Stripe Reviews 

We launched our digital eSIM app and used Stripe to process payments. On day one, we experienced a brief fraud attempt due to a missing 3D Secure configuration (a simple developer mistake). We reported the issue to Stripe support immediately, fixed the problem within 24 hours, and implemented all recommended security measures.

Despite this, Stripe permanently closed our account weeks later with no warning, no clear justification, and no opportunity to properly defend legitimate transactions. Worse, they withheld over $xxxx in earnings — even for real customers who received and used their eSIMs. They’ve refused to release any remaining balance or give us a timeline.

Their so-called "risk review" is vague, opaque, and impossible to appeal. We acted in good faith, followed every instruction, and got punished anyway. As a small business, this has done serious financial and reputational damage.

If you’re a startup, avoid Stripe. You could lose access to your money with no real explanation — and no help when it matters most.

I should`ve trusted the bad reviews about Yourselfirst. The site dresses itself as self-development, but Stripe took $30 right after I clicked through a quiz. Didn`t even see where the money was supposed to go. Felt like I paid to learn a lesson in digital pickpocketing

I just signed up, they wanted all sorts of things from me, I gave them everything they asked for.

I am a AI developer, just launching a new amazing website. Long story short, they told me that AI Developers and their sites are on a restricted list, they sent me an email saying AI sites are run by criminals and predator's? they obviously do not understand the AI community, how much time it takes to develop quality products, and how much investment it takes to launch a AI site.

But calling people names without having any evidence or proof, no complaints, no charge backs,
no business complaints or issues to me shows how little they care about customers!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

At Redesign-World.digital, we trust Stripe to handle all our online payments for digital product bundles. The setup is simple, checkout is smooth, and the security features are top-tier.

Stripe makes it easy to sell globally, manage subscriptions, and get paid fast—without the complexity of old-school payment processors. For any entrepreneur building a digital product business, Stripe is a no-brainer.

✅ Fast payouts
✅ Clean checkout experience
✅ Trusted by serious businesses

A core part of our entrepreneur payment stack.

Stripe has shut down my account of multiple years after determining that it is “offering unrealistic financial outcomes or quick monetary gains with minimal effort.”

I run digital ads for multiple Fortune 500 clients and this couldn’t be further from true, and honestly not sure how any of my invoices would give this idea to them.

There are plenty of other invoicing services out there, avoid using Stripe.

We are a small business who have used stripe for over 2 years, due to the % taken on the payments and a quicker pay out facility, we have looked to a new supplier.

They are holding over £10k worth of payments and have messaged:

"Hi there, Thank you for getting in touch. I understand that you're concerned about the pay out status of your account. Let me look into this matter for you. To give you a bit of context, Stripe is required by law to complete what's called a KYC (Know Your Customer) survey for every business that signs up with us, regardless of how many transactions they've processed. This involves completing in-depth reviews of every single business, including what they're selling, how they intend to sell it, their own description of their products and services, their website, and myriad other details and bits of minutiae. We use all of this information to determine how risky a business is. We also have strict policies that dictate the exact level of risk for future disputes we're allowed to support. Our users are important and the absolute backbone of Stripe, and we want to do all we can to help those businesses flourish, but have found that in certain business models, we are still unable to take on that additional risk. We have a responsibility to maintain our policies. After conducting a further review of your account, we've confirmed that your business presents a higher level of risk than we can currently support, so we won't be able to accept payments for Sheridanskips.co.uk moving forward.
As with the funds, we have upheld the decision to hold 100% of your account balance and future transactions in reserve for 90 days. This was held to ensure that there are funds available to cover any disputes or unforeseen refunds to your account. The remaining funds will be paid out to your bank account at the end of this period, which is on Sep 14, 2025. Furthermore, we have to close your Stripe account last June 29, 2025.
I'm afraid we can't offer much in the way of specifics regarding our review process for the sake of security, but please rest assured that we did a thorough review of your business and tried our hardest to continue working with you.

How do we have a higher level of risk? We have 4 disputed transactions out of 3192 transactions totalling £852. Our full time turnover has been in excess off £710k Less than 0.1% of our transactions have caused an issue

Hi there, Thanks for writing back. Getting additional insights into your account and business is deeply appreciated. I understand that you wanted to know how your account is at a high level of risk and how to proceed. Allow me to share an update. Upon reviewing your account, we're unable to reveal the exact reasons as to why your account presents a high risk, for security reasons, but we do thorough reviews of every account before coming to this difficult decision. Our policies dictate that we can only support businesses that present a very low risk for disputes and fraud, and we have no leeway here on this decision.

It's always frustrating for us to have to turn away users, which is why we try to offer time for every business we cannot work with to transition to a new payments processor. We hope you're able to find a processor that will better suit you and your business.

We're sorry that we won't be able to work together, but wish you all the best in your future endeavours. If you have any other questions, please let us know. Best regards, Adam"

Witholding £10k for a small business has had a huge impact and without and substance.

Generally a well-thought-through product with surprisingly good support for their scale.
Certain products are starting to become complexified by many different versions/variants that behave in different ways, but Im sure they'll clean that up eventually.
Always pushing the envelope, e.g. with their upcoming merchant of record product.

We are BAYIGRAM DIGITAL LTD, the company behind seogram.shop. Our business has always operated transparently with zero fraud, no disputes, and no customer complaints. Yet Stripe suddenly and without valid explanation disabled our ability to accept payments — a decision that directly impacts our customers and their ability to place orders.

We are not concerned about held funds. Stripe can hold our balance for as long as they want. What matters to us is that our customers are now unable to complete purchases, which hurts our business continuity and customer satisfaction.

We’ve reached out multiple times to clarify the situation, but have received only generic, automated replies with no explanation or resolution. This kind of treatment is highly unprofessional and shows a lack of accountability.

We are asking for Stripe to simply reinstate our ability to accept payments. That’s all. We’re not chasing refunds — we’re demanding fair treatment and the right to continue serving our customers without interruption.

I ran a legitimate digital education service. No chargebacks, no disputes, no shady activity. Out of nowhere, Stripe shut down my account and refused to release my earnings. Their response? “High risk.” That’s it.
No details. No transparency. Just radio silence and frozen money. If you’re a small business, look elsewhere. Stripe does not protect you — they bury you.

Stripe suddenly closed my account on April 27, 2025, after I processed legitimate payments for digital products. I submitted full documentation proving that all customers received their orders, and that I have no disputes or complaints on file.

They refused to release my funds (over $700) and also refused to refund my customers, leaving everyone blocked. All clients are ready to repay through another method, but Stripe won’t release the money to either side.

I have submitted formal complaints to both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Better Business Bureau due to their unethical handling of this situation.

Avoid Stripe if you are a small business or digital product seller. They can shut you down without warning and keep your money.

Our case number is #22556175. As a marketplace based in Germany, we were assured by Stripe that they would address a critical issue: the ban on top-ups for marketplace accounts in the EU. This feature is essential for us to be able to send funds to our sellers when necessary.

Top-up functionality is a basic feature available with any digital wallet, yet Stripe refuses to provide it to EU Connect customers. We have been waiting since February for a promised solution, only to be told today that our marketplace is too small for Stripe to prioritize and enable this functionality for us.

To be honest, I’m deeply frustrated. At this point, switching away from Stripe is not an easy process—but had I known the type of customer support we would receive, I would never have chosen Stripe in the first place.

Our team now plans to report this case to the relevant authorities, as we consider this a clear case of discrimination based on company size and country of operation. Good luck doing business in the EU, Stripe.

After 2 years with multiple successful reviews of the account that found no issues, suddenly they say I'm violating terms for selling branded products without a licensing agreement.

My ONLY product is software that I wrote myself and therefore requires no permission for me to sell. Make it make sense.

Impossible to get a human to answer me. I just keep getting what I assume are AI responses that ignore every question I ask.

This is a terrible way to treat your customers.

We want to share a serious warning for small businesses considering Stripe for payment processing in Canada.

Our account was suddenly flagged as "high risk" and we were given just 24 hours to submit verification documents. We immediately provided everything requested – bank statements, supplier invoices, inventory photos, and even detailed customer order information. Despite our prompt and thorough response, Stripe responded within minutes stating that we were considered high risk. This decision appears to have been made by an automated system, with no real explanation or transparency.

To make matters worse, Stripe is now withholding our funds and even initiating refunds for valid, fulfilled customer orders. Our attempts to open support tickets have been futile – they’re instantly closed with no resolution or chance to escalate.

What’s most frustrating is that if Stripe truly viewed our business as high risk, why were we allowed to accept payments in the first place? Now we are left without access to our revenue and without the products we shipped – a devastating blow for any small business.

This has been one of the most unethical and damaging experiences we've faced. If you’re a small business owner, we strongly advise against using Stripe. The risk of having your funds frozen without recourse is simply too high. Please protect your business and explore more transparent, reliable alternatives.

Stripe has blocked my payout without clear reason. My customers received their products and confirmed they don’t want refunds. I’ve contacted support many times and got no useful response. I feel like they’re holding my money unfairly. I just want my payout, not to continue with them. Please resolve this.

After my previous terrible experience with Stripe, where they froze €15,000 on my account for "unauthorized payments" (which were not the case), they’ve now made things even worse. This morning, they refunded a total of €7,000 from one of my two accounts without prior notice or my consent.

Once again, there were no chargebacks, no disputes, and all my customers were delivered their products on time. Despite this, Stripe decided to return the money without consulting me. This is outright fraud and completely unjustified.

We reached out to Stripe multiple times, hoping for clarification, but all we've received are robotic, copy-paste responses that completely ignore the specifics of the issue. There’s no phone support, no real human contact, just a cold and automated system that clearly doesn’t care about small businesses.

This is the second account they’ve affected, and they are showing no signs of improving. Stripe is holding my funds, making unauthorized refunds, and leaving my business in jeopardy. If this situation isn’t resolved immediately, I will be forced to take legal action.

If you value your business and hard-earned money, stay far away from Stripe. They’ll take your money, ignore your concerns, and leave you with nothing but frustration.

Stripe are an awful, unethical organisation that have unfair business practices. They initially shut down my account when I started my new business and literally only had about 5 transactions on my account because of my business being new and me building it up. There was nothing shady or unlawful about my transactions. Just a new business owner trying to build up a new business but they shut my account down anyway for no reason. Fast forward to March 2025 when I started a different business and set up my website through Beacons.ai. Now Beacons.ai partner with Stripe to process payments. Beacons.ai and Stan.Store are companies that help people who sell online via social media to create a website in order to sell digital products. So why then when I raise a complaint to get my old account reinstated do you tell me that you don't support my business type when 1. You partner with Beacons.ai, the same company that I built my website through knowing full well that Beacons.ai allows people to sell digital products yet somehow you don't support my business type when I'm selling digital products 2. There are plenty of people within the digital marketing industry that are selling the exact same products that im selling, on Beacons.ai and Stan.Store but you can't support my business type. Stripe are just a Sham of a company, they discriminate between people and don't treat everyone fairly. I believe this to be racial. The reviews really go to show how poor their service is and how badly they treat sole traders that are working hard to build a business. Online businesses around the world are moving away from Stripe because of the way you treat people. A disgraceful, unethical, nasty company.

I filled out their account opening form and answered all the questions they asked there.

A day later D**e** got in touch saying:

"Hi there, Thanks for reaching out! I’m here to help with your request. To assist you better, could you share more details about your query? So I can assist you accordingly. I look forward to hearing from you."

I answered:

"That's exactly the purpose of the sales call."

To which he responded:

"Hi there,
Thank you circling back.
Could you please confirm you are trying to set-up a call from our sales team? Are you trying to explore more products of Stripe or need any information to create a new account with Stripe?
Please clarify the above-mentioned things, so I can assist you accordingly.
I will be looking forward to your response."

I then told him he was wasting my time to which he sent a dull stock answer:

"Hi there, We're sorry for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. However, the information which I have asked for in my previous email is required in order to connect you with the sales team, so they can contact you with accurate information.

I know this may not be the outcome that you are looking for and we hope you can understand us regarding the process and that we have some limitations and control. I sincerely hope that I've been informative about this matter, and I wish that you've felt my good intention to assist you with this concern.

I'll be very attentive to your reply. Any doubts or additional questions, please don't hesitate to get back to me. Remember I'm always an email away from you."

What an utter waste of time - and this is from their account-opening department!

And what's even worse is that having approved a STRIPE account for a different business I own and having accepted payments for that business, their algorythm now says that my business is no longer acceptable to them and they're closing my account.

I signed up for fungies.io to sell digital downloads. I was not able to fix the product page in my store. I tried to contact their support which basically doesn't exist. I tried to close my account. I could not find a way to delete my account anywhere on the website or within my account. I was deceived into connecting my store to a stripe account which I didn't want to use in order to sell digital downloads. Since I coudn't cancel my fungies store account, I went to Stripe to cancel with them to get my payment info and identification off their website. I was able to get a hold of customer support on their chat feature. I asked them to delete my account and info. Stripe's customer service said because it was an "express" account connected to fungies.io, I couldn't delete it without going through fungies.io. These two companies are complete scam artists. Stripe insisted I give a photo of my full driver's license ID -both front and back to verify that it was me. Even after doing that, they still wouldn't delete my account. I had to get the Attorney General in my state involved and cancel my credit card through my bank. I, now, have to report them for identity theft, report to all three credit bureaus, local law enforcement, the FTC and the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles to flag my driver's license if they don't delete my info within 24 hours. I sent both companies a formal email to delete my information. Do not get near this company.

My experience with Stripe has been frustrating beyond belief. I had no problems at first, until they randomly insisted I verify my identity. Their technology utterly failed. It couldn't view my passport or my drivers licence or my photograph. Everything I sent was deemed unreadable. It took two months of going in circles before I was able to connect with a human being. She was polite and empathetic but totally ineffectual. She didn't have a single helpful suggestion. I remained unable to authenticate my identity and have therefore gone elsewhere to continue with online sales of my products. I would expect more technological savvy from a tech giant like Stripe.

I am extremely dissatisfied with Stripe, as they have blocked my account, and I am now expected to wait 120 days for them to potentially release the funds. This situation is causing my business to come to a halt, leading to a loss of trust from my customers and severe delays in delivering products that have already been ordered. My monthly revenue is 50K, and right now, everything is frozen with no clear communication from their side, except for the 120-day waiting period.

I’m struggling to find a way to explain this to my clients, and I am very disappointed in the lack of support or urgency from Stripe. Based on this experience, I would not recommend their service, especially for businesses handling large transactions online. The inability to rely on them has a significant impact on both customer trust and business operations.