Written or reviewed by Libby James, founder of Merchant Advice Service and specialist in merchant payments and complex provider requirements.
Tell us about your business, current payment setup and what you're looking to change. We'll use it to understand your requirements before identifying providers that may be suitable.
An email arrives from Stripe.
Your account is under review, payments have stopped or payouts have been paused.
You may have:
The first reaction is often:
Stripe has closed my account and kept my money.
But that description can cover several different situations.
Stripe may have:
Those situations do not all have the same outcome.
The first job is therefore to establish exactly what Stripe has done, preserve the account information and protect the business’s payment journey.
Businesses looking beyond Stripe should consider whether they need another all-in-one PSP or a different merchant-account and gateway structure. Our main Merchant Accounts guide explains the wider provider market, including acquiring, underwriting, costs and payment requirements.
This guide explains what UK businesses should check, how to prepare a Stripe review or appeal, what may happen to a remaining balance and how to find a properly underwritten replacement provider.
Start with these steps:
Stripe says that where it closes an account because it cannot support the business, the registered email address should receive a notice explaining the reason. Where the business believes it has been misunderstood or miscategorised, Stripe directs it to the review form linked in that email.
“Stripe closed my account” is sometimes used to describe any interruption to the service.
The exact account status matters.
Stripe may need updated:
This does not automatically mean the account is permanently closed.
The notice should explain what is required and whether a deadline applies.
Stripe may review an account where its view of the business or payment exposure has changed.
Stripe’s own guidance identifies risk indicators that can include:
Stripe says most businesses can continue processing normally after a review, although reserves or account closure can be applied in higher-risk cases.
New customer payments may no longer be accepted.
This can affect:
Payouts may or may not continue separately.
The business may still be able to take payments, but money is not being transferred to its bank under the normal schedule.
This creates a different immediate problem from a full processing closure.
The merchant needs to establish:
Stripe may retain an amount to cover potential future:
The reserve terms should appear in a Stripe notice, Dashboard information or other communication.
Stripe may have concerns about one:
The whole business may not necessarily be affected in the same way.
Stripe has decided it can no longer support the payment activity.
The merchant then needs to deal with:
A replacement provider may ask:
Why did Stripe close the account?
The correct answer should come from Stripe’s actual communication.
Avoid immediately saying:
Stripe accused us of fraud
where the notice actually says:
The account falls outside Stripe’s current risk appetite.
Likewise, do not describe a temporary information request as a final termination.
Save the exact email and use Stripe’s wording accurately.
If Stripe has closed or restricted an account because a business falls outside its risk appetite, moving provider can involve more than simply opening another payment account. Our High-Risk Merchant Accounts guide explains specialist underwriting, provider appetite and the issues merchants should consider when looking for an alternative.
Account-restriction emails create an obvious opportunity for phishing.
Rather than relying only on an email link:
Stripe identifies official domains including stripe.com, stripe.dev, stripe.events, stripe.global and link.com.
Do not send:
to someone claiming to handle the account review.
When payment continuity is at risk, focus on information and damage control before submitting rushed applications elsewhere.
Record:
Confirm separately:
Take dated records of:
Download relevant:
Do not attempt to export raw card numbers yourself.
Sensitive payment-data migration has to follow the relevant PCI process.
Confirm that Stripe still holds the correct:
Where a payout is already scheduled, note its:
Do not leave a broken checkout live without explanation.
Depending on the situation, the business may need to:
Do not send customers to a personal or unrelated bank account as an emergency workaround.
A Stripe restriction or processing termination is different from the merchant choosing to delete the account.
Stripe warns that once an account is closed:
Stripe recommends retaining the account while refunds or disputes may still arise and exporting data before any eventual closure.
Stripe also says scheduled payouts may continue after an account is closed, but if a payout fails, resolving it can be difficult because Dashboard access has been removed.
Stopping payment processing does not mean you should delete the Stripe account.
Keep access while there are:
still to deal with.
Stripe does not publish every factor used in individual account decisions.
However, possible issues can fall into several broad groups.
Stripe maintains prohibited and restricted-business policies.
A business can be lawful and still fall outside Stripe’s appetite because of:
Some restricted businesses may be considered only after additional review and explicit approval, while some activities are not supported. Stripe also says its published list is representative rather than exhaustive.
The website or original application may not have explained the activity clearly.
For example:
Consulting business
could refer to many entirely different services.
Or:
Online marketplace
could mean a directory, an ordinary retailer or a platform controlling payments between buyers and independent sellers.
Stripe specifically offers another review where the merchant believes its business has been misunderstood or incorrectly categorised.
The company may have started with one activity and later introduced:
An approval based on the original activity should not be assumed to cover every later change.
A sudden increase can make the current activity look different from the profile Stripe originally understood.
For example:
Previous volume: £25,000 per month
Current volume: £250,000 per month
The increase may be completely legitimate.
But Stripe may still need to understand:
Stripe identifies sharp volume increases as one factor that can trigger a credit-risk review.
Stripe may review whether the business has enough funds and operational capacity to handle potential customer claims.
The useful response is not:
The customers are wrong.
It is to provide:
A business taking money months before delivering can create a larger future obligation.
Examples include:
Stripe’s credit-risk guidance identifies long delivery and billing periods as factors that can increase payment risk.
Possible issues can include:
The business should identify precisely which item is unresolved rather than repeatedly resubmitting the same documents without explanation.
The issue may relate to:
A security review and a commercial business-closure decision are not necessarily the same thing.
Stripe says that where a business believes it has been misunderstood or miscategorised, it should complete the review form linked in the account-closure email.
A useful response should help the reviewer understand the business quickly.
Do not simply write:
We are a legitimate company and desperately need our account reopened.
That may be true, but it does not answer the risk or compliance question.
Build a clear evidence file.
Provide the correct:
Explain any mismatch.
For example:
The website uses the trading name ABC Fitness, but the customer contract and Stripe account belong to ABC Holdings Limited, company number 12345678.
Avoid vague labels.
Online retailer.
UK ecommerce retailer selling stocked home-fitness equipment to UK consumers. Products are dispatched from our Leicester warehouse within two working days. We do not sell supplements, coaching, digital investment products or third-party marketplace goods.
The stronger description explains:
where that distinction is relevant.
Show:
Customer visits website
↓
Chooses product
↓
Sees price and terms
↓
Completes Stripe checkout
↓
Receives order confirmation
↓
Order is dispatched or service delivered
↓
Customer receives support
The reviewer should be able to identify:
Depending on the business, this might include:
Do not send unrelated documents simply to make the evidence file look larger.
Include:
For example:
Monthly processing increased from £40,000 to £175,000 after a national retail partnership launched on 1 June. Average transaction value remained £68. The attached agreement, stock invoices and fulfilment records support the increase.
That is more useful than saying:
Our business suddenly became very successful.
If the restriction followed:
explain it.
Use a simple structure:
What happened
Why it happened
What the actual position is
What evidence supports it
What has changed
Where there was a genuine problem, say what has been done.
Examples include:
Do not claim a problem has been fixed unless the supporting evidence exists.
If Stripe appears concerned about fulfilment, sending another certificate of incorporation is unlikely to resolve it.
If the issue is product legality, a bank statement will not answer it.
If the concern is a sudden volume increase, explain the increase and show the operational capacity behind it.
Match the evidence to the question.
A one-page summary might contain:
ABC Fitness Limited, UK company, trading since 2019
Stocked home-gym equipment supplied directly by the business
95% UK consumers, 5% Republic of Ireland
£175,000 monthly card volume, £68 average transaction, £1,500 maximum
Stocked goods dispatched within two working days
Volume increased after a national retail partnership launched
Refunds 2.1%, disputes 0.18%, no outstanding fulfilment backlog
Retail agreement, warehouse contract, stock invoices, dispatch records and recent management accounts attached
Avoid:
A clear, evidence-led explanation gives Stripe something it can assess.
It does not guarantee that the decision will be reversed.
There is no universal answer such as:
Stripe always holds money for 90 days.
The result depends on:
Stripe’s current terms allow it to establish and change reserves where permitted and release reserve funds when it considers the relevant risk exposure to have been mitigated. The terms also allow measures including changing payout schedules, delaying or cancelling payouts, applying reserves and suspending payment acceptance in specified circumstances.
That does not automatically mean the entire balance has been permanently lost.
The merchant needs to identify what each amount represents.
Payments may have been processed but are not yet available under the normal settlement timing.
Funds may be available inside Stripe but not yet transferred to the bank.
A payout may already have been created and assigned an expected arrival date.
Funds are being retained against potential liabilities under stated reserve terms.
Refunds, disputes or other deductions exceed the money currently available.
Funds may sit in different currencies, with separate payout and conversion arrangements.
Stripe may have paused transfer while reviewing the account or particular activity.
Ask for written clarification covering:
Use the actual account notice as the starting point.
Do not rely only on timelines shared by another merchant online.
A Dashboard might show:
£80,000 total balance
but that amount could include:
The first task is reconciliation.
Establish:
What is the money, what status is it in and what has Stripe said will happen to it?
An account restriction does not automatically remove the merchant’s obligations to customers who have already paid.
The business should review:
Do not stop fulfilling paid orders simply because the Stripe balance has not reached the bank unless the business genuinely cannot fulfil them.
That can create more:
and make the account position worse.
The business may still need to refund customers.
Before acting, establish:
Avoid refunding a customer by unrelated bank transfer without checking the original transaction.
That can create:
If a refund cannot be processed, document the issue and seek clear instructions from Stripe.
A customer may raise a dispute after Stripe has stopped new payments.
The merchant may still need to:
This is another reason not to close or delete the Stripe account yourself.
Stripe confirms that an account owner remains responsible for refunds and disputes after closure and recommends leaving the account dormant where further action may be required.
An account review and a formal complaint are not exactly the same process.
Use the review or appeal form supplied by Stripe.
Provide complete, relevant evidence.
Create a clear chronology containing:
Stripe publishes a complaints form and also accepts complaints through
Stripe says it treats expressions of dissatisfaction as complaints and publishes expected acknowledgement and final-response times.
A useful complaint should state:
For UK users receiving regulated financial services from Stripe Payments UK Limited, Stripe says an unresolved complaint may be eligible for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Stripe states that an eligible referral must normally be made within six months of its final response.
Eligibility is not automatic and depends on the complainant and the nature of the service or complaint.
Where a large sum is held, the business is facing insolvency or the contractual position is disputed, legal or financial advice may be appropriate.
A formal complaint should not replace:
The practical route for an individual UK complaint is generally:
Stripe review or support
↓
Formal Stripe complaint
↓
Financial Ombudsman Service where eligible
The FCA supervises regulated firms, but the complaint-handling and eligible Ombudsman route is normally more directly relevant to resolving an individual business complaint.
Not necessarily.
Mastercard MATCH is a specific card-scheme and acquirer risk-information system.
It is not simply another name for every merchant-account closure.
Mastercard materials describe MATCH as a system used to notify acquirers about merchants terminated under relevant reason codes and circumstances.
A Stripe closure email alone is therefore not proof that the business has been MATCH-listed.
“Stripe closed the account” and “Mastercard MATCH-listed merchant” are not interchangeable statements.
A replacement application should describe what is known, not speculate.
The objective is not merely to find someone willing to switch payments back on.
The replacement must be underwritten for:
Otherwise, the business risks another interruption.
Provide:
We are changing providers because Stripe was not very good.
Stripe restricted payment processing on 22 July following a credit-risk review after our monthly volume increased from £60,000 to £240,000. The increase followed a signed retail contract. Refunds are 1.8% and disputes are 0.22%. Stripe’s notice and the supporting commercial documents are available.
The stronger version allows the replacement provider to assess the actual situation.
This is unlikely to create a stable solution.
Avoid:
The next account should be approved for the company and activity that will actually process the payments.
Submitting the same incomplete application to ten providers can produce ten declines.
Start by establishing:
This is where a properly prepared high-risk merchant account application becomes important.
MAS also has a broader guide to terminated merchant facilities.
A straightforward ecommerce merchant may need to replace:
Before switching the website:
Do not cancel Stripe immediately after the first successful payment with the new provider.
Subscription merchants face a more complicated migration.
It may involve:
Replacement payment provider
Payment credentials
Customer records
Subscription status
Plans and prices
Next billing dates
Failed-payment recovery
Stripe can securely export eligible customer card data directly to another PCI DSS Level 1-compliant processor.
However:
Gather:
A new provider might successfully receive eligible card details.
That does not automatically recreate:
The business needs both:
payment-credential migration
and:
subscription-data migration.
For more information, see the MAS guides to recurring card payments and subscription payment processing.
Possibly.
It depends on:
Some customers may need to complete a secure payment-method update.
Do not ask customers to email card details.
Use an approved:
First establish whether Stripe is still attempting the charges.
Possible scenarios include:
Subscription transactions may still be submitted while payouts are paused.
The business needs to decide whether it can continue providing the service while money remains inside Stripe.
Customers may receive failed-payment messages or lose access.
The business should avoid repeatedly retrying through a route known to be unavailable.
The restriction may affect only specific payment methods or activity.
The subscription record may remain active even though the payment fails.
The product, CRM and access systems need to be updated accordingly.
A Stripe account restriction is a payment event, not automatically a subscription status.
The business needs to decide whether each customer becomes:
A Connect platform may have additional complications.
The restriction could affect:
The platform should identify:
Moving a Connect platform is not simply a gateway change.
It can require a new:
Businesses should communicate carefully.
Do not send customers a detailed accusation or publish speculation about why Stripe acted.
The customer generally needs to know:
We are currently experiencing an issue with our card-payment provider. Your order has not been completed and no further action is required unless you receive confirmation from us. We will send a secure alternative payment link once available.
We are updating our payment arrangements. Your service remains active, but you may receive a secure request to update your payment method. We will never ask you to send card details by email.
Check the actual payment status before telling the customer that no money was taken.
Create one folder containing:
This reduces the risk of providing conflicting information to Stripe and replacement providers.
Be prepared to answer:
There is no universal replacement timetable.
It depends on:
A straightforward ecommerce merchant may move relatively quickly.
A regulated, international, subscription or marketplace business may require significantly more work.
Do not accept a promise such as:
Guaranteed live tomorrow
without understanding:
Do not focus only on restarting payments.
Compare:
The fastest replacement is not always the most stable replacement.
Suppose Stripe acted because:
Moving to another provider without addressing that issue can create the same outcome again.
The replacement application should answer:
Why is this provider suitable for the business Stripe could no longer support?
Tell Merchant Advice Service:
MAS can help establish:
Merchant Advice Service cannot:
Do not send MAS:
Merchant Advice Service provides free, independent guidance to businesses looking for help with card payments, payment gateways and more complex payment requirements.
Where appropriate, MAS may introduce a business to a relevant payment provider. We may receive a referral fee or commission if an introduction results in a completed account or service.
MAS does not necessarily compare every provider in the market, and all applications remain subject to the relevant provider’s own assessment, underwriting and approval.
This article provides general payments information and does not constitute legal, regulatory, financial, accounting or technical advice. Stripe account decisions, product functionality, reserve terms and payout arrangements vary according to the account and Stripe’s current policies and agreement.
Choose an area below and we'll take you to the relevant guide, where you can understand your options and find suitable providers.
Understand merchant accounts, acquiring and card processing options.
Online payments, ecommerce, recurring payments and complex integrations.
Explore options for taking face-to-face card payments.
Explore EPOS, POS and integrated payment setups for your business.
Guidance for businesses with more complex underwriting or payment requirements.
Explore business funding linked to your card sales.
Tell us how your business takes payments and what you're looking to change. We'll use your answers to understand your requirements and identify providers that may be suitable.
Merchant Advice Service helps businesses understand their payment requirements before approaching providers.
How Merchant Advice Service works →If your business already takes card payments, you may be able to access funding linked to your future card sales.
Explore merchant cash advance →Tell us about your business, how you take payments and what you're looking to change. We'll use your answers to identify providers that may be suitable.
Libby James is the founder and Managing Director of Merchant Advice Service. Since 2016, she has worked directly with businesses and payment providers across merchant accounts, card processing, payment gateways and complex provider requirements.
Libby specialises in high-risk, declined and harder-to-place merchants, as well as businesses requiring specialist payment methods, integrations or international support. She writes and reviews Merchant Advice Service content, drawing on practical experience gained from real merchant enquiries and provider relationships.
