Verify Your
Business in Stripe.
Stripe holds your payouts until this is done. It takes about ten minutes, it is free, and it never has to be done again.
You do this yourself. We never see any of it.
This process asks for your Social Security number, your date of birth, your home address and your bank account. You enter all of it directly into your own Stripe account, and none of it comes to us.
Do not email it to us. Do not send it in a message. Do not read it out on a call. If anyone in this industry, us included, asks you to hand over an SSN or bank details so they can “handle it for you”, that is the moment to stop.
What we can help with is everything around it: the website requirements, the policy pages, and working out why a review came back. Screenshots with the sensitive parts covered are all we ever need.
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Why Stripe asks
Payment processors are legally required to know who they are moving money for, the same rules banks operate under. It is not Stripe being difficult and it is not optional.
- Payouts held
- Transaction limits applied
- Account restrictions
- Disputes may not be defensible
- Normal payout schedule
- Full processing volume
- Account in good standing
- Disputes handled normally
You can usually take payments before verifying, the money just sits in Stripe rather than reaching your bank. People discover this when they go looking for their first payout, which is a bad week to discover it.
What to have in front of you
Gather these first and the whole thing is one sitting.
Your business
- Legal business nameExactly as on your EIN letter, the CP-575. Not your trading name, not what is on your sign. “LLC” versus “L.L.C.” is enough to trigger a flag.
- Business structureLLC, sole proprietor, corporation, partnership.
- EINOr your SSN if you are a sole proprietor without one.
- What you sellA plain description. “Residential roof repair and replacement” beats “home services.”
- Registered addressStreet address, no PO boxes. Must match your IRS or state filing.
- Business phone and email
You, personally
- Full legal name, date of birth, home addressAs they appear on your ID.
- Last four of your SSNUsually just four digits. Stripe occasionally asks for more if the automated check does not clear.
- Possibly a photo IDGovernment issued. Normal, not a red flag, see the tips below for getting it accepted first time.
Online and banking
- Live website URLA reviewer will open it. See the checklist below.
- Privacy policy URL
- Refund or cancellation policy URLThe one most service businesses do not have. Covered below.
- Bank accountRouting and account number. A business account, not your personal one, more on why below.
What Stripe will not ask for: your online banking login, a DUNS number, a stock ticker, or your articles of incorporation in most cases. If a screen seems to be asking for a banking password, stop. You are not on Stripe.
The steps
Ten minutes, once, and you enter every field yourself.
- Sign in at dashboard.stripe.comIf verification is outstanding there is usually a banner at the top. Otherwise: Settings, then Business settings, then Business details.
- Enter your business informationLegal name, structure, EIN, registered address, phone, email. Copy the name and EIN straight from your CP-575 rather than typing them.
- Enter your personal detailsName, date of birth, home address, last four of SSN. If your business has other owners at 25% or more, Stripe will ask for them too, have their details ready or you will stall here.
- Add your website and policy URLsAll three have to be live and publicly reachable. A reviewer clicks them.
- Connect your bank accountInstant through a bank login in some cases, or two small test deposits over one to two business days. Both are normal.
- SubmitMost accounts clear within hours to a business day. Some go to manual review, which takes longer and is not a sign anything is wrong.
What a Stripe reviewer looks for on your website
This is where verifications actually stall. A human opens your site and checks a short list. Here it is.
- What you sell, clearly statedSomeone landing cold should understand what they are buying within a few seconds.
- Pricing, or a clear explanation of how pricing worksPublished prices are ideal. “Quoted per job after a site visit” is a perfectly good answer, silence is not.
- A refund or cancellation policy that is findableNot buried. Linked in the footer at minimum.
- Contact informationA real business phone and address on the site, matching what you registered.
- Terms of serviceEspecially if you take deposits, subscriptions or recurring payments.
- The business name matching the registrationIf the site says one thing and Stripe says another, that is a flag.
- A working checkout, if you have oneA reviewer may click through it.
If your site is not live yet
Verify after launch rather than before. A placeholder page, a parked domain or a coming-soon screen sends the account to manual review, and untangling that takes longer than waiting a week.
Tell us and we will sequence it, same as the Twilio registrations. Launch first, then verify.
Your refund policy
The one requirement most service businesses do not have. It does not need to be generous. It needs to exist, be findable, and be honest about how you actually operate.
What it should address
- Whether deposits are refundable, and until when
- What happens if a customer cancels before work starts
- What happens if they cancel partway through
- Whether anything is non-refundable, materials bought, permits pulled, third-party costs
- How long a refund takes to appear once approved
- How someone requests one
A short, plain, accurate page beats a long borrowed one. If your policy is “deposits are non-refundable once materials are ordered,” write that.
A published refund policy is also your best defense in a dispute. Stripe asks for it as evidence, and “the customer agreed to these terms at checkout” is a much stronger position than an argument about what was said on the phone.
Where we stop. We will tell you what Stripe expects a refund policy to cover and we will build the page. The terms themselves describe how your business operates and carry legal weight, so have your attorney look at them.
Use a business bank account
Stripe will accept a personal account for a sole proprietor, and it causes problems later.
| Reason | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Name matching | If the account name does not match the business name on your Stripe account, payouts can be held while it is sorted out, usually at the worst possible moment. |
| Bookkeeping | Mixing business income with personal spending is the thing your accountant will charge you to untangle every April. |
| Liability | If you formed an LLC to separate business and personal, running revenue through a personal account undermines the point of having done it. |
| Disputes | A chargeback pulls funds back. You want that hitting a business balance, not the account your mortgage comes out of. |
If you do not have a business account yet, open one before you verify. Most local banks and credit unions will do it in an afternoon with your EIN letter and your formation documents.
Set your statement descriptor
Five minutes, almost nobody does it, and it directly reduces chargebacks.
The statement descriptor is what appears on your customer’s card statement. By default it is often something unrecognizable, an abbreviation, a legal entity name nobody has heard of, or a string of characters.
Three weeks later they see a charge they do not recognize and call their bank instead of you. That is a chargeback, it costs you the sale plus a fee, and it was entirely avoidable.
| Descriptor | What the customer sees |
|---|---|
| Bad | SP* DPLLC 4829, who? |
| Good | DAVES PLUMBING, oh, right, the water heater |
| Better | DAVES PLUMBING 248-555-0100, and now they call you instead of the bank |
Set it in Settings, then Business settings, then Public details. Use the name your customers actually know you by. If it fits, add your phone number, a customer who can call you is a customer who does not file a dispute.
When you actually get paid
The surprise nobody warns new accounts about.
Your first payout is delayed. New accounts typically wait around a week to two weeks after the first successful charge before money moves. This is standard risk management and it applies to everyone, not to you specifically.
After that, payouts move to a rolling schedule, usually a couple of days behind the transaction, on business days only. You can see and adjust the schedule in your dashboard.
Plan for it
If you are launching a store, taking deposits, or selling tickets to something with a date attached, do not count on that money being in your bank the same week. Businesses have been caught by this on launch weekends.
Verify early, the day the account is created if possible. The clock on your first payout does not start until you are verified.
Disputes and chargebacks
Every business taking cards gets them eventually. Knowing the mechanics in advance is worth more than reacting well.
- The money comes back immediatelyStripe pulls the disputed amount from your balance the moment it is filed, before anything is decided.
- There is a fee, and you pay it either wayTypically around $15. You do not get it back even if you win.
- There is a deadline to respondUsually days, not weeks. Miss it and you lose automatically.
- Evidence wins or loses itThe signed agreement, the invoice, delivery confirmation, message history, your published refund policy, and any record of them accepting terms at checkout.
- Most disputes are confusion, not fraudWhich is exactly why the statement descriptor above matters.
What reduces them
- A recognizable statement descriptor with your phone number
- A findable refund policy the customer accepted
- Answering the phone, most people call the bank because they could not reach you
- A clear receipt sent at the time of payment
- Refunding a genuinely unhappy customer before they escalate. A refund costs you the sale; a chargeback costs you the sale, the fee and your dispute rate.
Straight answers
The questions that come up every time an account goes through verification.
Why does Stripe want my Social Security number?
Federal know-your-customer rules require payment processors to verify the identity of people who own or control a business. It is usually just the last four digits, and it goes to Stripe, not to us, and not to anyone else. We never see it.
Should I send you my SSN or bank details so you can do this?
No. Never send those to us or to anyone else offering to handle it. You enter them yourself, in your own account. If you want help while you do it, we will get on a call and talk you through the screens while you type, without you sharing your screen on the pages containing that data.
I am a sole proprietor with no EIN. Can I verify?
Yes, using your SSN in place of a tax ID. It works. But if you are running a real business, an EIN is free from the IRS, takes about ten minutes online, and makes this and your Twilio registration cleaner. Worth doing.
Stripe wants a photo ID. Is that normal?
Completely normal. It happens when the automated identity check does not clear on its own. Photograph it flat, in good light, with all four corners in frame and every character readable. Blurry corners are the most common reason an upload is rejected and re-requested.
My account got flagged for a name mismatch.
Compare what you entered against your CP-575 character by character. “LLC” versus “L.L.C.”, a comma, an ampersand instead of “and”, or your trading name instead of the registered one. Fix it to match the IRS document exactly and resubmit.
Does verification expire?
No. Once verified, verified. Stripe may ask for updated information if your business details change materially or if volume grows a lot, but you are not re-doing this annually.
My website is not live yet.
Wait. A placeholder or parked domain pushes the account into manual review and that takes longer to unwind than launching first. Tell us and we will sequence verification after launch.
Does it cost anything?
Verification is free. You pay Stripe’s standard processing fees on actual transactions, and those go to Stripe, not through us. We never touch your payment processing.
Can Stripe refuse my business?
Yes. Stripe publishes a list of restricted and prohibited business types and some categories cannot use it at all. If you are in one, tell us early. There are alternative processors and it changes what we build.
Something is stuck and I do not understand the message.
Send us a screenshot with anything sensitive covered up. Same-day answer, seven days a week. We have seen most of these before and it is usually a two-minute fix.
Stuck on a screen?
Send a screenshot with the sensitive parts blacked out and we will tell you what it wants. Same day, seven days a week.
Do not send us your SSN, your bank details, or your Stripe password. We will never ask, and neither should anyone else.
Send a Screenshot+1-248-205-6977
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