Any business relationship can be voided with a proportional amount of effort as it took to enter it. If you don't want to be cut off so easily, you'll need to

Any business relationship can be voided with a proportional amount of effort as it took to enter it. If you don't want to be cut off so easily, you'll need to use a payment medium that's more difficult to acquire access to and involves fewer middlemen. There are only a handful of levels: eCash Account (PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments) Payment Gateway + Merchant Account (Authorize.net + Bank) Be a big fish that can negotiate + interface directly with Visa, etc. Be Visa / Mastercard (since their IPOs), PayPal, AmEx, etc. Be a bank