Reserve or freeze? Find out which one you have
A reserve is part of your agreement. It has a schedule: how much is held, for how long, and when each part is released. It is annoying, but you can plan around it, because you know the dates.
A freeze is a hold with no schedule you were given. It usually follows a review, a closure notice or a run of disputes. You know money is held, but not when it comes back.
Mainstream processors use reserves too. Shopify’s own payments terms describe one:
“We, in our discretion, will set the terms of any Reserve Account and notify you of such terms, which may require that a certain amount (including the full amount) of the funds received for a Transaction are held for a period of time, or that additional amounts are held in the Reserve Account.”
Source: Shopify Payments Terms of Service, checked 8 October 2026.
That is a disclosed reserve: the terms are set and you are told them. If you have a notice like that, your job is to read the schedule and plan your cash around it. If you have nothing but a balance you cannot move, assume it is a freeze and ask for the terms. Our rolling reserve guide explains how a reserve schedule works.
What the terms let each processor hold
PayPal
PayPal’s User Agreement, last updated 14 September 2026, lists holding the balance in your account among the actions it may take. It says it can do this:
“for up to 180 days if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability or if you have violated our Acceptable Use Policy.”
Source: PayPal User Agreement, checked 8 October 2026.
That clause is where the “180 days” figure that you see on broker sites comes from. It is the outer limit in PayPal’s own terms, not a promise that every hold lasts that long. Our PayPal and peptides page covers what PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy says.
Shopify Payments
The reserve clause quoted above is the one that applies. Shopify sets the terms, notifies you, and can hold up to the full amount of a transaction for a period of time. Ask for the notice if you did not get one, and keep it with your records.
Stripe
We do not give a day count for Stripe. The Stripe pages we read for this guide, its restricted businesses list and its list FAQ, do not give one. Your closure notice and your Stripe dashboard set the dates, so ask Stripe to confirm them in writing. Worth knowing: Stripe’s FAQ says “Yes, Stripe supports the sale of many different peptides, with some limitations.” A closure usually means its review decided those limits were not met. Our Stripe closed my peptide store page covers that case.
The written request to send
Ask for the facts in writing, through the processor’s own support channel or the address on your notice, so there is a record. Keep it short and polite. You are asking for facts, not starting an argument. Copy this and fill in the brackets:
A few habits make the reply faster and more useful:
- Save a copy of every message and every notice, with dates.
- Answer each document request quickly and completely. A partial answer usually restarts the wait.
- Write down the amount held and the dates they give you, and check them against your payout reports.
- If they name a policy section, read it yourself. It tells you what the processor thinks the issue is.
Keep the store selling while you wait
A hold on old sales does not have to stop new ones. What helps:
- Keep cash for refunds. Refund customers who ask, quickly. A refund does not count as a dispute, and every dispute adds to what a processor wants to cover.
- Do not open a new account on the same processor. It does not release the first hold, and it can put the new account under the same review.
- Move new sales to a processor that accepts the category. Amino Engine is the merchant processor for peptide brands. Stores that were shut down, frozen or declined elsewhere are welcome to apply, and no processing history is required. Cards run on your own WooCommerce or Shopify store: Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Amex.
- Tell your buyers. If checkout is down for a few days, a short note on the site and in your order emails saves a lot of confused messages.
You can apply for Amino Engine payments while your old funds are still held. The two are separate.
What Amino Engine puts in writing first
A frozen balance is hard partly because the terms were never clear. We do it the other way round. Before your first payment you get, in writing: your rate, any setup fee, payout timing, whether any reserve is held and for how long, and what a dispute costs. Your rate is quoted with your approval.
We review your store and documents once, before the first payment. If something needs fixing, we say exactly what. What blocks an approval is missing documents, or a store that will not meet our site rules: research-use-only notices and clear shipping and refund policies. Never your history.
When to talk to a lawyer
If the amount held is large, or the processor will not give you a release date in writing, a lawyer who works on payment agreements can read your contract with you.
Policy quotes checked on the processors’ own pages on 8 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.