Square is holding your deposits or closed your account. Waiting it out is the expensive part.
When Square closes an account it can hold the balance to cover refunds and disputes that arrive later, and merchants in Square's own community report waits of 90 days or more. Here's how to keep selling while you wait.
What is happening to your deposits
Square's risk team can place a deposit hold, set a reserve, or deactivate the account outright, and the notice rarely says which number triggered it. A deactivation usually comes with a hold on your remaining balance. The decision comes from the same kind of automated review Stripe and Shopify run, looking at dispute ratio, refund ratio, a change in volume or products, or a category Square doesn't support.
What to do this week
- Export your transaction, refund and dispute history from the Square dashboard today.
- Reply to the notice with fulfillment and refund evidence. Evidence is more likely to shorten a hold than to reverse a deactivation, so send it early.
- Don't create a new Square account or run sales through someone else's. It can turn a hold into a closure that gets reported to the card brands.
- Apply for a merchant account with a bank that underwrites your category, with a complete package. The initial review takes about a day, submission one to three days, and approval typically two to seven days depending on the bank.
- If Square was your only processor, make the new setup two accounts, not one.
What we do. A 15 minute risk read: what most likely triggered the hold, how your history reads to a new underwriter, and which banks will take your business as it is. Free, no pitch, and if the right answer is to wait it out, we'll tell you that.
Source for the merchant reports: Square Community: account deactivated, funds not released.
If one of these is you
Book a 15 minute risk read
Tell us where you process and what you sell, then pick a time on Eli's calendar. You get the written summary whether or not you work with us.
- No pricing or quotes on the call
- We won't contact your customers or your current processor
- If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you who is