the first third party biller we ever ran across was DMR. we were promoting sites that used them, and when DMR stopped paying everyone, we all lost money. that was before 2000, and it was the first time most of us had seen a credit card processor go under. it wasn’t the last.
ibill was then the stud. they paid everyone on time, which is the important thing, and they paid your affiliates for you. they were huge, but years later when their payments became spotty, their stats were already old and creaky. they finally went under owing millions, some of which was to be paid back over time but only if various agreements were reached.
we also used 4 other billers who went under. one gave us fair warning when things went wrong (i think they were called pswbilling), another we had already stopped using because they seemed so crappy - and i believe eventually they paid their debts, but it took years. another one i wasn’t involved with and the last one kept pressuring us to send traffic till a week before they went under, and that week they stopped answering their phones.
it’s worth visiting history here to let people know how important the right processor can be. once and only once epoch paid late, ccbill has been on time for years and verotel is another on time payer. others are comparatively new, not working with visa association rules - if they get caught, visa will stop paying them - or out of business. some companies use workarounds, but every company i’ve seen try this went under.
a company that pays on time for one year is nice, but all the companies i saw go under paid on time for a year or more. and this, folks, is why ccbill, epoch and verotel are the only processors i trust with my money!