Stripe Reviews 

They hold your funds for no clear reason, especially during Q4. Their system can suddenly shut down your store, and you’re left with no proper explanation.

They tell you that you’ll be refunded within 3 months, then after 3 months they delay again saying “next month” over and over. It feels like endless postponement.

Even if your business model is fully compliant, transparent, and you ship real products with tracking, you can still face sudden holds.

Extremely stressful experience for any business owner. I would strongly advise merchants to be cautious and always have a backup payment processor.

I am so thankful for the prompt response and continued communication! Account issues were resolved swiftly and my initial concern in an all digital communication was met with total confidence. Thank you, team Stripe!

This communication serves as a formal notice of intent to serve. Stripe has now been in possession of my personal capital for three full months. This was a settled bank-to-bank transfer—a transaction that, by law and banking protocol, should have been deposited into the Merchant’s bank account immediately upon clearing. Instead, Stripe has held these funds for 3 months without legal basis. As there is zero chargeback risk on a settled bank transfer, this detention constitutes the unlawful conversion of funds and a flagrant breach of FCA Principles for Businesses.

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC AND MERCHANT COMMUNITY: Do not be misled by Stripe’s scripted "support" responses on this platform; they are categorically false. Stripe is currently ghosting the merchant, their legal counsel, and my authorized representatives to obscure their refusal to release cleared funds. Their public engagement is a cosmetic facade designed to mask bad-faith internal tactics.

TERMINATION OF "PRIVACY" PRETEXTS: I am a verified, authorized party on the merchant account. For 90 days, Stripe has utilized "privacy" as a fraudulent stall tactic to avoid professional accountability. My bank transfer has been held by Stripe for 3 months, while the funds rightfully belong in the merchant's bank account. This pretext is now legally debunked and documented as a bad-faith maneuver to profit from the float on my capital.

ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS COMMENCING IMMEDIATELY:

HIGH COURT LITIGATION: My legal counsel is authorized to serve a High Court Claim seeking the principal sum, statutory interest at 8% per annum, and full indemnity costs for business interruption.

PHYSICAL SERVICE & DOCUMENTATION: Due to the total exhaustion of digital communication channels, I am descending on your corporate headquarters in person. I will be accompanied by my legal team and a professional camera crew to document the physical service of legal process to your corporate officers for a global audience.

MEDIA & PUBLIC DISCLOSURE: This 3-month detention of capital is being broadcasted to my 5 MILLION+ FOLLOWERS. We will turn your corporate lobby into a live-streamed set to expose Stripe’s liquidity management practices. The resulting brand damage will significantly exceed the value of the funds being withheld.

REGULATORY OVERSIGHT: A formal complaint of Systemic Regulatory Malpractice is being submitted to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding the unauthorized 3-month detention of non-reversible bank funds.

FINAL ULTIMATUM: Stripe must provide a confirmed MT103 or an internal release receipt proving the immediate dispatch of funds to the MERCHANT’S BANK ACCOUNT by the close of business today.

Beware of investments platforms that target people through social media ads. I ended up depositing 58,400 dollars that I had saved for my daughter's tuition fees after signing up for a standard entry plan. I remember the hum of the air conditioner in the background as I sent the last wire transfer. Communication ceased entirely when I requested a small payout and the broker became unreachable. A few days later a message appeared demanding 6,850 dollars for a supposed liquidity clearance. I submitted a report at the local precinct and ensured all digital evidence was documented. Following the filing of the complaint the matter was transferred to international jurisdictions for formal tracking. The recovery was managed by ＰＬＥＭＯＲＩＸ which oversaw the procedural requirements to secure the return of the funds. The reclamation was finalized within a month. The amount was recorded as returned to the original source.

This is a Formal Letter of Claim. You have failed to respond to repeated merchant inquiries and legal correspondence regarding the unauthorized retention of $16,500.75 USD in cleared funds.
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Be advised of the following:
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Regulatory Violation: Your continued silence and withholding of undisputed, cleared funds constitutes a breach of your obligations under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations regarding the timely processing of payments and the Payment Services Regulations 2017.
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Immediate Escalation: If these funds are not released to the merchant’s nominated bank account within 24 hours, we will immediately file a formal complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the FCA.
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Service of Process: We have prepared a High Court Claim for the recovery of these funds, plus interest and legal costs. If the transfer is not initiated by the end of the business day, my legal team is instructed to bypass digital support and serve notice directly to your Corporate Headquarters.
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Final Notice: We will no longer engage with automated responses or "standard review" scripts. This is a liquidated debt.
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RELEASE THE TOTAL BALANCE OF $16,500.75 USD INTO THE MERCHANTS BANK ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY. We await your confirmation of the transfer.

Most awfull processor ever... They refunded all my money from products that already have been delivered. Then account has been frozen no disputes nothing. I have no illegal business or anything before i started selling i tried to explain now my funds are on hold. Imagine you provide a service and the money has been refunded while u sent out the packages. 2000 euro just gone.

I am outraged at Stripe’s treatment of legitimate businesses. I have been running my store legally, selling verified products to satisfied customers in the USA, and yet Stripe froze my account and held my money for over six months with zero explanation.

I have all proof of legitimate transactions and happy customers, but Stripe still decided to ban my account arbitrarily and keep my funds hostage. Multiple attempts to contact their support have been ignored. This is not just poor service — this is a scam. Stripe acts like a platform that steals money from honest freelancers and business owners while pretending to be a trusted payment processor.

Their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. Honest businesses deserve transparency and respect, not to be silenced while their funds are stolen.

For reference, my case number is: sco_TVSDblzCCrrjew

Stripe told me their team would contact me, but no one ever reached out. There has been no update, no response, no resolution. This company is simply ignoring legitimate merchants.

If anyone wants to contact them, their emails are:

I demand:

Immediate release of all my held funds.

A full explanation for why my account was terminated.

Accountability for the extreme stress and business losses caused by their reckless actions.

Stripe, ignoring legitimate merchants is unacceptable. This is a public warning: stop targeting honest businesses or face exposure.

I've been running a digital monthly magazine through stripe for over a year, nothing shady, it's a music magazine of photographs from a number of photographers in a niche genre, had 100s of transactions, literally zero disputes. I have a good line of communication with my customers and any time someone has asked for a refund I've obliged.

I charged my customers for this month's edition, then suddenly I'm asked to verify my identity again, I do so, the second I do that I get notified my payouts are on hold and my account is locked due to high risk even though I've not had a single dispute. They've debited my recent payouts back to me taking money out of my account and back into their stripe account and they're telling me my funds over £4000 will be released in 120 days (likely they're just waiting for the debit to go through so they have my money then they'll probably lock the funds, scum) and any other questions I ask about what, why and how is either ignored or replied to with a bot answer. Some people have rent to pay and it's Christmas.

I'm seriously considering talking to my ombudsman and escalating this to a small claims court because it's absolutely ridiculous. I've handed the situation over to my solicitor who has said I'm well in my right to escalate this matter and believe me, I fully intend to.

They freely allow clients to charge their cards but when the client complains to their bank there is little possibility of controlling them from lying, causing possible losses to the business and proving the fraudster right. They may possibly improve by trying to link the payments made by clients to a code within the platform, linking the buyer's IP with that of the platform and somehow within the platform accepting or rejecting the payment from the businessFor example, in the case of my products, I would give them the generated code so that they can enter that reference in the payment link and thus be able to make their payment; that is, without a code, I would not accept the payment . I just hope that both the platform and the cardholders' banks are honest and refund me what they should. I do not recommend the payment processor Stripe, when there is a dispute, the bank is in favor of the client, returning the money, and the account with a balance on the platform is frozen.

I used Stripe for about a year with a total of over 2,572 transactions and only 14 disputes, one of which was for an unknown reason. My account was then subject to verification, requiring me to provide company documents. I submitted a K bis extract and a bank statement, which took less than five minutes. Afterwards, I received a response saying that my account would remain closed due to high risk. Even though I am sure that this verification was not done by a human, I am not questioning it. So my current funds are frozen, which means that some of my customers' packages could not be sent because I did not receive the money in my account. I am therefore asking Stripe to refund my customers on my behalf, as my account is blocked and I cannot do it myself. I am contacting their customer service department to ask them to refund my customers on my behalf, as they have not received their products and Stripe is holding my customers' money in my account. They replied that this is impossible, as my account is blocked. However, at the beginning, they refunded a large number of customers without them having initiated a refund request, and now that I am asking them to refund two orders from customers who did not receive their packages, Stripe refuses outright and is illegally holding onto my customers' money.

This is completely illegal and contrary to consumer law. Once again, I am not asking for my account to be unblocked. I have only ever asked for my customers to be refunded, knowing that Stripe still has their money in the account and can therefore refund them. Please find attached the entire conversation I had with customer support.
In any case, this service is absolutely to be avoided. There are many other payment processors on the market. Do a little research and you will find what you are looking for far away from Stripe.
Here is good alternative : Mollie Payment, Airwallex

Absolutly appauled with Stripes Inability to Suspend ILLEGAL Websites Using Stripe

I bought a product from a website named

pluginboutique.store

The website Scammed me of a LARGE Order for £130 Worth of products that all turned out to be ILLEGAL CRACKS. I reported this to Stripe after the Website refused to refund me and STRIPE did absolutely NOTHING.

the Website is CLEARLY selling ILLEGAL Products at prices well below RRP , which is why i was scammed into thinking i could buy the products cheaper than RRP.

IF your reading this STRIPE ADMIN - REMOVE The website from your payment gateway, YOUR Harboring ILLEGAL Activities and Scammers.

pluginboutique.store

Here is the STRIPE API Publishable Key for the website checkout

pk_live_51HOrSwC6h1nxGoI3lTAgRjYVrz4dU3fVOabyCcKR3pbEJguCVAlqCxdxCUvoRh1XWwRacViovU3kLKvpkjh7IqkW00iXQsjo3n

Thank you. ( For Nothing no Doubt )

WARNING: Core Feature Disabled Over ARBITRARY Inactivity Policy. Punishing Active Developers.

Star Rating: ⭐️ (1-star)

As a developer and platform owner, I relied on this service’s Connect features for embedded user verification on an active development project (a bitcoin exchange on Firebase). I have been a client of stripe for about 8 years.

Despite this perfect financial record, the company has sent a notice threatening to disable my ability to create platform-liable accounts (a core integration feature) by January 27, 2026.

The Reason? An arbitrary internal metric flagging the account as "inactive" because I haven't yet launched the full live service and created enough Connected Accounts.

This policy shows a complete and utter disregard for their customers in the development space:

Punitive Greed: They are demanding I create a fake or not, unnecessary account—purely to satisfy an internal automation metric—or they will deliberately break my application's onboarding logic. This is not about financial risk; it’s about coercing developers into unnecessary, premature scaling to meet their internal growth targets.

Disregard for Startups: Active development cycles and pre-launch platforms are inherently dynamic. This policy shows a total lack of understanding for the startup journey and punishes developers who are actively building compliant, secure integrations.

No Support: The automated system issues these threats with no avenue for genuine human review or flexibility. They prioritize their rigid internal algorithms over the health of their client platforms.

This is a dangerous and aggressive business practice. If your business is in active development, or you plan to scale gradually, avoid this provider. They will hold a gun to your head and threaten to disable your core features unless you play by their arbitrary, greedy rules. I am now forced to port my entire verification system to a competitor who respects the development lifecycle. The collins brothers, owners of stripe, they made in Usa alone, 23 billion dollars, enjoying life on the back of working people. And thats not enough, They want me to be their slave, to produce customers, or else, I choose else, and i am not scarred of stripe or anyone else, i challenge them to go live on tv over their practice, scarring customers and and will see what is going to happen. they will not do that, while ago my $80.00 i posted to have positive balance on stripe issuing digital card, money disappeared and i was told, it was never there, whoever within stripe took my money i hope he or she spent on doctor fees
i am done with greedy corporations and stripe is just one of them

I have been in business for over 20 years and used Stripe for many of them. At one time Stripe was reliable and straightforward, but something within the company has changed and not for the better.

Over a year ago Stripe placed a 25 percent rolling reserve on one of my business accounts with no valid explanation. My company has an excellent history with almost no chargebacks and none in more than a year. Despite this, Stripe continues to withhold 25 percent of every transaction. My profit margin averages around 20 percent which means Stripe is holding more than my entire profit per sale. This policy has caused significant financial loss and forced me to cover the difference out of pocket.

I have reached out to Stripe multiple times over many months requesting an account review and an explanation of why they classify my business as elevated risk. Each time I receive the same generic copy and paste response with no real details or transparency. They confirm there are no disputes yet continue the restriction.

Even more concerning is how Stripe appears to control its public image. Many small business owners have reported that their negative feedback or complaints are removed or hidden. On Reddit, the community called r/stripe is moderated by individuals connected to Stripe who remove posts and ban users after they share legitimate experiences.

There are also increasing reports and videos showing Stripe limiting what legal products or services people can sell based on personal or internal opinions rather than law. This has become such an issue that in August 2025 a federal executive order called Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans was signed to stop politicized or unlawful banking practices. Stripe’s name was directly mentioned among the companies whose actions contributed to the creation of this federal law.

After years of loyalty I moved all of my business to another payment gateway and have not had a single issue since. No fund holds, no excuses, no interference. Stripe is now trying to control how you run your business, much like a dictator deciding what is acceptable.

Look at the generic messages Stripe leaves under negative reviews pretending to offer help. They are simply trying to look credible while ignoring the real problems their users are facing.

Business owners should read the growing number of complaints before using Stripe. The negative reviews you see online are accurate and reflect a company that has lost its integrity.

I’m writing this to warn other small business owners who rely on Stripe. My company, Esimcarty LLC, sells legit prepaid eSIM data plans for travelers — 100% digital products, no physical SIMs or unauthorized goods.

Out of nowhere, Stripe closed our account, claiming we sold “counterfeit or unauthorized materials.” This is completely false — we don’t sell anything like that. It seems like an automated error or mismatch, but what’s worse is that Stripe has not replied to our emails or follow-ups for days.

We’ve offered to provide proof, documentation, and full transparency, but there’s just silence. As a small business, this situation is devastating. Stripe was our only payment processor, and now we can’t operate normally.

I used to think Stripe was a trustworthy partner for digital entrepreneurs, but this experience shows how little protection small businesses have when Stripe makes a mistake. Their automated systems can shut down your livelihood, and you may never get a proper human review.

If your business depends on Stripe, be careful. Always have a backup payment solution ... because once they flag you (even unfairly), it’s almost impossible to get help.

I will update this comment if the issue gets solved

Stripe is very poor in comparison to other payment processors such as SUMUP or Square. My biggest annoyance is how incredibly slow the payout schedule is 7+ days! Sometimes up to ten - this is slower than if the client had paid me by cheque. I understand the need for risk mitigation but I'm running classes at £10 a go not selling products worth thousands of pounds. Stripes customer service where also very unhelpful - they don't actually know anything. They tell me the payout speed will change to 3 days (still super slow compared to others which are often instant) at some mythical point in the future but they can't tell me when or what the criteria are.

I definitely wouldn't use them if I didn't have to but unfortunately the class booking system we use has stripe as the only option and I naively assumed they'd work like other payment processors.

If you have the choose opt for Square or SUMUP they are much better both in terms of speed and also customer service.

My stripe Account is Banned for no reason.

I bought a machine for making handmade leather bags, I paid 1000€ for the ads, i paid 300€ accountant services on UK, I paid 300€ for website. I don’t know what to say. I did buisness for 1 month and they choose to close my account. I worked for 4 years at same workshop i just opened my own small workshop and this is what happend. I recieved 0 complaints by the way all my customers loved my products. I had 2 wholesale. So i am not sure what is going to happen. They don’t tell me why my account is closed. I am just sad for this. I have around 2 parcels of leather,one bag machine and a company and i cant recieve a money from my customers. Please someone from support whom reading this i can share any document you like please help :(

update ; they said they said they’re going to hold the funds for 120 days now. And they don’t explain why. I don’t have any money to afford a lawyer so i am not sure what to do. I was thinking a big company like this would’t do something like this. The best i can do is try to make my voice heard on social media i think. I am just sad.

My experience with Stripe has been a devastating nine-month journey. I am posting this as a factual warning to other UK SMEs about the systemic issues we have documented.

Our problems began with misleading merchant descriptors on over 80 transactions. The company websites Stripe confirmed did not match the website we actually purchased from. For months, Stripe insisted they were "merely a processor" and refused to identify the ultimate merchant, making it impossible to resolve the dispute. We were forced to take them to the County Court, where Stripe failed to respond, and we won a Default Judgment (CCJ) against them (Claim No. 696MC733).

For over nine months, the result of Stripe's actions has kept us in a legal no-man's-land. We purchased cinema ticket stock from our suppliers, two legally separate sub-merchants, who we now know connect to a single end beneficiary—a fact Stripe is aware of but refuses to confirm even though our complaint is regarding misleading merchant descriptors and brochure website liability shields. They have perfected a strategy of "technical tennis": when we approach the sub-merchants, they stonewall us; when we go to Stripe, they deflect, instructing us to resolve the issue with the very end beneficiary whose identity they actively conceal, citing "third-party privacy".

As the sole orchestrator of the payment infrastructure, Stripe is the only party that can break this deadlock, yet they choose to mislead and obstruct, leaving us with no possible way forward.

When I requested my personal data from Stripe (a SAR), the process was a catalogue of failures. Stripe first sent my SARS request to the wrong companies ( both the sub merchant suppliers in my complaint ). Then, after finally admitting in writing that they are a "data controller" for behavioural profiling data, they delivered our personal data behind an NDA-style agreement designed to restrict my legal rights.

Their own data disclosures revealed the scale of their data collection. Under "fraud prevention," Stripe harvested a vast trove of behavioural data from my activity. For just one card, their SAR disclosure confirmed the collection of 47 unique device identifiers, tracking across 323 separate browsing sessions, and 427 instances of mouse movement tracking.

In their SAR response, Stripe made the carefully worded claim that this "Stripe.js data is not shared with Merchants". While their letter claims they only share data with "business partners" like "banks and payment method providers (such as credit card networks)", our legal case alleges this is deeply misleading. Stripe sells access to its Radar system, which provides merchants with risk scores and insights derived from this exact cross-merchant behavioural data. They don't have to share the raw data; they sell access to its conclusions—which achieves the same result. Furthermore, the same letter admits this data is also used for "analyzing, developing and improving Stripe's products and services", a clear admission of repurposing that goes far beyond securing a single transaction.

Stripes shift in Feb 2023 from transaction-centric (3DS1) to device-centric (3DS2) security has created a system where 'fraud prevention' is the justification for collecting over 150 device centric data points (like device fingerprints and mouse movements) from every single visitor to a merchant's site, even if no purchase is made. As our formal legal claim contends, this creates a loophole. Their 'legitimate interest' for security allows this granular data to be repurposed by partners into valuable marketing insights, creating a business model that most SMEs are completely unaware of. Those partners can then repurpose these fraud prevention signals for commercial profiling and competitive advantage . We chose Stripe to process payments, not to operate as a silent data collection engine.

Stripe's claim that its invasive data collection is necessary for "fraud prevention" is fundamentally contradicted by its own system's failures. Their advanced Radar system failed to flag over £80,000 in transactions made with a business card by a non-registered user when buying stock from our suppliers in our complaint—a classic fraud indicator. The system also failed to raise any alarms when our own merchant account was hit with over 50+ chargebacks—a primary red flag for merchant-level fraud.

If their sophisticated "fraud prevention" engine completely missed these significant risk signals, what is the true purpose of the vast behavioural data it collects. If we had known the true nature and scale of this, as detailed in our 44 formal allegations against Stripe, we would never have used them.

Feedback is about Yourselfirst and how Stripe handled my payment
Looks like a digital coach offering tips and personality insights
I thought it was free but Stripe billed me the moment I finished
I tried to contact the site and no answer. The silence makes the whole thing worse

If I could give zero stars I would. Customer service non existent. Says I had restricted products on my site. I do not. Can get anyone to answer. Costing me sales. Garbage company. Do not do business with them. Many other choices out there.

💡 Need urgent support from Stripe

I have been a Stripe user since 2021. My account holds $14,933 CAD, available since then. Despite completing the 120-day hold period and contacting Stripe multiple times (via live chat, phone, and social media), my payout is still blocked.

I was told refunds would be processed within 5 business days, but nearly 4 years have passed — no refund, no payout option enabled. This money was received from my customers (all products delivered, no disputes).

This is my hard-earned money, and the situation has become urgent for me. I humbly request Stripe Support to review my case and release my payout.

#Stripe #Payments #Business