If you **really** wanted to do this, and it seems very far-fetched, doing it yourself via paypal is probably not the best way to go.

The best advice would be to enlist a friend who owns a legitimate business with a merchant account, ideally a safe or old-line business where his discount fee for credit card transactions is low. Typically merchants pay 2-4% or so for taking credit cards, higher if they're in businesses more prone to fraud (like online selling of electronics) and lower if they are not (something like a retail furniture store maybe). It's almost always lower if you actually swipe the physical card too, rather than do it online or over the phone.

A merchant with a good history could have discount rate well under the 2.2% you mention, maybe even in the 1.5% range if they can negotiate a promotion or retention plan with their provider by switching or threatening to switch.

Then you could get your cost down substantially. If their business is a large one and they do a lot of CC transactions your million dollars in charges spread across a few cards over the course of a year or so might not even be noticeable.

Why on earth someone would want to take all these risks (you might get flagged for money laundering, who knows) is an entirely different question. But I guess it's interesting to think creatively.

Have any very, very close friends that own a private jet dealership or yacht building company and also accept Mastercard or Visa? Give 'em a call