By registering for Payments AI, you agree not to use the Service to accept payments in connection with any of the prohibited businesses, business activities, or business practices listed below. You also may not sell or promote any item or service that is prohibited by law in the jurisdiction of the transaction.
Additional restrictions or prohibitions may apply, including because of the legality of certain products in certain jurisdictions, the payment methods used, or card-scheme rules. Approval for a broad category does not imply approval of prohibited or restricted subcategories within it.
Prohibited Products, Services, and Business Activities
Adult — Adult goods and products.
Fetish products.
Content — books, magazines, audio, video, websites, streaming, or other formats — that is offensive or sexual in nature.
Adult entertainment and services, including gentlemen's clubs, topless bars, strip clubs, sexually oriented massage parlors, saunas, escort agencies, and any sexually related services.
Pornography or sexual content featuring individuals under 18, or featuring rape, violence, or bestiality, and all other illegal sexual content.
Casual dating and adult dating platforms.
Mail-order spouse or international match-making services.
Financial — Bearer-share entities.
Shell banks.
Binary options.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) and installment payment method providers.
Credit repair and credit-protection businesses.
Debt repayment and debt-collection agencies.
E-wallet or e-money that can be monetized, resold, or converted to physical or digital goods and services, or otherwise exit the virtual world.
Financial and money-service businesses, including traveler's checks, money orders, foreign exchange, check cashing, virtual currencies, and cash advances by non-financial institutions.
Money transfer and remittance businesses.
Fines or penalty collections of any kind.
Independent or unlicensed financial advisors, and financial consulting services.
Insurance sales and services (life and non-life).
Payday loans, unsecured loans, and loans originating from non-FDIC-insured institutions.
Payroll, invoice, and business services (collecting funds to disburse to third parties).
Providers or sellers of prepaid access / stored value, virtual credit, and gift-card resale.
Securities and trading — Security brokers and investments of any kind, including the purchase of securities, currencies, derivatives, commodities, shares, options, precious metals, and other financial instruments.
High-risk securities, including contracts for difference (CFDs), financial spread betting, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and forex/cryptocurrency options, trading, and purchases.
Cryptocurrency of any kind, including exchanges — Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, DeFi tokens, and cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
Third-party payment processing — Aggregators, including marketplaces and platforms.
Payment facilitators and other internet payment or member-service providers (IPSP / MSP).
Staged digital wallet operators.
Payment service companies, including peer-to-peer, bill-payment, and commissary-account services.
Intellectual property — Counterfeit products, replicas, knock-offs, or designs that infringe or circumvent intellectual property, and stolen or recalled goods.
Products designed to circumvent copyright protection or facilitate unlicensed use of copyrighted material, including satellite/cable signal decoders.
Essay mills, paper mills, and academic-fraud or contract-cheating services.
Misuse of Payments AI's name, logo, or intellectual property, or use in a way that creates reputational risk.
Marketing practices — Business investment opportunities operating as "get rich quick" schemes.
Pyramid selling, chain letters, Ponzi schemes, and other financial scams.
Business models that use ransom- or extortion-like practices.
Business practices designed to evade chargeback-monitoring programs.
Deceptive marketing tactics, including false or inaccurate claims, before/after claims, misleading endorsements, cancellation or refund avoidance, pre-checked opt-ins, poorly disclosed negative options, "data pass," misappropriation of incentives, disproportionate rebates, and sweepstakes.
Fake references and other products or services that foster deception.
Direct marketing, inbound teleservices, outbound telemarketing, and telemarketing as an agent for a third party.
Inbound telemarketing for postcards or mailings.
Selling social-media activity or engagement (followers, likes, views) and click-farm services.
Products or services that promote hate, violence, discrimination, terrorism, harassment, racism, or religious persecution in any form.
Not-for-profit — Charities and non-profit organizations (NPOs).
Crowdfunding platforms.
Political, social, or religious campaigning or donation collection.
Standalone tipping services or platforms.
Regulated — Alcohol sales (prohibited due to age restrictions).
Tobacco, smoking supplies, e-cigarettes, e-liquids, vaping liquids and accessories, nicotine products, hookah supplies, cigars, and chewing tobacco (domestic and online).
Cannabis, marijuana, and cannabis-derived products.
Drugs, drug paraphernalia, illegal drugs, designer or synthetic drugs, research chemicals, bath salts, substances designed to mimic illegal drugs, and other psychoactive products.
Products, tools, or services intended to create, produce, or grow drugs or drug ingredients.
Highly regulated nutraceutical substances, including CBD, THC, kava kava, kratom, SARMs, and peptides.
Pharmaceuticals, prescription medicine, and prescription/medical devices (including animal pharmaceuticals).
Intravenous (IV) therapy, IV drip bars, vitamin-infusion clinics, and hangover-cure services.
Trade of fireworks, flammable, or radioactive materials.
Trade of weapons, ammunition, military arms, explosives, firearm parts, and related items (knives as weapons, brass knuckles, throwing stars, silencers/suppressors, hazardous materials, and combustibles).
Legal gambling or games of skill where participants receive cash, cash equivalents, or prizes of material value — casinos, poker, bingo, slot machines, betting, lotteries, racing, and fantasy sports — including all US-based gambling services.
Illegal products or services, or any service providing peripheral support of illegal activity, including illegal gambling.
Other products and services — Airlines, cruise lines, travel-related arrangement services, and timeshare / timeshare-maintenance services.
Ticket agencies.
Auction houses, bidding-fee auctions, and penny auctions.
Art dealers and galleries.
Jewelry, watch, precious-stone, precious-metal, and silverware stores.
High-value fashion, shoes, bags, and accessories.
Car and truck rental, sales, importers, and car parts.
Ancestry research.
Governmental services, such as embassies or consulates.
Veterinary practices.
Health practitioners, private medical practices, e-doctors, dental and medical services and facilities, and medical spas.
Medical, dental, ophthalmic, and hospital equipment and supplies.
Medical benefit packages, discount medical cards, medical/therapy and medical-consultation services, and dental plans.
Pawn shops, bail bonds, and bankruptcy lawyers.
Detective agencies and private investigators.
Real estate services.
Live-streaming services (with or without in-app donation functionality).
Key-entry telecom merchants.
Live animals; human body parts, fluids, or remains (excluding hair and teeth); endangered or protected animals; ivory; and products derived from protected species.
Hazardous materials (B2B and B2C), including hydrofluoric acid, cyanide-containing products, prohibited ozone-depleting substances, nitric acid, peptides, research chemicals, and bacterial cultures.
Phone-unlock services and jailbreaking.
High-risk cyber lockers.
Technology — Malicious software, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, dishonest adware, crimeware, unauthorized rootkits, spyware, and ransomware.
Decryption and descrambler products, and devices designed to block, jam, or interfere with cellular or personal communications.
Restricted — Prior Written Approval Required
The following categories are not automatically prohibited, but require prior written approval from Payments AI, along with any additional documentation, conditions, or reserves we specify. Operating in these categories without written approval is prohibited.
R1. Nutraceuticals and supplements (excluding the highly regulated substances in item 53). Approval requires a completed review and a minimum 10% rolling reserve held for 180 days (which may be higher depending on the business model). Approval does not extend to CBD, THC, kratom, SARMs, peptides, weight-loss/fat-burner products, sexual-enhancement products, hormone/testosterone products, IV therapy, or any supplement making medical or drug claims. See the Nutraceuticals & Supplements approval article for full requirements.
R2. Travel agents and tour operators.
R3. Pseudoscience services — including clairvoyance, horoscopes, psychic readings, fortune telling, and tarot readings.
R4. Computer network services — internet product and service providers, cloud storage, VPN, file sharing, and domain hosting. (High-risk cyber lockers remain prohibited under item 81.)
Note on Nutraceuticals: Payments AI has specific approval to process standard nutraceutical and supplement merchants, subject to a mandatory review and approval process. This approval does not extend to CBD, THC, kratom, SARMs, peptides, weight-loss products, sexual enhancement products, IV therapy, or any supplement making medical or drug claims. A minimum 10% rolling reserve for 180 days is required for all approved nutraceutical accounts. See: Approval Restrictions for Nutraceuticals and Supplements
If you are uncertain as to whether your business is a Prohibited Business or have questions about how these requirements apply to you, please reach out to us by clicking the blue support widget in the bottom right-hand corner of this page or email us at [email protected]