Advice needed on what are my options?

I'm absolutely panicking right now. Woke up to an email from Stripe saying my account has been frozen due to "elevated risk." They're holding $38,247 and saying they'll review in 90 days.

I run a small online course business. Been with Stripe for 2 years. My chargeback rate is 0.2%. I have no idea what triggered this. Their support just keeps sending canned responses about "completing their review."

Has anyone successfully gotten their funds released early? What actually works here? I have payroll in 2 weeks and this money was supposed to cover it.

@too_tired_for_this_12 Common triggers I've seen:

• Sudden volume increase (even if it's legitimate growth)
• Higher than usual average transaction size
• Selling to international customers
• Any chargebacks at all (even one can flag you)
• Selling in "gray area" categories (info products, coaching, supplements)
• Your business description not matching what you actually sell

Their risk algorithm is a black box. Perfect merchants get hit, sketchy ones sail through. Makes no sense.

Update: Sent the demand letter on Tuesday using the template from this site. Sent it certified mail AND emailed to complaints@stripe.com.

Got a call yesterday from someone at Stripe who wasn't reading from a script for once. They said they're "escalating to their specialist team" and asked for some additional documentation about my business. Sent over incorporation docs, bank statements, and screenshots of my course platform.

Still waiting but this is more progress in 3 days than I made in 2 weeks of support tickets.

FINAL UPDATE: Got my money back. $38,247 deposited yesterday - about 2.5 weeks after sending the demand letter.

No explanation, no apology, just a generic email about "completing our review." At least it's over.

Already switched to Helcim as primary. Keeping Stripe as a backup only with daily payouts enabled. Never again.

Thanks everyone for the advice. The demand letter template absolutely made the difference.

Just found this thread and I'm in the exact same situation. Stripe froze my account on December 26th with $41K held - right after my biggest sales week ever (holiday rush for my handmade jewelry business).

They're citing "elevated risk" but I've been with them for 3 years with a 0.1% chargeback rate. My volume went up 4x in December compared to my usual months, which I'm guessing triggered their algorithm.

Does the demand letter approach still work currently? I see Amy's situation was resolved over a year ago and I'm wondering if Stripe has changed their process at all. Really hoping I don't have to go the full arbitration route.

Popping back in since this thread is still active. Quick update on life after Stripe:

I've been on Helcim for 2 months now and it's been completely smooth. Zero issues, zero surprise holds, zero "elevated risk" nonsense. Their rates are actually slightly better than what I was paying Stripe, and their support actually responds with real answers.

@vanessa_k_9 Definitely send that demand letter. The approach still works - Stripe's legal team doesn't want to deal with arbitration filings over legitimate businesses. Just make sure you document everything about your holiday sales spike so they can see it's normal seasonal volume, not fraud.

Good luck and keep us posted.