If you receive a notice stating – merchant account suspended , then you should act quickly to get your payment processing up and running again. A suspended merchant account means that you are unable to accept customer payments on your website. Every minute of downtime results in lost revenue.

Why Is My Merchant Account Suspended?

Your merchant account is likely suspended because you violated the terms of your agreement . This happens for a few major reasons:

1. 1. High Risk Businesses – High risk businesses operate in unique verticals like adult, cbd, firearms, coaching, or pawn shops, and others. These businesses are banned or restricted by many payment providers. If you operate in one of these verticals and signed up with an aggregate merchant account provider like Stripe or PayPal, then you’re violating their terms . When they figure out the type of businesses you’re running they will shut down your account.
   2. High Chargebacks – Companies are only allowed a certain number or percentage of chargebacks . These are also a good indicator of fraud or businesses that haven’t ironed out a proper sales or distribution channel. If you exceed the allotted amount you agreed upon with your payment processor, then you’ll be dropped
   3. Volume Limit Reached – This is the best case scenario when it comes to a suspended merchant account. It means you are processing so many sales that the initial agreed upon maximum amount of your account is not enough. In this case, you’ll want to increase your limits by contacting your provider. As a tip, because your business is doing so well, you can use this as an opportunity to lower your payment processing rates and negotiate decreased fees.

My Merchant Account Is Frozen What To Do Next

Most people don’t realize it, but your payment processor has the ability to freeze your account and make it so you don’t receive transactions from customers. If you’re in a sales surge or even collecting casual online transactions, this can severely harm your revenue flow. Here’s what you do if this happens to you.

1. Find The Reason – As discussed above there are a few major reasons this happens. If your suspension letter tells you why, then you have a clear path forward and can understand what to do next. Nonetheless, in order to continue processing payments , you’ll need to figure out the cause and resolve the situation or look for alternative providers.
2. Contact A New Provider – Before calling your existing payment processor, it’s a good idea to get started on a new one. The processes for obtaining a new merchant account can be as fast as same-day, and will give you the ability to process payments once again. Moreover, your existing processor is likely going to react slowly by reviewing your file and taking their time with it. On the other hand, providers like Zen Payments understand what you need and get back to you immediately to help resolve the situation.
3. Submit An Application – Once you reach out to a high risk payment processor , you’ll want to get your file together and submit an application as soon as you can. Their sales team will guide you down the best path to get approved, and let you know any additional documents you need in order to have your file breeze through the underwriting stages.