Epoch.com

Let’s look at one of the more underground payment gateways out there, called Epoch. You may have heard their name before, but not from your friends or popular mainstream websites. You should have seen them on your credit card report the last time you paid for virtual titties in some random ass browser RPG. These are the guys who make sure that horny dudes can purchase as many virtual titties as they want without their wives finding out. So, if your wife ever asks you about your Epoch charges, you can just tell her that’s an early Christmas gift for her. She doesn’t have to know that you blew all that change on hentai games.

But, Epoch isn’t just there to protect the average customer’s privacy. They’re an alternative to PayPal. You’re going to need that alternative when PayPal flips you the middle finger. That company does not appreciate the world of smut nearly as liberally as other payment processors do. So, you go to Epoch instead and you integrate their payment method into your site. Not to worry, though. They’re not some sort of platform that requires customers to buy credits or make an account on their site. They’re a true and proper payment gateway. If your customers want to pay by credit card, they can.

Finally, the most important part of Epoch is that they’re properly certified and legitimate. That means that they’re lawful and secure. The actual payment gateway that appears on your site is protected. Your customer won’t be throwing their credit card digits around for the world to steal. It’s all on the up and up. That being said, there has been some controversy surrounding Epoch in recent years, even though the company claims that these are completely baseless accusations. We’ll get into the finer details of this shit. First, let’s talk about the basic features.

Complete Payment Method Coverage

If you force your customers to only use one type of payment on your site, they’re likely to fuck right off, even if they do have access to that payment method. They’re likely to run, because nothing scares customers more than shady looking payment gateways. And, you can’t tell me that a payment gateway that accepts VISA, but not MasterCard doesn’t look shady. It does. You want to know why both card providers aren’t on the list. The more providers you see, the likelier you are to trust the service. That’s just how people’s thought process works when it comes to judging payment providers.

Luckily, Epoch has so many payment methods available for your customers; it’s astounding. I’ve never even heard of some of these. There’s the big three, VISA, MasterCard and Maestro. Naturally, they can also use their Discover card and their Diner’s. Next up, there’s the lesser-known Qiwi and AstroPay. Then, there are the really obscure options like Todito Cash and Przelewy 24. I’m guessing that last one is Polish. Whenever I see a word with a lot of Z’s and W’s in it, I just assume it’s Polish. So, your Polish fappers are likely to be very happy to see they’re being supported directly.

Naturally, PayPal isn’t on this list, because they themselves are a gateway, too. Piping gateways together is not generally done, even though it is technically possible. In any case, if you’re using Epoch, you’re unlikely to be very PayPal friendly. Don’t take it personally; that’s just the nature of smut business. Either way, these options cover the spread and pretty much guarantee that you’ll never have problems with payment processing, no matter what demographic you’re trying to appeal to. If I’m being honest, just the fact that you have VISA and MasterCard support will cover more than 90% of your clientele. Don’t take it for gospel; that’s just my opinion.

International Coverage

I got good news and bad news. The good news is that Epoch is supported across 43 different countries. That is, relating to the location of the merchant – you. The bad news is that all of these countries are either part of the European Union or they’re somewhere in Europe. You can be based out of the Vatican if you’d like – that would be the day. But, you have to have at least one person actually residing in Europe and the business itself has to be registered as European. There are some perfectly legitimate ways to get around this roadblock if you’re a foreigner, but it’s going to take legal advice from a professional that I cannot offer.

As far as I know, you should be able to register your company remotely, in Europe, but you’ll also have to have a principal in Europe at the same time. Meaning, one of the business’s owners has to be there. That means, you have to get yourself a European partner and have them be the head of business operations there. You can run ops from your location, but they’ll operate the financials. It’s risky, but could potentially be very beneficial, if you’ve got your heart set on using Epoch.

Around the Clock Support

I know that when I set up any kind of payment related system, whether it’s a gateway or an invoicing service, I want to make sure that I have one thing on hand and that’s non-stop support. I want to know that there’s someone out there, representing the companies that I cooperate with, waiting for my call in case I have any questions, doubts or God forbid, problems. Your payment gateway isn’t just the crap chute through which you receive your payday – it’s also a huge liability that could break your entire business venture overnight if it’s mishandled.

People enter their fucking credit card information into these things. Do you have any idea how risky that is? It doesn’t matter how secure a payment gateway is or how reputable your site might be. Credit card information is about as sensitive as information gets. So, if one of your customers has an actual legitimate problem with your service, you best bet that’s your top priority for the day. You don’t want to be curating content when your payment gateway is being accused of faulty performance. You want to be on the line with Epoch, sorting that shit out. That’s exactly why they have this 24/7 coverage. You can chat with them or straight up call their toll free number, any time. That’s the kind of coverage I want to see.

Some Concerning Reviews

Usually, when I review any kind of service that handles money in any way, there are tons of negative reviews for that service, no matter their official track record. This is because people like to bitch and moan on review sites, as if the whole world is their own personal audience. I’ve gotten used to it. That’s why I always take negative reviews with a grain of salt.

That being said, I still don’t like what I’m seeing with Epoch. There are way too many negative reviews for this payment gateway and pretty much no positive ones. However, I did note one repeating pattern – all the negative reviews are from customers, not webmasters. On top of that, we need to keep in mind that a positive experience with a payment gateway doesn’t encourage people to leave positive reviews on review sites. I mean, when’s the last time you left a review on a random website for PayPal? People just aren’t wired to do that.

So, it might make complete sense that all the reviews for Epoch are just insults being thrown around by people who claim they were robbed. Also, don’t forget that Epoch themselves don’t actually have the ability or the reason to charge any customer for any service or product. They only facilitate the process. You, as the webmaster, are the one doing the charging. So, maybe the bad reviews talking about scam rip-offs are all true, but they’re the result of webmasters who are stealing money from their customers. If that’s the case, then Epoch’s not at fault. They’ve done their job.

I think that their popularity with other adult webmasters should be testament enough to their success. Epoch has been around for a while now and their payment method coverage is quite impressive. Couple that with the fact that they’re used to working with porn webmasters and you can pretty much expect an easy and seamless integration. They’ve got all the fancy bells and whistles like one-click billing, recurring subscriptions, in the works. You can sell products and services any way you want, since they’ve got your back.

You will need to contact their sales department in order to get started with them. They’re only available during work hours, but that’s to be expected. The call is still entirely toll-free. You can even hit them up on Skype or just drop them an e-mail. They’re sure to be happy to hear from you.