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'Restricted business' in Stripe - Why am I getting my account close?
Hey there, I'm Sole and I am having some issues with Stripe.
Our product (mapmelon.com) is a listing of accommodations, and we offer a monthly or yearly based subscription to be listed on it. We also offer a one-time payment service to promote events regarding those accommodations.
Since last week, Stripe has sent us a message to close our account, and after providing more information and asking for a reason they just told us our platform is a restricted business https://stripe.com/restricted-businesses
"Thank you for providing additional information about your business.
Unfortunately, following an additional review of your account, we’re still unable to support your business as it falls under one of our restricted businesses categories (https://stripe.com/restricted-businesses).
We’re sorry we can’t be of more help, but these restrictions are firm.
Please let me know if you have any questions."
We already have some clients paying a subscription, and we don't know what to do plus are afraid of losing them. Tbh, I wasn't expecting this kind of bad support from Stripe where they reject you without telling you a specific reason or giving you a chance to make things right.
We considered creating a new account from zero, but we are afraid of running into the same issue.
Has someone had a similar issue with Stripe? What do you suggest doing? Any idea why they say our platform is inside the restricted business?
Our product (mapmelon.com) is a listing of accommodations, and we offer a monthly or yearly based subscription to be listed on it. We also offer a one-time payment service to promote events regarding those accommodations.
Since last week, Stripe has sent us a message to close our account, and after providing more information and asking for a reason they just told us our platform is a restricted business https://stripe.com/restricted-businesses
"Thank you for providing additional information about your business.
Unfortunately, following an additional review of your account, we’re still unable to support your business as it falls under one of our restricted businesses categories (https://stripe.com/restricted-businesses).
We’re sorry we can’t be of more help, but these restrictions are firm.
Please let me know if you have any questions."
We already have some clients paying a subscription, and we don't know what to do plus are afraid of losing them. Tbh, I wasn't expecting this kind of bad support from Stripe where they reject you without telling you a specific reason or giving you a chance to make things right.
We considered creating a new account from zero, but we are afraid of running into the same issue.
Has someone had a similar issue with Stripe? What do you suggest doing? Any idea why they say our platform is inside the restricted business?
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I know stripe sales reps reach out directly on Linkedin so it's worth it to try and find a person to talk to.
I would absolutely not start from scratch with Stripe if the issue is not resolved, you are just waiting for disaster to happen again.
I must admit that it's sounds weird because we did 20 rentals in the past few months and had no problem. I also can't find a single thing about what you are we are doing in the restricted business section on Stripe.
Hi Klaas! Thanks for the comment, I sent some messages on LinkedIn. I hope this gets solved soon.
Stripe sent me another email yesterday saying it was a 'financial risk' but I still don't know why.
Lol well I mean every transaction is a financial risk..
Keep us updated because I would move away from stripe if they pull this on you
Sure, I'll keep you posted!
For now , we exchanged like 30 emails and finally got that they think we are doing bookings inside the platform and we need to have Stripe Connect activated for that.
Even though we don't do bookings, we activated the Stripe Connect just to check if doing that will let us pass the filter but we are already contacting other providers because the support was not helpful at all...
Hi @klaaz0r we got the problem solved and our account is working normally! After contacting them on linkedin, email, twitter, and posting on indie hackers and wip, they reach us on Twitter and repaired it fast.
If you have any issues I would recommend to just contacting them on Twitter (not email).
Thanks for the support!
You might try posting to Hacker News, because more Stripe folks tend to hang out there.
Besides that, try looking for another payment processor. There are others out there - such as Braintree.
Thank you!
Yesss in the end we are probably going to migrate everything, Braintree is an option. We are contacting other providers to make it sure that this will not happen again!