Your payments are an asset or a ticking liability.
Everything payments, under one roof.
Fractional Payments Leadership
Your own VP of Payments for a fraction of the cost of a hire. Card-not-present strategy, subscriptions, risk, compliance, churn reduction, retention, and conversion, all managed monthly, like part of your team. Because we are.
Explore Consulting →The Approved Mystery Buyer™
Mystery shopping for your entire online business. We buy, we call, and we cancel, putting trained professionals through your real customer journey (checkout, support, fulfillment, refunds) and reporting the truth nobody inside your company will tell you. Most businesses are quietly losing a meaningful share of revenue, and we show you exactly where.
Payments Hiring & Candidate Vetting
Anyone can say they know payments. We find out who actually does. We interview your payments candidates for you and weed out the pretenders, saving 40+ interview hours and preventing the holds, fines, and terminated accounts a bad hire leaves behind.
Vet My Candidates →Stable Merchant Account Solutions
Stop building your business on rented processing. We place 99% of industries through real banking relationships, with underwriting done right the first time: dedicated MIDs, low freeze risk, and backup processing built in. Free to apply, with a same-day response.
Apply Now · Free →The Acquisition X-Ray
You don't buy a house without an inspection. Don't buy a business without this. Buying on Flippa or Acquire? In the AI era, that $150K-revenue tool may have been built in an hour. Before you wire, we read the chargebacks, refunds, pumped sales, and MATCH history the listing hides, and give you a green light or red light. Priced from $295 so no one gets burned.
See X-Ray Pricing →Six weeks to payment fluency.
Payments is the bloodline of every company, and almost nobody in the building understands how it works. This is the one skill that pays in every seat: get promoted, land the job, find the holes quietly draining the business, and learn how to make real money in payments. CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CROs, operators, owners. Every single person in the organization gets stronger the moment they understand how the money actually moves, and in six weeks you will.
Bring me your hardest problem. Leave with the truth.
When it's payments
When it's the business
Two playbooks. Keep the revenue you earn.
Winning the Chargeback Game
Stop losing money you already earned. Beat friendly fraud, win the disputes you should never lose, and stay out of monitoring programs.
Get the Book · $17 →
Winning the Subscription Game
Keep the recurring revenue you earn. Compliant trials, VAMP-ready evidence, and a churn forecast that catches cancellations before they happen.
Get the Book · $17 →Three more ways to work together. One probably fits you.
Board your high-risk deals
A home for the deals other shops decline: real banking relationships and underwriting that knows high risk.
Send business, stay hands-off
You make the introduction, we handle everything, and you earn 50% of residuals for the life of every account.
Partner on anything
Affiliate across the full service stack, consulting, Mystery Buyer, hiring, or the X-Ray. If there is alignment, we build the structure.
I've sat on every side of the table. Now I sit on yours.
Twenty-five years ago I walked into the payments industry, and I never found a reason to leave. Acquiring, issuing, risk, compliance, underwriting, and technology: I've worked across every single division, worked directly with banks, and founded my own MSP/ISO.
Along the way, my teams processed more than $50 billion in transactions, saved merchants millions in fees, and taught payments to thousands of people across 35,000+ merchants, from the first digital creators to today's most successful online businesses.
The payments industry operates behind a veil of secrecy most owners never get to peek behind. I watched that opacity destroy good businesses, and I watched self-proclaimed "experts" who never spent a day in the industry spread dangerous advice. That's why PatriciaCarlin.com exists.
Questions, answered.
Who is Patricia Carlin?
Patricia Carlin is a payments expert who has spent 25 years on every side of the payments industry, as a processor, a bank insider, in risk and compliance, and as an ISO/MSP founder. Her teams processed $50 billion+ in transactions for 35,000+ merchants. She now provides fractional payments leadership, the Approved Mystery Buyer, payments hiring, stable merchant accounts, and payment fluency training.
What is fractional payments leadership?
A head of payments without the headcount. Your own VP of Payments for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire (which runs $180K–$300K+). It covers card-not-present strategy, subscriptions, risk, compliance, churn reduction, retention, and processor relationships, managed monthly. Plans start at $2,500/mo. Book an assessment →
What is the Approved Mystery Buyer?
Mystery shopping for your entire online business. Trained professionals go through your real customer journey, including checkout, support, fulfillment, refunds, and cancellation, then report the friction, integrity failures, and the recoverable revenue your own team will never surface. See what we find →
What is the Six Weeks to Payment Fluency challenge?
A six-week challenge that teaches how money actually moves, covering MRR, rebills, cancellations, interchange, and risk profiles. You don't become an expert; you gain the fluency that turns you from a candidate into a key asset, as payments-fluent roles are in high demand across every sector. Pre-register →
Why do merchant accounts get terminated?
Most terminations are preventable. Aggregators approve fast with minimal upfront underwriting, then their algorithms judge you later with no context. Patricia issues stable merchant accounts through real banking relationships with underwriting done right the first time, dedicated MIDs, and backup processing built in.
How do I get Patricia's free chargeback guide?
Join Patricia's War Chest list and you'll instantly receive "Winning The Chargeback Game", plus every new book, guide, tip, and payments warning she releases. It's free. Get the guide →