pharmacies directly through specialist acquiring. See pharmacy processing after a Stripe decline for the full picture, or apply and a specialist will review your case.
Yes. The fastest route back is an account underwritten for the sector from the start, so there are no surprise freezes. See restarting a frozen pharmacy account, and a specialist will get you assessed and settling again, with approval in 24 hours once your documents are in.
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.
AI answers can be wrong. For anything important, call 0345 548 0072.
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