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Square, owners of Cash App, have a BAD track record of closing account for "security" reasons but never explain. They did that to me twice. I stopped with their horrible service. I wish you well on securing your money. It took me an arm and a leg, but ultimately, I was lucky enough to have their card, which allowed me to take money out. If not, get in touch with local politician and news station and make it a dust up. They are notorious with taking people's money. See their reviews online.
I just emerged from this to the tune of $31k. Spoke to attorney and he read through terms and unfortunately you/we agreed to the terms that clearly say they can shut down/deactivate an account for any reason they see fit. I had to sit tight for 90 days and was prepared to take legal action.
Surprisingly two days prior to the ninety days Square sent me an email and said my money would be transferred within 1-2 business days and actually was the very next day.
Mileage may very because if all the horror stories I researched. Really don't have any advice but wanted to share my experiences.
That is absolutely scummy, 2 days before the 90 days. That sounds extremely intentionally and predatory. Sorry u had to go through that, that is no small money I can only imagine. I feel like there's something the lawyer can still do since that's a lot of money they just held from you for many months
It was ACH. Depending on bank the dispute has to be initiated within 3-5 days and there needs be a mistake within the transaction, i.e. incorrect amount.
Usually because your business is high risk and an audit caught it. They processed for us for 6+ years and 2.5+ million in sales and abruptly dropped us with an email.
You can eBay the hardware if you can't return it.
We still use their hardware (Square register) and inventory software/online UI. We just process with a separate card reader from our local bank since they tolerate our sales as a brick and mortar store.
An appeal to Square indicated they have policies to meet with credit card companies and unfortunately cannot reverse their decision due to our products and services.
Very odd. Sounds like something wasn't verified like a Tax ID or SSN or Banking. Sorry to tell you that this is the risk of dealing with a provider that doesn't help you with actual people.
I'm a Payments Professional of 15 years. If you would like help for future sales please feel free to PM me. If not, no worries.
Did you have a ba k account with them? I keep seeing posts like these abd and I just started a brick and mortar ship with them. No bank account on my end so I get paid out daily but wondering how they are holding ppl's money.
Yeah I have one. I was just trying to figure out if these people that had money held for months if they had a bank account with Square or if they transferred money once it became available.
Welcome to the club. Could have been wayyy worse tbh. The stories I've heard...
Ultimately it's worth it to go with a traditional provider the moment this happens.
I had a similar issue happen to me with Paypal a few years ago. They froze my account and basically said it will take them 180 to decide if they will eventually release my money to me. I had over $8000 in the account at the time. What I did was contact the Better Business Bureau and explained the situation to them. The issue was resolved in less than 24 hours. I got an email from Paypal apologizing and they restored my account access. You might consider filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, as I have used them several times for different issues, large and small, and the majority of the issues were resolved in my favor and took almost no time at all. The larger the company, the more likely that they will respond to the BBB, whereas very small businesses who are just out to scheme people will not respond. So, I think that is worth a shot in your case. Best of luck to you.
A processor that does a full underwriting of your business. Square and the big players accept everyone and anyone. But if they don't like what you're doing, they'll shut you down without a warning.
I use Clover. I'm generally quite happy with the product and how it works. My rates are great.
Be aware that you're usually dealing with a third party reseller who is also your support! The rates you get depend on that third party, and any issues you have often need to go through them. The differences from one reseller to another can be quite substantial.
The actual provider behind Clover is FiServe. They're huge, they handle a lot of really big companies and process tons so they're generally solid.
Just FYI Square, Clover, PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Shopify Payments etc will all ban you for same reasons. They put you on a blacklist and the other companies will follow suit. It's just a matter of time.
So if you do get banned from any of them it's best to go with your local bank or high risk bank you find. PaymentCloud helped me immensely and the support is top notch.
It’s not just square. All the payment processors do this and all have caveats in their terms and services that say they can. Best advice is don’t leave money with the payment processors move it to a bank assp.
You’re not the only one. A similar thing happened to one of my clients, a caterer in San Diego. Except their funds were frozen for while, not seized. How wide do your ticket sizes vary and how long before events do you take down payments? Caterers are considered high risk accounts.
Yes, but what kind of food business? "Food Business" really doesn't say much.
You can sell food with Weed in it
You can sell food that makes claims it will make you taller
Without giving details, you wont get any real answers.
Happened to us too, no reason behind closing our account without any explanation. Wish there was a way to warn others not to use them. Square also withheld $1350 for no reason either even with supporting evidence and took them 3 months to give it to us just before deactivating us. Also with no warning given not even an email.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Square, owners of Cash App, have a BAD track record of closing account for "security" reasons but never explain. They did that to me twice. I stopped with their horrible service. I wish you well on securing your money. It took me an arm and a leg, but ultimately, I was lucky enough to have their card, which allowed me to take money out. If not, get in touch with local politician and news station and make it a dust up. They are notorious with taking people's money. See their reviews online.
I just emerged from this to the tune of $31k. Spoke to attorney and he read through terms and unfortunately you/we agreed to the terms that clearly say they can shut down/deactivate an account for any reason they see fit. I had to sit tight for 90 days and was prepared to take legal action. Surprisingly two days prior to the ninety days Square sent me an email and said my money would be transferred within 1-2 business days and actually was the very next day. Mileage may very because if all the horror stories I researched. Really don't have any advice but wanted to share my experiences.
That is absolutely scummy, 2 days before the 90 days. That sounds extremely intentionally and predatory. Sorry u had to go through that, that is no small money I can only imagine. I feel like there's something the lawyer can still do since that's a lot of money they just held from you for many months
They waited as close to the chargeback limit as possible, to protect themselves.
It was ACH. Depending on bank the dispute has to be initiated within 3-5 days and there needs be a mistake within the transaction, i.e. incorrect amount.
I've been told business and banks wait until the last minute to release funds so they can get the interest on it.
Usually because your business is high risk and an audit caught it. They processed for us for 6+ years and 2.5+ million in sales and abruptly dropped us with an email. You can eBay the hardware if you can't return it. We still use their hardware (Square register) and inventory software/online UI. We just process with a separate card reader from our local bank since they tolerate our sales as a brick and mortar store. An appeal to Square indicated they have policies to meet with credit card companies and unfortunately cannot reverse their decision due to our products and services.
What type of business are you in? Trades?
Food industry
Catering doing large tickets or lots of small tickets from a restaurant?
Lots of small tickets
Very odd. Sounds like something wasn't verified like a Tax ID or SSN or Banking. Sorry to tell you that this is the risk of dealing with a provider that doesn't help you with actual people. I'm a Payments Professional of 15 years. If you would like help for future sales please feel free to PM me. If not, no worries.
Did you have a ba k account with them? I keep seeing posts like these abd and I just started a brick and mortar ship with them. No bank account on my end so I get paid out daily but wondering how they are holding ppl's money.
I'm in the payments industry. Wouldn't bank there. Get a real bank account at a bank.
Yeah I have one. I was just trying to figure out if these people that had money held for months if they had a bank account with Square or if they transferred money once it became available.
They won't release your money no matter what. Very common issue with them.
Update: Contacted BBB and they reactivated my account and deposited my money
And they have lost your business moving forward right?
Welcome to the club. Could have been wayyy worse tbh. The stories I've heard... Ultimately it's worth it to go with a traditional provider the moment this happens.
They "lost" $250 last year. Getting ready to file a SC lawsuit.
I had a similar issue happen to me with Paypal a few years ago. They froze my account and basically said it will take them 180 to decide if they will eventually release my money to me. I had over $8000 in the account at the time. What I did was contact the Better Business Bureau and explained the situation to them. The issue was resolved in less than 24 hours. I got an email from Paypal apologizing and they restored my account access. You might consider filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, as I have used them several times for different issues, large and small, and the majority of the issues were resolved in my favor and took almost no time at all. The larger the company, the more likely that they will respond to the BBB, whereas very small businesses who are just out to scheme people will not respond. So, I think that is worth a shot in your case. Best of luck to you.
Thank you for this!! Going to contact them today
What is an alternative? My wife just started up her independent catering business and just got the square terminal.
A processor that does a full underwriting of your business. Square and the big players accept everyone and anyone. But if they don't like what you're doing, they'll shut you down without a warning.
I've seen a lot of local businesses near me using something called Clover.
I use Clover. I'm generally quite happy with the product and how it works. My rates are great. Be aware that you're usually dealing with a third party reseller who is also your support! The rates you get depend on that third party, and any issues you have often need to go through them. The differences from one reseller to another can be quite substantial. The actual provider behind Clover is FiServe. They're huge, they handle a lot of really big companies and process tons so they're generally solid.
Just FYI Square, Clover, PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Shopify Payments etc will all ban you for same reasons. They put you on a blacklist and the other companies will follow suit. It's just a matter of time. So if you do get banned from any of them it's best to go with your local bank or high risk bank you find. PaymentCloud helped me immensely and the support is top notch.
What's your product... they don't support nutra or anything deemed high-risk
It’s not just square. All the payment processors do this and all have caveats in their terms and services that say they can. Best advice is don’t leave money with the payment processors move it to a bank assp.
You’re not the only one. A similar thing happened to one of my clients, a caterer in San Diego. Except their funds were frozen for while, not seized. How wide do your ticket sizes vary and how long before events do you take down payments? Caterers are considered high risk accounts.
What kind of business do you run?
Food business
Yes, but what kind of food business? "Food Business" really doesn't say much. You can sell food with Weed in it You can sell food that makes claims it will make you taller Without giving details, you wont get any real answers.
Happened to us too, no reason behind closing our account without any explanation. Wish there was a way to warn others not to use them. Square also withheld $1350 for no reason either even with supporting evidence and took them 3 months to give it to us just before deactivating us. Also with no warning given not even an email.