The Truth About the MATCH List — How to Recover After Your Merchant Account Gets Terminated In 2025

In this episode of The Payments Guy, Frank breaks down one of the most intimidating challenges merchants face: being placed on the MATCH list. You might be wondering: is this a business death sentence? If you’ve ever had your merchant account shut down or been told you’re “high-risk,” this conversation is essential. 

In this episode, these questions and topics will be covered:

• 01:30 - What MATCH stands for and who controls it
• 02:53 - The most common triggers that lead to MATCH list placement
• 08:23 - What it means to be on the MATCH list and the recovery steps to take immediately
• 10:43 - Why the right documentation can dismantle assumptions of fraud, rebuild credibility, and get your ability to process payments back online
• 12:31 - Why being on the list isn’t the end of the world

With the right strategy, many merchants can rebuild processing stability and secure future payment approvals. Visit paydiverse.com or reach out directly at support@paydiverse.com for guidance on protecting and restoring your ability to process payments.

Have a question about something in the episode? Send your questions to Info@PayDiverse.com and check out our FAQ page https://paydiverse.com/faq

Connect with PayDiverse:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paydiverse
Website: http://www.paydiverse.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franksena

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Hey, welcome to the Payments Guide, your ultimate guide on payments to find the confusing world of merchant payments. Now I'm Frank Sena, your host, a merchant payment specialist with nearly a decade of experience. And each episode we'll break down the toughest challenges in the payment space while so you can be better informed when navigating payments for your own business, from minimizing the impact of chargebacks, avoiding funding issues, and ensuring you're never stuck without the ability to process payments will help you make smarter decisions and grow your business. Let's get started. Match is not the end of your business. It's a warning sign that you can recover from if you understand what's happening. Let's break down what match really is, why merchants end up there, and what you can do in the next few days to start fixing it if you're on the match list. I'm Frank Senna, the co-founder of PayDiverse, and I help merchants in high-risk industries like supplements, coaching, e-commerce, anything considered high risk recover from account shutdowns, navigate the underwriting process, and rebuild their businesses with stable processing framework. We know what it gets merchants placed on the match list, and more importantly, we know how to get them processing again. So tune into this episode and we're going to review everything you need to know about the match list. In this episode, we're going to talk about what the match list actually is, how it's going to impact your business being on the match list, common reasons why merchants will end up on the match list, and what to do to get you off the match list, and realistic paths to getting processing payments again quickly. This is really important because many merchants waste months applying blindly to different solutions but not realizing why they're not getting approved or not understanding why they were placed on the match list in the first place. Let's dig into it. Match is actually an acronym. It stands for Member Alert to Control High Risk Merchants. It's basically a database compiled by MasterCard that only acquiring banks have access to, and it's used to flag merchants who are terminated for some sort of like extreme reason. Think of it as a list of merchants who are not allowed to get a merchant account, or you know, for some reason they did something so wrong that they're saying, hey, watch out for this merchant. You shouldn't board them. It's not a public list, it's only available to acquiring banks. And being on the match doesn't mean you've done something criminal or even that you've committed fraud, even though the match list reason might be fraud related. It just means that your last processor closed your account for some reason that was fraud related and they filed the termination with MasterCard. Unfortunately, you can't look up, and I can't look up why a merchant is on the match list. It has to come from the processor or from this database. And some of my underwriting partners have access to the database, but they're not always forthcoming with why a merchant might be on the match list. Visa also has a similar list, so you can get blacklisted with both of them through Visa's risk monitoring programs. Some common reasons why merchants get put on the match list. The most common has to do with chargeback spikes or excessive chargebacks. A chargeback is when a card holder calls up their credit card company and says, Hey, I don't think I should have to pay for this thing that I purchased for whatever reason that they give. Sometimes it can be what we call friendly fraud, which is when a merchant says they didn't receive a product or service that they paid for when they actually did receive it. A lot of consumers know that their credit card company is gonna have their back. So if they call their credit card bank and file a charge back, chances are good that that cardholder is gonna win the dispute. And getting excessive disputes or a spike in disputes can indicate that there's something wrong with how the merchant is running their business and can result in the merchant getting put on the match list. Um, merchants are uh merchant banks are held to high standards by the card brands like Visa and MasterCard. So if one of the merchants in an acquiring bank's portfolio is getting a ton of chargebacks, that's a problem. And the uh acquiring bank may decide to just cut ties with that merchant. Um, another reason why merchants could get matched is because they're not handling sensitive customer data in a responsible or compliant way. Um, that's where PCI compliance comes in. It's basically a security standard for managing cardholder data or sensitive data about your customers. If you get caught being irresponsible with your customers' credit card number or payment data, you could get put on the match list. Um, sometimes there's a risk due to fraud or money laundering concerns. It doesn't mean that that's what you're actually doing, but the bank might find something fishy and they might assume that that's what's going on and they just pull the plug and turn out the lights on you. Um it could be selling products that you didn't disclose when you opened up your account, um, or it could be using one merchant account to process transactions for like several businesses. That's a no-no. When you get approved for a merchant account, you're getting approved for one business to process uh pre-approved products that the bank has already reviewed. So anytime you add new products to your site or to your business, you always need to get approval from your merchant bank, or else they have the right to not only shut you down, they can accuse you of transaction laundering and put you on the match list. Uh excessive chargebacks or excessive refunds. These are signs that you're not doing something right as the merchant. If you're getting a lot of customers calling in and complaining and requesting a refund or disputing the charge, it's a red flag. Something weird's going on. And these banks, they are banks. They've got millions and millions of dollars, they've got hundreds of thousands of merchants that they work with. It's no skin off their back to just turn off a merchant's account and exit the relationship with the merchant. So you need to understand from a merchant's uh from a merchant bank's perspective, they have a low tolerance for BS. Um, if you're selling prohibited products or you're having deceptive marketing practices, even if it's coming from an affiliate who's sending sales to your site, this can be caused for being put on the match list. I once had a merchant that was using an affiliate marketing network to send clients to the merchant's website to buy stuff. And one of these affiliates was promising customers if you buy this product, I'm going to mail you an iPad for free. So three months after the transactions happened, all these chargebacks started coming in, and people were saying, I never received my iPad. This merchant was selling like a nutritional supplement online, has nothing to do with iPads. The bank freaked out, put them on the match list, and closed their account. So these are all reasons why you could be put on there. And from the bank's perspective, I'm hoping that you're understanding why they might put a merchant on the match list and how this could impact the merchant bank. What happens once you're on the match list? The biggest implication for a merchant who's on the match list is their merchant account gets terminated and they're unable or blocked from getting approved for another merchant account. This obviously can be devastating for a merchant because if you're unable to collect payments, then you're out of business. So there are some merchant banks out there who are willing to work with merchants who are on the match list, but it really is going to depend on the reason why you were put on the match list. Usually, if it's chargerback related, you're not getting another merchant account with anyone. There are some banks who are willing to work with those merchants who were put on there unfairly or unjustly. But generally speaking, it's really hard to get approved for a merchant account unless you get the acquiring bank that placed your business on the match list in the first place to remove you. Another way that you can get off the match list is after a period of five years, you're automatically removed from that list. If you're on the match list, you're probably gonna not get your funds. Um, if you do get a new merchant account, it's gonna be really thorough, brutal underwriting with a very thorough explanation of why you are on the match list. You're gonna have to show lots of documentation. You're probably gonna get charged higher fees, there'll probably be a reserve on your account, and they're gonna be monitoring and scrutinizing your account regularly. So, moral of the story is it is possible to get approved for another merchant account if you're on the match list, but the best course of action is gonna be getting yourself removed from the match list or preventing yourself from getting on there in the first place. Once you're put on the match list, you should get a copy of your termination letter and uh the reason for why you were put on the match list. And you can reach out to your old processor to get this information. Make sure you download any merchant statements that you have access to because you will likely lose access to that reporting, and that will be helpful in fighting the match status and also for applying for new accounts. Um it's good to build what we call an evidence pack when you've been put on the match list. It's basically having um proof of um the reasons why you might have been put on the match list, like it's it's proof against why you were put on that. So, for example, maybe keeping copies of like your shipping and delivery proof showing that your customers did actually receive products that they purchased. Um, it could be customer service logs, it could be in the form of emails or phone call uh transcriptions, um, and copies of your um terms and conditions showing your refund policy and things like that. Um this is going to help you to justify why you were put on the match list to another bank and help you get off the match list with the bank that puts you on there. Uh, another thing that you should address is if you changed your billing model while you were using a merchant account. Sometimes a merchant will get approved to process what we call straight sale or single transactions, um, but then they switched to adding a subscription without telling their merchant bank. That can get you in trouble. So make sure that you document what happened with regards to your billing model and update your website terms to match what they're actually selling on your website. Processors don't like surprises. So, this is a way once you have a merchant account, you want to make sure that you are being transparent with your new provider and you are not uh going to have any issues because you change your billing model. Ask that merchant up front: is it okay if I add a subscription? Do it before you start selling it, not after. So, how do you get off the match list once you're put on there by a bank? The good news is every merchant is automatically removed from this black list after five years have passed. Obviously, that's a really long time. Your business can't wait five years to start collecting payments, but just know that every merchant, regardless of what happened, is going to get removed from that list after a period of five years. To get removed after you've been placed on the match list, only the bank that put you on the match list is able to take you off. So you need to identify who that bank was and you need to contact them directly to get it off. You can usually call a merchant support phone number to speak with someone and you can deal with the risk team. And typically they will provide you with instructions or what exactly what you need to do to get removed from that list. What I have seen a lot of merchants have to resort to is hiring an attorney that specializes in helping merchants who are on the match list to help the merchant get off the match list. This can be expensive. Sometimes it's the only way to get the bank to pay attention to you and to release your funds or to give you clear guidance on what you need to do to get off of that list. So moving forward to avoid this in the future, avoid getting put on the match list. Always be transparent with your merchant bank. Don't try to open up another business and pretend like you're not on the match list. These banks know, they check many different data points, including business phone numbers, personal phone numbers, personal addresses, business addresses, bank account information, EIN information, etc. There's lots of data points that banks use to identify and check every merchant who applies for a merchant account. Don't try to be shady, it's not gonna work. And it could also trigger merchant laundering flags, which you don't want to deal with that. That's a whole nother level of legal nightmare. So be transparent with your new providers. Use that evidence pack if you are on the match list to try to convince your new provider why you're on the match list and why you don't deserve to be there. Make sure you're using third-party chargeback alert tools. That's going to help minimize the chances that you're getting chargebacks or that you run into chargeback issues. And if you do run into chargeback issues, this third-party vendor can help you to remediate the chargeback issues and show the bank: hey, we have a plan, we know why these chargebacks are coming in, and we know how to stop them moving forward. You have to rebuild your credibility step by step. Some key takeaways from today's episode is that the match list is terrible. You don't want to be on it, but if you are on it, we can help you figure out a strategy for getting off of it. Always get your termination reason in writing. Focus on documentation and transparency to help get yourself off of the match list and help get yourself a new merchant account. And only the acquirer that put you on the match list is the one that can take you off. So you have to work with them. And if you don't get anywhere with them, you need to hire an attorney. And we would be happy to help recommend some attorneys that our clients have worked with in the past to help you get off the match list quickly. If you need help finding a reliable high-risk payment processor or protecting your merchant account, please visit paydiverse.com or email us at support at paydiverse.com. We can help you keep your ability to process payments going strong.