Your Peptide Merchant Account Was Closed: What to Do Next

• The processor's policy does not allow it. Stripe's restricted business list, updated 22 September 2026, prohibits incorrectly labelled research chemicals and restricts card-not-present prescription-only products, online pharmacies and telemedicine.
• The website contradicts the application. An account opened as "supplements" or "skincare" is closed when a review finds research peptides, dosing guides or before-and-after content.
• A 'research use only' label did not settle it. The FDA has rejected such labels in warning letters to online peptide sellers dated December 2024, December 2025, March 2026 and August 2026, where the sites, product bundles or social media pointed to human use. Selling bacteriostatic water alongside peptides was read as intent to inject.
• The wrong MCC. Prescription and pharmacy models belong under MCCs 5122 or 5912, which Visa places in Tier 1 of its Integrity Risk Program and Mastercard requires to be registered. A peptide store processed under an ordinary retail code is a scheme problem waiting to be found.
• Chargebacks or refunds above the processor's limits.

Expect part or all of your balance to be held to cover refunds and chargebacks that can still arrive after the closure. PayPal's user agreement, last updated 14 September 2026, allows it to hold a business balance for up to 180 days where reasonably needed to protect against liability, and longer where a court or regulator requires it. Stripe holds reserves for a period it states in its notification, and releases what is not needed for disputes or refunds at the end.

Plan your cash flow on the assumption that this money is not available soon, and focus on getting new processing in place so new sales are not stuck behind the hold.

Mastercard's MATCH list holds merchants whose processing was terminated for serious reasons. A listing lasts five years, every acquirer checks it before boarding, and closing the account yourself does not prevent one. Visa keeps a similar list, VMSS, also for five years.

Not every closure leads to a listing. A decision that your product category is outside the processor's policy is not a MATCH reason in itself. The reasons that matter most for peptide sellers are:

• Code 04, excessive chargebacks: Mastercard chargebacks above 1% of sales and at least USD 5,000 in the same month.
• Code 10, violation of standards: breaking card scheme rules, which can include processing under the wrong MCC.
• Code 13, illegal transactions.

• Save the closure email and ask in writing for the reason, the expected hold period and whether you were reported to MATCH. Stripe's closure email also lets you request another review.
• Export your transactions, refunds, chargebacks and payout reports while you still have access.
• Decide which model you really are: research supply, prescription dispensing through a pharmacy or telehealth service, cosmetic peptides or collagen sold as food. The MCC, the rules and the documents all follow from that.
• Bring the website in line with that model: for research supply, no human-use claims, no dosing or cycle content and no body-outcome bundles; for prescription models, licences and the prescribing process visible.
• Prepare the documents a new provider will ask for: company and ownership documents, proof of your bank account, recent processing statements and your chargeback history.
• Do not open a new account with the same processor under another company name. Processors check owners and directors, and it usually ends in a second closure.

Specialist acquirers board peptide businesses whose model fits their policy, under the right MCC and with the scheme registrations in place. For pharmacy and telehealth models they commonly ask for healthcare merchant certification such as LegitScript. LegitScript itself says research-use-only chemical businesses, including peptide sellers, are generally not eligible unless they also prescribe or dispense prescription drugs, so research suppliers are underwritten on their website, customer checks and product range instead.

The account takes more paperwork up front, but because it is underwritten for what you actually sell, a later website review does not close it.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. You describe your model, products, markets, licences, processing history and what happened with the closure once in our online application. Your profile is matched with a payment provider whose policy accepts peptide businesses like yours, and your account is prepared with that provider. Final approval and terms are always the provider's decision.

Acquipayer is not affiliated with Stripe or PayPal.

• US Food and Drug Administration, warning letters to online peptide sellers dated 10 December 2024, 12 December 2025, 31 March 2026 and 24 August 2026; Sheppard Mullin summary, 18 September 2026.
• Stripe, Prohibited and Restricted Businesses (updated 22 September 2026), reserves FAQ and account closure help page.
• PayPal, User Agreement, last updated 14 September 2026.
• Stripe documentation, MATCH list reason codes.
• Visa Integrity Risk Program, as summarised by LegitScript; LegitScript healthcare certification FAQ.