What to do if your payment account is closed

If your payment account is closed, start by reading the notice carefully and writing down what it says. Then work out what happens to your balance, any reserve and any open disputes, keep looking after the customers whose orders you have already taken, and decide whether a review request is justified. Most of all, find and fix the real causes.

What you should not do is just as important. Do not open a new account under another name, use someone else's account or business, or change how your products are described so they look like something else. Those steps misrepresent your business to a financial company, and they tend to make a bad situation worse.

Read the notice first

Stripe's support pages say that if a business does not comply with its rules and Stripe is unable to support it, Stripe notifies the business by email at the registered address, and that email states the reason. The Stripe Dashboard also shows a banner with more information.

Before you reply to anyone, note down:

• The date of the notice and the reason it gives.
• Any link or form it points you to.
• Any dates or deadlines it mentions.
• What the dashboard banner says, with a screenshot.

If the reason is unclear, ask for clarification in writing through the channel the notice gives you. Keep a copy of the question and the answer.

Understand what happens to your money

Do not assume what happens to your balance. Read what the notice and your dashboard say, and ask if they do not cover it.

• Reserves. Stripe describes a reserve as a temporary hold on a portion of a business's funds for a predetermined period, placed to cover expected future disputes. Its reserves FAQ says reserved funds are released in full at the end of the reserve period if they are not needed to cover disputes or refunds, and that an appeal may be possible depending on the account's risk profile. Reserves and payout holds, explained covers this further.
• Refunds and disputes. Stripe's support pages say the account owner remains responsible for refunds that are issued and disputes that arise after an account is closed. Plan for those costs rather than assuming they stop with the account.
• Contracts. If you have agreements with suppliers, lenders or customers that depend on taking card payments, speak to a qualified lawyer about your obligations under them.

Keep serving the customers you already have

• Fulfill paid orders you can fulfill, or refund them. Tell affected customers plainly what is happening with their order.
• Respond to open disputes before their deadlines, using the records you kept at the time. Disputes and chargebacks: the basics explains the process.
• Remove payment options from your site that no longer work, so new buyers do not place orders you cannot take payment for.
• Keep your support contact details working. Buyers who cannot reach you are more likely to dispute.

Decide whether to ask for a review

Stripe's support pages say that if you believe Stripe misunderstood or miscategorized your business, you can complete the form linked in the closure email, which takes you to the Dashboard to provide more information.

A review request makes sense when there is a genuine misunderstanding, for example if your business was categorized as something it is not. If the closure followed a real problem, such as consumer-facing claims or consumer orders, describe what you changed in how the business operates, not only on the website. It does not make sense to restate the same facts more forcefully. If the processor understood your business correctly and has decided not to support it, accept that decision.

If you do request a review:

• Keep it short and factual. Describe what the business is, who it sells to and what has changed.
• Attach evidence, such as dated screenshots of corrected pages and the policies now in force.
• Do not overstate your controls. Describe a self-declaration as a self-declaration.
• Do not promise outcomes you cannot guarantee, and do not claim changes you have not made.

Find and fix the root causes

Stripe's credit review FAQ says closure is rare and may follow when a business is assessed as very high risk, has remained in a card network monitoring program for an extended time, or violates the Stripe Services Agreement. Whatever the stated reason, look honestly at your own business. Common causes worth checking include:

• Product pages and blog posts that make health, performance or other use claims, or that read as consumer marketing. See claims to remove from a research supply store.
• Who is actually buying. Orders that look like consumer purchases suggest your buyer checks are not working as intended.
• Disputes and refunds. Unrecognized charges, slow fulfillment and hard-to-find support all add up. See reducing disputes.
• Mismatches between what you told the processor and what your site, emails or promoters say.
• Third parties. Affiliates, resellers or reviewers making claims about your products.

Fix what you find whether or not you request a review. The same issues will come up with any provider you approach next.

What not to do

• Do not open a new account under a different business name, entity or person.
• Do not process payments through a friend's, partner's or another merchant's account.
• Do not rename products, split your catalog across sites, or change how the business is categorized to look different from what it is.
• Do not hide products from reviewers while continuing to sell them.

The stance is simple: describe the business accurately. If a processor will not support it, that is the processor's decision to make.

If you approach another provider

Answer every question honestly, including questions about previous closures. Describe your products, buyers and controls exactly as they are, and accept a refusal if you get one.

Claddr is compliance software, not a payment processor. It works only with a merchant's own active Stripe account, so it is not a route back to Stripe after a closure, and it does not guarantee approval or continued service.