The notification says your business does not meet the terms of service. It does not say which part. That vagueness is intentional — a precise reason is a roadmap for anyone trying to game the review.
In practice the decline is almost always one of six things.
1. The website was not finished
The single most common cause. A reviewer opens your domain and finds placeholder text, no pricing, no contact route, or a "coming soon" page.
From their side this is unassessable: they cannot underwrite a business whose product they cannot see. Fix: finish the site before you apply, including terms, privacy and refund pages.
2. The description did not match the site
Your application says "digital marketing agency". Your site sells downloadable templates. Those are different risk profiles, and the mismatch gets the file escalated to a human who now distrusts both statements.
Fix: copy your own site's wording into the application. If you cannot describe the business in one consistent sentence, that is the real problem.
3. The industry is restricted
Some categories are prohibited outright, others need special approval: financial services, gambling, adult content, supplements, pharmaceuticals, most crypto, multi-level marketing, and anything with a high chargeback history.
Fix: there usually is not one with a mainstream processor. Look at high-risk specialists, or a merchant-of-record platform that takes on the risk itself.
4. Residency in a restricted jurisdiction
Your LLC is American; you are not. Compliance screening looks at the beneficial owner, and residents of sanctioned or high-risk countries are declined regardless of where the company is registered.
Fix: none that is legitimate. Forming the company elsewhere does not change who owns it, and misrepresenting ownership is fraud. This is the one genuinely hard stop.
5. Linked to a previously closed account
Processors link accounts by entity, bank details, device fingerprint and email. A previous account closed for disputes or policy breach follows you to the new application.
Fix: resolve the original closure. Opening a second account to route around the first typically ends with both closed.
6. The company is too new to assess
A certificate dated last week, an EIN from last month, no trading history and no online footprint reads as thin — not fraudulent, just unassessable.
Fix: build a little substance first. A finished site, a few invoices, some months of activity through another account. Apply from a position of having something to show.
Diagnosing your own case
- Open your website in a private window. Would a stranger know what you sell and what it costs in ten seconds?
- Read your application description beside your homepage. Same business?
- Check your category against the processor's prohibited list.
- Consider whether your residency is the constraint.
- Recall any previous account with the same processor.
Reasons one, two and six account for most declines and are all fixable in days.
Reapplying
Change something real first. Reapplying the next day with the same file produces the same answer and adds a rejection to your record.
When you do reapply, be concrete: what you sell, who buys it, how it is delivered, links to the pages you have added since. A specific reply is read differently from a request to reconsider.
Stripe's review specifically is covered in getting approved by Stripe from abroad, and the banking equivalent in opening a US business bank account.