How Do I Get My Money Back From Stripe, PayPal, or Square After a Hold?

Logging into your dashboard and seeing a chunk of your revenue sitting under “pending” or “reserved” is one of the worst things a business can go through. Square, Stripe or PayPal can also send you an email notification to let you know about this, but the justification is very questionable. This is one of the most common (and most stressful) situations merchants run into with Stripe, PayPal, and Square, and the honest answer is: getting it back depends entirely on why it was held.

Here’s a how to guide on how to work the problem.

Step 1: Figure Out Which Kind of Hold You're Dealing With

Not all holds are the same, and the fix is different for each one.

Rolling reserve. A percentage of every transaction is held back for a set window (often 90 days) and released on a schedule. This isn't usually a sign of anything is wrong, it's just risk management for high-risk categories.

Temporary review hold. Something tripped a fraud or risk flag: an unusual spike in volume, a large single transaction, a new product category, or a chargeback spike. These are often resolved once you provide documentation.

Account termination with fund hold. The processor has decided to close your account, but they're still holding your funds for a set period in case chargebacks come in. This is the hardest one to reverse and the one merchants call us about most.

Check your dashboard notifications and any emails from the processor first. They usually (not always) tell you which bucket you're in.

Not sure which bucket you're in? Send us your dashboard notification and we'll tell you straight, no charge.

Step 2: Read the real reason why your revenue is on hold

Stripe, PayPal, and Square all bury the real reason a few clicks deep. Look for:

A specific policy or terms of service violation cited
A risk score change or dispute rate threshold is mentioned
Any reference to your business type based on your products or services

This matters because your response is completely different depending on whether they're worried about fraud, disputes, or your business type being outside their risk appetite. Sending generic paperwork when they flagged a dispute rate issue wastes your window to respond.

Step 3: Contact Support, but Don't Expect a Fast Answer

This is the part that frustrates merchants the most. Stripe, PayPal, and Square are built for scale, not for one-on-one account management. You'll likely be working through a support queue, not a dedicated rep, and the person answering your ticket often can't override a risk decision even if they want to.

Still worth doing:

Ask directly what documentation would resolve the hold (invoices, proof of delivery, refund policy, business licensing)
Get everything in writing, don't rely on a phone call summary
Escalate through any “business” or “priority” support tier you have access to

Tired of waiting on a ticket queue for an answer nobody can give you? Redde assigns every merchant a dedicated contact, not a support rotation.

Step 4: Provide Documentation Fast

If it's a review hold rather than a termination, speed matters. Common asks:

Proof of product or service delivery
Customer communication showing the transaction was legitimate
Refund policy and how it's enforced
Business registration or licensing, especially for regulated categories

Missing a response deadline can turn a temporary hold into a permanent one.

Step 5: If they closed your account, expect a lengthy hold

If the account has already been terminated, 120 days is the most common hold period you'll see cited, and that's if no new chargebacks come in during the hold window. But don't just assume 120 days and wait quietly. Call or message support directly and ask them to confirm, in writing, the exact release date on your account. Hold periods aren't always identical across processors or even across accounts on the same processor, and getting a real date (not a general policy number) is the only way to actually plan around it. Appeals rarely speed up the timeline once termination has happened, so use that call to nail down the date, not to argue the decision.

Understanding cause and effect

If this is the first time it's happened, it might genuinely be a one-off. But if you've been held, reviewed, or dropped more than once, or you're in a category like supplements, firearms, nutraceuticals, CBD, or subscription billing, the issue usually isn't something you did wrong. It's that mainstream processors like Stripe, PayPal, and Square are built around a risk model that treats entire categories as a liability, regardless of your actual dispute rate or business practices. Or your industry can get more disputes than others, these platforms rarely have a risk workout period that they can offer; you more than likely need a high-risk payment processor.

If your industry is the reason you keep getting held, switching processors (not fighting the hold) is the real fix. See if Redde already works with your category.

What To Do Differently Going Forward

Once you have your release date, use the wait time productively: start looking at whether your current processor is a long-term fit, or just what you defaulted to when you opened the account. If this is the second or third time you've dealt with a hold, that's a pattern worth acting on instead of riding it out again.

Redde Payments works with merchants in exactly this position, including supplements, firearms, CBD, and other categories mainstream processors flag first and ask questions later. If you want a processor that underwrites your actual business instead of guessing based on your MCC code, get in touch with Redde before your next payout is the one that gets held.