I recently configured Stripe to be used for automatic payments. I just wanted to give a heads up that Stripe forcefully closed my account and disabled payments to/from the account. They claim that freelancer websites are high risk and violate their terms. I’d there another payment processor you can integrate with?
This was what they sent me:
“We’re very sorry, but as previously stated, your business falls under our list of Restricted Businesses and Activities in our Services Agreement: https://stripe.com/terms
We are required to follow strict guidelines on the types of businesses we can and can’t support. We’re unable to work with any business that we believe poses elevated financial risk, legal liability, or violates our own policies; in this case, after a thorough review of your account, we have determined that your business falls within these categories.”
EDIT: Their website literally quotes being able to use their service to pay your freelancers programmatically. I’m in the process of disputing their decision. I’ll update this thread as the situation progresses.
EDIT 2: Given my description of a freelance services marketplace, such as UpWork or Fiverr, they’re considering it high risk and will keep the account closed. I haven’t launched yet, but they said they’ll reevaluate once the site is live.
“We’re very sorry, but as previously stated, your business falls under our list of Restricted Businesses and Activities in our Services Agreement: https://stripe.com/terms
We are required to follow strict guidelines on the types of businesses we can and can’t support. We’re unable to work with any business that we believe poses elevated financial risk, legal liability, or violates our own policies; in this case, after a thorough review of your account, we have determined that your business falls within these categories.”
Thanks for sharing this, it’s strange because Stripe Connect is advertised for marketplace payouts, and I couldn’t find freelance services in the list https://stripe.com/legal/restricted-businesses Maybe they allow marketplaces of physical products or digital downloads only and prohibit selling any services, but this wouldn’t make much sense.
Please let me know if you know any popular and reliable alternative to Stripe Connect and we’ll consider integrating it, I’ve seen a similar solution from PayPal but they may have the same terms.
I’ll keep an eye out for similar solutions. This is my last message to them:
“Hello,
I’m looking for clarification as to how the business is considered high-risk. The terms you’ve linked, as well as the high-risk businesses list, mentions nothing of freelancer websites. On your website, you actually specify being able to pay freelancers with your platform.
This link: https://stripe.com/gb/connect/payouts
directly says “ Programmatically send fast payouts to your sellers, freelancers, creators, or service providers around the world.”
I’m using your service to provide payouts to freelancers, as stated by your website as something that you promote.
I’d love to go over specifics to figure out why we’re unable to use your services to send payouts to the freelancers who will be using our website.
Thank you,
Andrew”
Their response is that they will consider reevaluating the situation at a later date. My website isn’t launched yet (but I described that it’s a freelance services marketplace like UpWork or Fiverr), and they said they’ll review it after it’s launched. We’ll see where this goes…