Stripe shut down my account — what to check before you respond

A suspended, paused, or under-review account is not a permanent state. It is a state that asks you to produce evidence. The checklist below covers all three.

Definition. When merchants say “Stripe shut down my account,” “Stripe suspended my account,” or “Stripe put my account under review,” they usually mean one of three things: (1) some functionality is paused pending review; (2) new charges are blocked but payouts continue; (3) all activity is paused. Each pauses for the same kind of reason — Stripe needs more information or has flagged a pattern — and each has the same checklist below.

Suspended vs under review vs closed — terminology

• Suspended / paused / under review. Stripe has temporarily blocked some or all activity. Reversible. See this checklist.
• Closed / terminated. Stripe has permanently ended the relationship. Rarely reversible. See Stripe closed my account.
• Funds held. Activity may continue but payouts are blocked. See Stripe holding my funds.

Before you write the reply, gather these

Section 01 · Identify the trigger

• Save a copy of the Stripe email or dashboard notification
• Note the exact wording of the reason (account review, business model, dispute rate, etc.)
• Note what is paused: new charges, payouts, both
• Note any deadline Stripe stated

Section 02 · Audit your live website

• Open the homepage in an incognito window. Document the URL, the date, and screenshots.
• Confirm refund, terms, privacy, contact, and shipping policies are linked from the footer
• Confirm currency is displayed alongside prices
• Confirm product or service description matches what you submitted to Stripe
• For subscriptions: confirm trial-to-paid disclosure is near the signup button
• For physical goods: confirm shipping and delivery policy is current
• If anything is outdated or missing, fix it before replying — Stripe may re-check

Section 03 · Recent fulfillment record

• For the last 30 days of transactions, can you produce delivery proof for any one transaction within 5 minutes?
• Tracking numbers for physical goods, download logs for digital, usage logs for SaaS
• Sample 3-5 transactions across the spectrum: high value, low value, refunded, non-refunded
• Make these available in a shared folder

Section 04 · Dispute and refund history

• Total disputes in the last 90 days, total refunds in the last 90 days
• Dispute rate (disputes / transactions) — Stripe often considers anything above 0.5 to 1 percent a flag
• For each dispute: was evidence submitted, what was the outcome
• For refunds: pattern (one-off, customer-initiated, you-initiated)

Section 05 · Business identity documents

• Articles of incorporation or equivalent
• EIN or tax ID letter
• Business address proof
• Beneficial owner ID for all owners above the threshold
• Business bank account statement
• If anything is dated more than 12 months ago and is requestable fresh, refresh it

Section 06 · Customer communication record

• Export the last 60 days of customer support communications
• Have a representative sample ready: complaint, resolution, refund request
• If complaint rate is high, prepare a one-paragraph explanation of root cause and what you are doing about it

Section 07 · Restricted business screening

• Re-read Stripe’s restricted businesses list
• Honestly assess: is your business clearly outside the list, ambiguous, or arguably inside?
• If ambiguous, prepare a one-paragraph clarification that matches your website description

If you are only under review (not yet suspended)

Stripe sometimes opens a review without immediately pausing the account. The review window is when the outcome is decided — what you provide, how quickly, how consistently.

During the review — daily

• Check the email on file twice a day
• Check the Stripe dashboard for messages
• Reply to any request within 24 hours when possible
• Note exactly what Stripe asked for
• If the request is ambiguous, ask one clarifying question — do not guess
• Reply with the specific documents asked for, not a kitchen-sink upload
• Maintain consistency between what you provide and what’s on the public site

What extends reviews

• Slow replies (after a week, the reviewer who knows your case may have moved on)
• Adding new information that opens new questions — answer what was asked
• Inconsistent stories from different team members
• Changing the public site mid-review without disclosure

What not to do

• Do not delete pages or edit the website in ways that contradict what Stripe saw at the time of the suspension. They will compare.
• Do not respond before you have the documents — partial replies typically extend review.
• Do not promise outcomes you cannot deliver. “We will reduce disputes” without a concrete plan is weaker than “we have implemented X.”
• Do not use service providers who claim to “unfreeze” accounts. None of them have privileged access to Stripe. We are not such a service.

When this checklist is not enough

If the suspension was triggered by a business-model concern (restricted category, regulated industry), the checklist alone does not resolve it. You may need a fundamental decision about whether Stripe is the right processor. See stripe-restricted-businesses and consult counsel.

If the suspension is dispute-rate driven and the rate is structurally high (subscription business with weak disclosure, dropshipping with long fulfillment), the fix is the underlying disclosure and process, not the reply email.

A note on what we do

We are an independent advisory. We organize what you can present. We do not contact Stripe on your behalf. We do not promise reinstatement. Reading this checklist and assembling the documents is what you control; what Stripe decides is what they control.