Account approval
The account approval process at Upnance has three steps:
- You create a live account and can immediately accept payments on your website/app
- You submit the required information and documents regarding your business
- We review your integration and business case to approve your Upnance account
A regular account approval takes 1-3 business days*. We strongly encourage you to start the with U right away. The below are merely practicalities. 99% of all normal businesses are approved by us.
* Some businesses may only use Upnance upon receiving a pre-approval. See our restricted businesses here.
Individual without a business license
If you are an individual operating your private business legally in your country without a registered business or business license, you can .
We require the following in order to approve your account and start transferring funds:
- Social security number
- Resident and citizen status in one of the following countries listed here
- Photo identification (valid driver’s license, passport or similar)
- Address verification (utility bill, governmental letter or any other proof of name and address issued by a third party within the last three months)
- Your EU bank account IBAN
Personal liability
It is important to take into consideration that you will be personally liable in the case of fraud. We encourage you to become knowledgeable of the risks of accepting credit card payments online.
If you are selling home-made knitted socks, the risk is minimal, but if you are selling goods that can easily be sold on the black market (e.g. Apple computers), the risk is much higher. Reach out to us if in doubt about the risk.
Verification of your business
As part of the account setup, we have to verify your business information and know the owners and management of your business. In case you are running a non-profit or similar organization which has no owners, we need to know who the board members and chairman is.
Every bank and payment institution in Europe must comply with the anti-money laundering regulation which e.g. requires us to identify and verify each business and their activity. This process is often called “KYC” or “Know Your Customer”.
You can submit the information and documentation through the Upnance dashboard by clicking the ⓘ icon on your live account.
Country and incorporation types
We support businesses from all over Europe, see the full country list here. Your business must be fully legal and be legally registered for your activities*.
* In some countries you can run a small business without registration which we do allow.
Required business information
We require the following information about your business:
- Legal name including e.g. your entity type such as “LTD”
- Company registration number
- Address
- IBAN (for settlements)
Required documents
You must include a document which:
- Verifies the business information, e.g. a business registration document stating your legal name, registration number and address
- States the owners and management of the business, e.g. an excerpt from the registry or articles of association**
** If you run a non-profit or similar organization, include a document stating the board members as well as the chairman.
The documents must be in one of the following languages: Danish, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish or Swedish. You are free to have your documents translated by an authorised translator to one of the accepted languages, preferably English.
Required information on the owners and management
We require the below from at least one manager (e.g. a director/CEO for a company or the chairman of a non-profit). If you have multiple people in your management, start by adding the primary or top manager. In case we need information on more from your management team, we will reach out.
If any individual owns or controls 25 % or more of the business (directly or indirectly through e.g. holding companies), you must add each of those individuals.For the individuals above we require the following details:
- Full name
- Home address
- Personal identification number/Social security number
- Photo verification (passport / drivers license / national ID / health insurance card)
- Address verification (drivers license / national ID / health insurance card / utility bill / bank statement)
Verification process and request for more information
The above information and documentation is what we require for every business. In some cases, we may require further documentation or information in which we will reach out on email.
Settlement
When you capture a transaction, the transaction amount deducted our fees are transferred to your account.
For your account you can see two balances (numbers):
- Available
- Total
Available balance
Your available balance is the amount that is due to be settled (transferred) from your Upnance account to your bank account. This amount is your total volume deducted fees and reserve.
Reserve (Total deducted Available)
Your reserve is your total balance deducted your available balance.
Settlement period
We settle (transfer) your funds to you weekly on Wednesdays. Some enterprise merchants (having a sales volume of EUR 50,000 or more per month) are eligible to receive more frequent settlements.
Settlement bank and currency
We can settle your funds to any EU bank. To setup your account for settlements, insert your IBAN on the settings page of your live account.
If your Upnance account currency differs from your bank account currency, your bank will convert the funds to the currency of your bank account.
Example
You have the following standard terms for your Upnance account:
- Reserve: Rolling 5 % for 80 days + 2 days settlement delay
- Pricing: 1.45 % + EUR 0.2 / transaction
Your sales the last 7 days prior to the settlement has been EUR 1,000 / day at 10 transactions per day.
Total volume = 1000 * 7 = EUR 7,000
Fees = 7000 * 1.45 % + 10 * 7 * 0.2 = EUR 115.5
Reserve = 7000 * 5 % + 2 * 1000 = EUR 2350
Available = total volume - fees - reserve = 7000 - 115.5 - 2350 = 4534.5
The settlement will then be EUR 4534.5
Assuming you have no sales the following week, your available balance for next weeks settlement will be:
Reserve = 7000 * 5 % = EUR 350
Available = total volume - reserve - last weeks settlement = 7000 - 350 - 4538 = EUR 2,112Disputes
Learn what a dispute is and how to handle it.
A cardholder can dispute a transaction for up to 14 months after it was through the bank that issued the card (issuing bank). The issuing bank has a formal process where they:
- Ask the cardholder for the reason of the dispute
- Investigate if the cardholder's claim is legitimate.
Since the cardholder is a customer at the issuing bank, the latter tends to give the cardholder the benefit of the doubt to make sure their customer is happy.
If the cardholder is simply in doubt about what the transaction covers the issuing bank will sometimes first file a retrieval request to get documentation (e.g. a receipt) for the transaction. Most often, though, they will initiate a chargeback (refund of the transaction) right away.
When you receive a dispute, the transaction amount will be added to your account reserve. You can then:
- Respond to the dispute and prove that the transaction was valid and that the cardholder is not eligible for a refund.
- Accept the dispute and agree to the cardholder's claim.
No matter what type of dispute you receive you should always contact your customer to understand the situation and try to resolve it. You can even ask the customer to tell the bank to cancel the dispute in the case of a misunderstanding. If they do so, you still have to respond formally to the dispute as described below (if you do not respond, you will lose the dispute).
In the case you win the dispute, the transaction amount will be released from your account reserve to your available balance.
Chargebacks
A chargeback reverses a transaction and refunds the transaction to the cardholder. There are many chargeback reasons. The most common ones are:
- Fraud
- The cardholder claims not to recognise the transaction
- The card used was lost or stolen
- Product or service problem.The cardholder claims:
- The service or goods has not been delivered
- To have asked for a refund, but did not receive one
- The good or service was not as described (e.g. broken)
- The wrong amount was charged
- The subscription was cancelled
- The amount was charged twice
Challenging a chargeback
In most cases, you can challenge a chargeback by submitting proof that the cardholder is, in fact, your customer and that you have delivered the goods or services in the quality and delivery time that was agreed.
Sometimes the case is clear, and you can see that the transaction was fraudulent. In this case, there is nothing to do but to accept the chargeback.
When challenging a chargeback, the response must include:
- Your argumentation for why the chargeback is illegitimate
- Proof (compelling evidence) that you have delivered the goods or services.
When you receive your first chargeback, the Upnance team will reach out to you and help you create the response to challenge the chargeback (representment). Depending on the chargeback reason code, different types of proof are considered compelling evidence.
Once you have submitted your representment, the issuing bank has 50 days to either accept or decline your representment.
Winning a chargeback
You win the chargeback if the issuing bank does not decline your representment within the 50 day period. When winning the chargeback, the transaction amount is released from your account reserve.
Losing a chargeback
In the case that the issuing bank does not accept your proof, the chargeback is lost, and the transaction amount will be returned to the cardholder and deducted from your account.If you are absolutely certain that the cardholder is your customer and that you have delivered the goods or services as agreed, you have the option to challenge the chargeback a second time in Visa and Mastercard's Arbitration. Contact us if that is the case.
Retrieval requests
An issuing bank can make a retrieval request to get documentation (compelling evidence) for a transaction. Most often an issuing bank will make a retrieval request when a cardholder can not recognise a transaction.If you do not respond to a retrieval request, the issuing bank will in most cases initiate a chargeback (refund of the transaction).
Responding to a retrieval request
The response to a retrieval request is the same as when you respond to a chargeback. You must prove to the issuing bank that you have delivered the goods or services in the quality and delivery time that was agreed.
We always recommend that you respond to retrieval requests to stay compliant with the Visa and Mastercard rules and avoid chargebacks.
The transaction you received a retrieval request for has a high risk of turning into a chargeback. Therefore the transaction amount is added to your reserve to cover a potential chargeback.
If the issuing bank does not initiate a chargeback within 50 days of your reply to the retrieval request, the transaction amount is released from your reserve.
Further reading
Chargebacks and retrieval requests can be a complex area, but luckily most ordinary merchants will never receive one. You are always welcome to contact us for more information and help about a chargeback case. Below you can find the official guidelines from Visa and Mastercard on chargebacks and their general merchant rules.
Visa: Chargeback Management: Guidelines for Merchants
Mastercard: Chargeback Guide
Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules
Mastercard: Rules and compliance programs
Currencies
The currency you choose for your account (funding currency), is the currency we fund your bank account in (also known as settlement).
You can charge your customers in any currency. If the transaction currency differs from your account currency, the transaction will be converted to your account currency.
Your account can be in one of the following 13 currencies: EUR (Euro), USD (United States dollar), GBP (British pound sterling), DKK (Danish krone), NOK (Norwegian krone), SEK (Swedish krona), CHF (Swiss franc), HUF (Hungarian forint), PLN (Polish złoty), RON (Romanian leu), CZK (Czech koruna), BGN (Bulgarian lev)
Website/App requirements
The following has to be easily located and clearly explained on your website or in your app:
- Company name, address and registration number
- Contact details, minimum a customer service e-mail (phone number is optional but encouraged)
- Products, pricing, shipping, and return information
- Terms and conditions
- Privacy policy (ensure to include Upnance)
- After completing a purchase on the website, the customer must be presented with a receipt
- Visa and Mastercard logos
- SSL is required for the payment page (and we encourage you to use it for the whole website)
All of the above must comply with the law. Your customers can not have lesser rights than those established by the law.If you are running a subscription based service or product your customers must be fully aware of what they have signed up for and how to cancel the subscription. It must be just as easy to cancel the subscription as it was to sign up for it.
Descriptor
The descriptor is the text your cardholder sees on their bank account statement.
You should use a descriptor your customer can recognise to avoid disputes. If your legal company name differs from your trading name (e.g. domain), you should use the name which your customers will be able to identify.
The descriptor is set on the account and added to your transactions. We also support the use o e.g. include an order id, which, if used, will overwrite the account descriptor.
The full description that is sent to your cardholders bank (issuing bank) for a transaction is:
Account descriptor or Dynamic descriptor
City, Country
The account/dynamic descriptor can be up to 22 characters long.
Example
In the case that you have a shoe shop based in London, United Kingdom, named CoolSnicks Ltd, the descriptor would be:
CoolSnicks Ltd
London, United Kingdom
Most banks will show the full descriptor, but some banks show less of the descriptor on the cardholder's account statement.
Restricted businesses
We accept almost all types of businesses, but due to legal and policy restraints certain types of businesses are restricted and require pre-approval by us and some we simply can't support either due to legal reasons, limits from our payment network or due to unacceptable risk.
To be eligible to use Upnance, your business must, no matter what, be fully legal and may not offer illegal products or services.The below business segments are a non-exhaustive list and require pre-approval by Upnance before the opening of an account and processing of transactions. If you are in doubt if your business is in a restricted segment or somehow limited by the card network's, get in touch before opening an account.
Restricted business list:
- Adult
- Aggregation
- Cannabis
- Copies of designer furniture / replicas
- Cosmetics
- Cryptocurrencies / virtual currencies
- Currency exchange
- Dating
- Dropshipping
- Drug paraphernalia
- Escort, sex dating
- Events
- ESTA/Visa/Visum help
- Financial institutions including payment- and e-money institutions
- Forex
- Gambling
- Game accounts/game keys
- Get rich quick schemes
- Hemp
- High-risk businesses
- High-value goods (e.g. precious metals, jewels and stones)
- IPTV
- Loans
- Lottery
- Medical appliances
- Medicines (alternative or not)
- Money transfers
- MOTO
- Multi-level marketing
- No-value-added services
- Nootropics
- Perfumes
- Personal computer technical support
- Pharmacies
- Pre-paid products and services, e.g. in the form of gift cards
- Social media marketing and activities
- Sports forecasting or odds making
- Subscriptions
- Supplements, vitamins etc
- Tickets
- Tobacco
- Travel
- Weapons
Pre-approval for restricted businesses
If your business is not allowed to use Upnance before it has been pre-approved (see our restricted businesses here), the account approval will look like the following:
- You (merchant): Contact us here and present us with your business case
- Upnance: Due diligence, compliance checks & contract creation
- You (merchant): Acceptance of requirements and contract
- Upnance: Account setup & high-risk registrations with Card Networks
- Upnance: Once your account has been fully setup, we will announce you that you can go live
- You: Go live and accept payments with the Card Networks
Please be aware that you are NOT allowed to set up a live account and do live transactions before the above process have been completed, and we have permitted you to start with live transactions.
If you are in doubt if your business is high risk or restricted by us, then please contact us. No matter which business segment you are in (e.g. tobacco, travel, cryptocurrencies, adult, gambling) we take pride in meeting you and your industry with no political bias.
You are free to use your test account and start the integration with Upnance, but please remember you are not allowed to do live transactions before we have given you the go.
Supported countries
Cards from all over the world are accepted, but you will need a registered company or citizenship from one of these countries to use Upnance:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Greenland
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lichtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- San Marino
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
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