Stripe paused your payouts? Here's exactly what to do — and what NOT to do.
For nutraceutical, supplement, kratom & CBD merchants. A straight-from-underwriting playbook for protecting your cash when a processor puts your funds on hold.
We underwrite high-risk merchants for a living, so we see this pattern almost every week: a supplement, kratom, or CBD brand wakes up to a 'your payouts are on hold pending review' email. Here's the same playbook we walk merchants through — the moves that protect your cash, and the mistakes that turn a temporary hold into a permanent one.
Don't flood support with angry tickets. It pushes your file into manual review and slows the release.
Don't issue a sudden wave of 'cleanup' refunds. A refund spike during a review reads as fraud-mitigation and makes the case look worse.
Don't open a second account to keep processing. Linked accounts get matched and frozen too — now you've got two problems.
Don't go silent. No response is the fastest way to turn a temporary hold into a permanent closure.
What actually triggers a payout hold
- A sudden volume spike well above the baseline your account was approved at.
- A category mismatch — selling supplements, peptides or CBD on an account underwritten as 'general retail.'
- Chargeback or dispute rate creeping toward platform thresholds.
- Product claims or keywords flagged by an automated compliance scan.
- A routine risk re-score that pushes you over a reserve trigger.
From the underwriting desk A generalist processor isn't built to hold your category. When their model can't price your risk, the safest move for them is to freeze and review — even when nothing is actually wrong with your business.
The moves that protect your cash
Respond once, completely.
Send everything they ask for in a single, organized reply — don't drip it across ten tickets.
Have your processing history ready.
Statements, fulfillment proof, and supplier invoices show a real, shipping business behind the volume.
Fix the category mismatch.
Make sure the account is underwritten to what you actually sell — not a generic retail code.
Line up a backup processor before you need it.
A dedicated high-risk merchant account means one review never freezes your entire cash flow again.
Why a high-risk merchant account is different
A real merchant account with an acquiring bank is underwritten to your business — your category, your volume, your chargeback profile. So a single review doesn't put your whole cash flow on ice the way a one-size-fits-all platform does. It's the difference between renting space on someone else's risk tolerance and having an account built for yours.
Want a backup lined up before the next freeze?
It's a quick call with a real underwriter — minutes — and we'll tell you straight whether we can place your business.
(888) 329-5717What we see across the merchants we underwrite
Frozen funds & surprise holds
Merchants lose weeks of cash flow to freezes and reserves no one explained up front.
Quietly overpaying
Most high-risk merchants we review pay well above what their actual risk warrants.
No one picks up
When a payout stalls you need a human, not a ticket number and a long wait.
How it works
Call us
Tell us where things stand today — your current processor, your rates, and what's not working.
We review where you stand
A real underwriter looks at your statements and account history — no black-box scoring.
You hear what's possible
We lay out your options in plain terms, including what we can and can't do for your business.
Why ChargeAct
We underwrite the businesses others decline
High-risk isn't a dirty word to us — it's the merchant category we specialize in every day.
A human reviews your account, not just an algorithm
Statements get read by people who understand your industry, not auto-rejected by a risk score.
A dedicated manager who knows your account
When something comes up, you call a person who already knows your business — not a queue.
Stop guessing what your processor will do next.
Talk to a real underwriter about where your business stands — no obligation, no runaround.
(888) 329-5717More guides
The truth about rolling reserves — what's normal, and what's a red flag.
VAMP and 'excessive' chargebacks, explained — before they cost you your account.
The 90-day pattern: how an aggregator hold becomes a closed account.