Common Payment Problems for Merchants
When card processing is restricted or withdrawn, what happens next depends on the stated reason and the evidence you can put behind it. These pages cover the situations we are contacted about most.
Merchant problems
Merchant account terminated
A termination stops your card payments and follows you into your next application. Whether it becomes a lasting problem depends mostly on one thing: whether your acquirer also put you on Mastercard's MATCH list or Visa's terminated merchant list. Find that out first, then build a file that answers the next underwriter's questions before they ask them.
Chargeback rate too high
Visa flags a merchant once fraud reports and disputes reach 1.5% of settled transactions with at least 1,500 cases in a month in most regions, and Mastercard at 1.5% of transactions with at least 100 chargebacks in a month. Above those lines come fines, reserves and in the end a closed account. The good news: most chargebacks have a small number of causes, and some fixes start to show within weeks, although the schemes measure monthly and Mastercard needs three months below the limit before you leave its program.
No processing history
Every business starts without processing history, and new businesses are accepted for card payments every day. Without statements to review, a provider judges your plan instead of your track record: what you sell, when customers receive it, who is behind the company and whether your volume estimate is believable. A complete, consistent application is what gets you accepted.
A rolling reserve was requested
A reserve is not a rejection. The provider is holding part of your settled money to cover refunds and chargebacks that can arrive months after you have been paid. It delays income rather than taking it, but it can tie up a large share of your working capital, so get the exact terms and run them against your own numbers before you accept.
Provider asked for more documents
A request for more documents is not a rejection. It means the provider cannot verify something in your file yet, and it has to before it can open your account. Providers are legally required to know who they do business with, so the fastest way through is to send exactly what is asked, complete and consistent, in one go.
Multi-currency settlement needed
Selling in several currencies and being settled in several currencies are different things: you can charge a customer in their currency on almost any route, but being paid out in that currency depends on what the specific provider supports.
Payment provider is holding your funds
When a payment provider holds your money, it is almost always protecting itself against refunds and chargebacks it might have to cover. That does not make it less painful, but it means the way out is usually evidence, not argument. Find out exactly why the funds are held and until when, send what the provider needs, and make sure you can keep taking payments in the meantime.
Declined by payment providers
Being declined again and again is rarely about your business being bad. Most declines come from a mismatch: the provider does not accept your industry, your markets or your history, or something in your application could not be verified. Find the real reason before the next application, because applying to more providers with the same file usually gets the same answer.
In a card scheme monitoring program
Being placed in Visa's or Mastercard's monitoring program means your fraud or chargebacks have passed the card schemes' limits. It is serious but recoverable: you pay fees while you are in it, and you get out by bringing your ratio below the limit and keeping it there. Act quickly, because staying in the program raises the risk that the account is closed.
Merchant account under review
An account review means your payment provider has seen something in your processing it needs to understand before it carries on as normal. Payouts are often paused while it looks, which is what makes a review hurt. Many reviews end with the account restored, especially when the trigger has a clear explanation. The fastest way through is to find out exactly what triggered it, answer that point completely, and keep a second way to take payments while you wait.
Too many payments declined
Every declined payment is a customer who wanted to pay you and could not. Some declines are real, such as an empty account or a stolen card. Many are not: the card had expired, the bank wanted authentication, or the issuer did not trust a payment coming from abroad. Find out which declines you have before you change anything, because the fix for each is different, and retrying the wrong ones now costs you fees.
Account closed by a payment platform
An all-in-one payment platform lets you sign up in minutes and take cards the same day. The other side of that speed is that the platform can close your account just as quickly, often by email and often with your money held for months. The good news: a closure by a platform is not the end of card processing for your business. What you do in the first days decides how fast you are taking payments again.
Check which payment routes may fit your business
Answer a short set of questions about your business and we will check your profile against the requirements providers have given us. No approval is decided here.
Check my payment optionsNothing is shared with a provider until you submit your onboarding pack. Approval is always the provider's decision.