MCC 5968: The Merchant Category Code for Continuity and Subscription Merchants

The code is for continuity and subscription selling, where the customer agrees once and is then billed again at set intervals. In practice it covers:

• Free trials and introductory offers that convert to paid subscriptions.
• Continuity shipments of physical products, such as supplements, skincare or razors every month.
• Subscription boxes and product clubs.
• Memberships billed on a recurring basis where the main product is goods rather than software or media.

Not every recurring charge belongs under 5968. A software subscription is usually coded as software or digital applications, a streaming service as digital media, and a gym membership under its own code. The acquirer assigns the code based on what you actually sell. What tends to move a business to 5968 is negative-option billing of physical products, such as a free sample that turns into a monthly shipment.

• 5967, direct marketing: inbound teleservices. Card schemes expect it for adult content and services, so an adult subscription site uses 5967 even when it bills monthly.
• 5966, direct marketing: outbound telemarketing. The merchant calls the customer to sell. Visa lists it as Tier 3 when card absent.
• 5964 and 5965, direct marketing catalogue merchants, for one-off orders from a catalogue rather than continuity billing.
• 5817, digital goods: applications, and 5815, digital goods: media, for most software and streaming subscriptions.

• Registration and review: card-absent negative-option merchants are a Tier 3 category in the Visa Integrity Risk Program, and Mastercard requires free-trial merchants of physical products to be registered under 5968. Your acquirer handles the registration but needs your offer, checkout and email flow to do it.
• Scheme rules: express consent, reminders before billing, clear receipts and online cancellation all apply, and missing one gives cardholders an easy chargeback.
• Disputes: forgotten trials and hard-to-cancel plans are the biggest source of disputes, and Visa classes a merchant in the EU or the US as excessive at a 1.5% fraud and dispute ratio with at least 1,500 counts in a month.
• Reserves: many providers start continuity merchants with a rolling reserve and relax it once the account has a clean history.

Running a trial-to-subscription offer for physical products under an ordinary retail code hides it from the controls 5968 exists for. Card schemes treat that as miscoding. When it comes to light, the account is normally closed and the merchant may be added to Mastercard's MATCH list, which makes the next application much harder for five years. Using 5968 from the start, with a compliant checkout, is the route that lasts.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. If your business processes under MCC 5968, you describe your offer, billing model, markets and volumes once, and your profile is matched with a payment provider that accepts continuity and subscription merchants. Your account is then prepared with that provider. Final approval and terms are always the provider's decision.

• Visa, Merchant Data Standards Manual, April 2026.
• Mastercard, Quick Reference Booklet, Merchant Edition, February 2025.
• Mastercard, Subscription and Negative Option Billing Model Summary, November 2022.
• Visa Integrity Risk Program, in effect since May 2023.