USAePay + Shuttle

USAePay is a US-focused payment gateway that has built a strong reputation among ISOs, resellers, and platforms for its flexibility in connecting to a wide range of backend processors. Unlike vertically integrated payment companies that bundle acquiring with their gateway, USAePay operates as a gateway layer that sits between the merchant and their chosen processor, supporting connections to dozens of US acquiring banks and processors. This architecture makes it popular with businesses that need to maintain specific processor relationships — whether for pricing, industry specialization, or contractual reasons — while still getting a modern gateway with tokenization, batch processing, Level II/III data support, and a comprehensive virtual terminal for mail-order and telephone-order transactions.

Shuttle’s integration with USAePay creates a layered but highly flexible payment routing architecture. Platforms connecting through Shuttle can direct transactions to USAePay, which in turn routes to the merchant’s specific backend processor. This is particularly useful for platforms whose merchants have pre-existing processing relationships they want to preserve. Shuttle’s Embedded Payments handle the transaction initiation and pass it through USAePay’s gateway to the appropriate acquirer, maintaining full PCI compliance throughout the chain. Voice Checkout sessions benefit from USAePay’s MOTO-optimized processing, since USAePay’s virtual terminal capabilities are purpose-built for card-not-present transactions initiated by phone. Payment Links settle through USAePay’s gateway with automatic tokenization for return customer convenience.

The combination of Shuttle and USAePay is particularly powerful for platforms serving mid-market merchants, ISOs, and reseller channels where processor choice matters. Many merchants in this segment have negotiated specific interchange-plus rates with their acquiring bank and are unwilling to move processors, even when adopting a new platform. By routing through USAePay via Shuttle, the platform can honor those existing processor relationships while still providing a unified multi-channel payment experience. Shuttle adds the orchestration layer — failover logic, multi-PSP routing, and normalized reporting — on top of USAePay’s gateway flexibility. The result is a payment stack that accommodates the real-world complexity of merchant processor preferences without requiring the platform to build individual integrations for every backend processor its merchants use.