Your Merchant Account Is Under Review: Why and What to Do

Your provider is responsible to the card schemes and its regulators for every payment it processes for you. If customers dispute charges, the provider pays them back first and recovers the money from you afterwards. If something in your account suggests fraud, money laundering or a business it did not agree to support, it must look into it. A review is how it does that.

That is why reviews are triggered by changes in your numbers or your business rather than by anything you did wrong on purpose. The provider underwrote one version of your business, and something now looks different.

• A sudden rise in volume or average transaction size, far above what you stated when you applied.
• Rising chargebacks, refunds or fraud alerts, especially close to card scheme monitoring limits.
• Sales from new countries, a new product line or a new website the provider was not told about.
• Long delivery times or pre-orders, where the provider carries the risk for months before goods arrive.
• A periodic know-your-customer refresh, or a change of owners, directors or bank account.
• Signals from outside: customer complaints, negative reviews, adverse media, or a card scheme inquiry.
• Transactions that look unusual for anti-money-laundering rules, such as many payments from one card or round amounts.

Most providers keep accepting payments but hold some or all payouts until the review is finished. Some reduce your limits, add a reserve or delay settlement. In serious cases processing stops altogether. You will usually get a request for information or documents, sometimes with a deadline.

Reviews tend to take from a few days to a few weeks. What sets the pace is how quickly the provider gets a complete answer. A partial reply, or one that raises new questions, usually adds time.

• Ask in writing what triggered the review, which payouts are held, and what exactly the provider needs from you.
• Answer the specific question first. If the trigger was a volume spike, explain it with evidence: a campaign, a seasonal peak, a large customer.
• Send documents complete and consistent in one reply: invoices from suppliers, proof of delivery, refund records, bank statements, licences.
• Show what you are doing about any risk the provider flagged, such as fraud rules, clearer descriptors or faster refunds.
• Keep a record of every message and deadline, and follow up in writing if the deadline passes without an answer.

• Account restored as before: likely when the trigger has a clear explanation and you answer it fully.
• Account restored with new terms: a rolling reserve, lower limits or delayed settlement for a period.
• Account closed with notice: payouts continue, but part of the money may be held for months to cover future chargebacks.
• Account terminated: in serious cases, possibly with a listing on Mastercard's MATCH list or Visa's equivalent, which affects your next application.

Tell your provider before a change, not after: a new market, a big campaign, a new product or a change of ownership. Keep your website, terms and descriptor in line with what you actually sell. Watch your chargeback and refund rates monthly against the card scheme limits, not only when a provider writes to you.

A single provider is also a single point of failure. A second account with another provider means a review slows you down instead of stopping you.

Ecompayer is not a payment provider. If your account is under review, or you want a second provider so the next review cannot stop your sales, add your business, volumes and processing history once. Your profile is matched with a payment provider that accepts your industry and history, and your account is prepared with that provider so you can keep taking payments.