Stripe account frozen with $38K inside — 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.

Went through this exact thing 6 months ago with $52K frozen. Let me save you some time on what doesn't work:

• Calling support - they can't do anything
• Emailing support - same canned responses
• CFPB complaint - Stripe responds but nothing changes
• Waiting patiently - 90 days becomes 120 becomes ???

What DOES work: formal demand letter sent to their legal department, followed by actually filing for arbitration. I got my money 11 days after I filed with AAA.

Attorney here - I've handled about 20 of these Stripe disputes. Here's the playbook:

Step 1: Demand Letter

Under Section 13.3 of Stripe's Services Agreement, you must provide 30 days notice before arbitration. Send a formal demand letter to:

• Stripe Legal Dept, 354 Oyster Point Blvd, South San Francisco, CA 94080
• Also email: complaints@stripe.com

Include: account email, amount held, timeline, your chargeback rate, and a deadline to release (14-21 days). State you'll file for arbitration if unresolved.

Step 2: File Arbitration

If no response, file with AAA. Under their terms, Stripe pays fees for claims under $75K. Filing fee is around $200. This gets routed to their legal team who actually have authority to release funds - unlike support.

We have a template at /Demand-Letters/Platforms/ that covers the key points.

Following this thread - they just put me on a 10% rolling reserve out of nowhere. Not frozen but close enough. Said it's for 120 days minimum.

Anyone know what triggers these? I sell digital products, super low risk, almost no refunds ever.

@ReserveScared 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.

Pro tip while you wait: set up a backup processor NOW. I use Helcim as primary and keep a Braintree account ready to go. Never keep more than a few days revenue in any aggregator (Stripe, Square, PayPal).

Enable daily payouts and sweep to your bank account. They can't freeze what they don't have.

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.