Your Merchant Account Was Terminated: What to Do Next

• Ask for the termination reason in writing. Excessive disputes, a prohibited product, a scheme monitoring program and an undisclosed change to the business are treated very differently.
• Find out what happens to your money: when the last settlement is paid and how long any reserve is held.
• Ask directly whether you have been, or will be, reported to MATCH or Visa's list.
• Keep customers paying through methods you still have, such as bank transfer, while you replace card processing.

Mastercard's MATCH and Visa's Merchant Screening Service are databases of merchants terminated for serious reasons. Acquirers must screen every applicant against them, and they record both the business and its principal owners, so opening a new company does not avoid a listing. A listing stays for five years.

Excessive chargebacks are the most common reason. On Mastercard, the long-standing threshold is chargebacks numbering more than 1% of Mastercard sales transactions in a month and totalling at least USD 5,000. On Visa, the line is at least 1,000 disputes and 1.8% of sales in a month without adequate remediation. Other reasons include fraud, transaction laundering, PCI DSS non-compliance and insolvency.

Rarely. Only the acquirer that added you can remove or correct a listing, and only if it was made in error. On MATCH, a listing for PCI DSS non-compliance can also be removed once you are fully compliant. If you do not know which acquirer listed you, Mastercard can tell you on request. Resolving your chargebacks afterwards does not remove a listing.

• The termination letter and the reason given.
• Processing statements covering the period, with disputes and refunds month by month.
• What you changed: descriptor, delivery times, fraud rules, cancellation flow, support.
• Evidence that the change worked, such as falling dispute rates since.
• Current ownership, licences and the markets you sell into now.

Disclose it, including any listing. The next acquirer will find it anyway, and an undisclosed termination discovered during underwriting usually ends the application. What providers weigh is the cause, what you fixed and whether the numbers since back that up.

Expect tighter terms at first: a reserve, lower limits or delayed settlement. Those usually ease after several clean months. A termination without a listing is far easier to move past than one with a listing, and some providers do board listed merchants when the cause is clearly resolved.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. We match merchants with a terminated history to payment providers that consider their profile, through one online application.

• Add your business, volumes, termination reason and dispute history once.
• We match you with a provider that takes on merchants with your history and industry.
• Your account is prepared with the provider, so you can start processing again.