Issuing: Managing Inactive Connect Accounts

Inactive issuing accounts can pose a risk to platforms due to heightened potential for lost or compromised cards which could result in transaction fraud. To mitigate this risk, Stripe disables the issuing capability on inactive connect accounts in the USA.

Inactivity criteria

Stripe disables issuing on accounts that haven't completed any card transactions in the past 13 months (395 days). For accounts with additional capabilities, Stripe only disables Issuing if there have also been no payments or Treasury transactions in the prior 395 days, and the Treasury balance is $9.99 or less.

Identifying disabled accounts

When Issuing is disabled for inactivity, the connect account's card_issuing requirements will show a disabled_reason of "rejected.inactivity" and the card_issuing capability status is marked as "inactive".

What happens when Issuing is disabled for inactivity?

When the issuing capability is disabled, all card authorizations from cards associated with this account will be declined, but other capabilities such as payments or Treasury will remain unaffected.

To reactivate issuing on an account, contact Issuing Support and include the account ID in your inquiry. If the account does not have additional capabilities, then Stripe recommends creating a new account instead. Previously created cards in reactivated accounts will remain permanently disabled despite an “active” card status.

Optimizing Your User Experience

Consider these updates for a better user experience:

• Update your UX to reflect disabled cards upon seeing "rejected.inactivity" disabled_reason
• Adjust your onboarding flow to minimize inactive issuing accounts by delaying Issuing capability requests until user interest is shown
• Implement your own detection to identify accounts with no authorized Issuing transactions in the prior 365 days and email them to warn of potential upcoming deactivation if they don’t use their cards in the next 30 days.

Frequently asked questions:

Does this impact inactive cards or cardholders?

No, Issuing is only disabled if all cardholders and cards within the connect account have been inactive. There is no inactivity process for individual inactive cards or cardholders.

Are connect accounts outside the United States disabled for inactivity?

No, Stripe only disables the issuing capability on dormant connect accounts in the USA. Inactive connect accounts in the UK or Europe are not affected.