You, as the business enterprise or sub-merchant receiving services from Swivel Transactions, LLC, may only use the services you are receiving pursuant to the Merchant Services Agreement agreed upon by you (such services, the “Services”) for the sale of goods or services as disclosed by you on the Merchant Services Agreement Application and the Merchant Services Agreement.
You are not allowed to use the Services for high risk sales transactions. Such activities are prohibited by the Merchant Services Agreement and are in violation of our High Risk Acceptable Use Policy. Swivel Transactions, LLC (the “Payment Facilitator”) reserves the right, from time-to-time, to revise this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy. Your submission to Payment Facilitator of any transaction that violates this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy may result in Payment Facilitator doing any or all of the following: (a) suspension of your processing privileges; (b) refusal of an authorization or the refusal to process your sales transmittal; (c) immediate termination of your processing privileges in accordance with your Merchant Services Agreement; (d) the creation of a reserve account, if a reserve account is included in your Merchant Services Agreement, according to the terms thereof; and, (e) Payment Facilitator exercising its security interest and or set off rights as defined in your Merchant Services Agreement.
Purpose
The purpose of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy is to communicate Payment Facilitator requirements to:
- Comply with sponsor bank requirements and card or payment association rules and policies including those of VISA, Mastercard, Discover, and NACHA
- Comply will all relevant laws and regulations
- Communicate to you the activities, business types, and transactions that are prohibited from use of the services
- Protect the integrity of the Payment Facilitator system and network
- To specify the authorized actions Payment Facilitator may take if you violate the requirements specified in this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy
Prohibited Activities
Prohibited activities of the Payment Facilitator High Risk Acceptable Use Policy include, but are not limited to, the following sales transactions:
- Adult Entertainment and Adult Oriented Businesses
- Aggregators (Sales made by a different business entity)
- Alcoholic Beverages
- Animals and wildlife products classified as endangered or protected
- Artifacts, Graver-Related and Native American Crafts
- Audio/video text services (adult oriented)
- Authenticity Disclaimers
- Bail bonds
- Bankruptcy lawyers accepting payments for the debt included in the bankruptcy
- Bath Salts (containing mephedrone, methylone or MDPV)
- Bearer share entities
- Bidding fee auctions (a.k.a. penny auctions)
- Business physically located outside the U.S.A. (offshore acquiring)
- Business and Investment Opportunities
- Business/Investment opportunities operating as “get rich quick schemes” (e.g. real estate purchase with No Money Down, government grants)
- Buy Here, Pay Here (In House Financing)
- Buy Now Pay Later
- Businesses selling age or legally restricted products or services
- Cell phones/pagers (billing for services only)
- Centralized reservation services
- Chain letters
- Charities without 501(c)(3) or equivalent status
- Check Cashing
- Child Support/Alimony
- Consumer Debt Buyers
- Contracts
- Credit repair or protection services
- Cross border acquiring – Businesses physically located outside the acquiring region as defined by Payments Networks
- Cryptocurrency exchange (Direct Purchase)
- Currency (in and out of circulation)
- Collection agencies or firms involved in recovering/collecting charged off receivables
- Debt consolidation and mortgage reduction/consulting services
- Direct Marketing: Outbound Telemarketing Merchant
- Doing business or providing services to OFAC restricted territories (without proper certification)
- Payment of last resort where prior method of payment has been difficult to collect or has been uncollectible
- Door-to-Door Sales
- Decryption and descrambler products including mod chips, cable box descramblers, IP masking services (if marketed to circumvent geolocation) and jammers or devices used to interfere with cellular and personal communication devices
- Essay mills/paper mills (i.e., ghostwriting services that sell essays, term papers, etc. with intent that purchaser will submit documents as their own)
- Embassy, Foreign Consulate, or Other Foreign Government
- Event Tickets
- Factoring (defined as charging your own personal credit or debit card)
- Fake IDs, Government Identification, Uniforms, and Police-Related Items
- Fake references and other services/products that foster deception
- Financial transactions, including but not limited to: quasi cash, stored value foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers, securities, and check cashing by non-financial institutions
- File sharing services
- Firearm wholesalers & firearm manufacturers & retailers & accessories
- Fireworks and firecrackers
- For Profit Higher Education (FPHE)
- Foreign (non-US) financial institutions
- Fortune telling, Spells, Sorcery
- Gambling and gambling services, including but not limited to the following:
- Legal gambling where the Cardholder is not present when the bet is made as well as for direct purchase of wagers/chips via payment card
- Lotteries
- Illegal gambling including internet gambling
- Sports forecasting or odds making
- Betting
- Casino gaming and other gaming establishments
- Off track betting
- Gambling chips or gambling credits
- Unlawful internet gambling (the term “unlawful internet gambling” have its meaning set forth in 12 C.F.R. Section 233.2(bb))
- Non-face-to-face gambling (including sports, daily fantasy sports, etc.)
- HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Decryption Devices
- Human body parts and remains
- Ingestible products containing hemp-derived CBD
- Illegal products/services or any service providing peripheral support of illegal activities
- Amyl Nitrite Inhalants
- Any service providing peripheral support of illegal activities (i.e. drugs)
- Bootleg Recordings
- Counterfeit, Imitation or Knock-off Items
- Drug stores and Pharmacies
- Drugs and Drug Paraphernalia
- Embargoed Goods, Prohibited Countries
- Good or services in violation of intellectual property rights
- Psilocybin Mushrooms and Spices
- Psychoactive Herbal Products
- Stolen property
- Unauthorized Copies
- Jammers or devices that are designed to block, jam, or interfere with cellular and personal communication devices/signals (e.g., GPS)
- K2 (also known as Spice or Kronic)
- Loan payment and loan underwriting originating from non-bank lenders or non-FDIC/NCUA insured banks
- Life settlements financing or providers
- Marijuana, marijuana dispensaries, marijuana products, marijuana services and marijuana related businesses (including hemp, CBD oil, seeds, etc.); excludes sterilized hemp seeds or hemp textile
- Marijuana products: Substances or chemicals that contain marijuana/cannabis or derivatives of marijuana/cannabis for human or animal use (e.g., oil, creams, patches, edible marijuana products)
- Marketplaces
- Military and Defense
- Money Laundering or the Financing of Terrorist Activities
- Money Service Businesses
- Cash advances (by non-financial institutions)
- Currency exchange or dealer (by non-financial institutions)
- Issuer/seller/redeemer of money orders or traveler’s checks (by non-financial institutions)
- Provider or seller of prepaid access/stored value, including both open-loop and closed-loop* exceeding $2,000
- Closed-loop prepaid access includes gift cards, phone cards, subway cards, college campus cards, game cards and other limited-use prepaid access devices when the value can exceed $2,000
- Negative response marketing techniques by any type of sub-merchant (i.e. customer is automatically charged if merchandise is not returned at the end of a free trial period)
- Nutraceuticals/Unqualified Pseudo Pharmaceuticals (i.e., food products or other digestibles marketed via-unsubstantiated and/or unlawful health or medical claims, frequently associated with weight loss claims, anti-aging, sexual stimulants, increased energy, etc.)
- Offensive, racially, or culturally insensitive material
- P2P crowdfunding
- Payday Lenders, payday loans and unsecure loan/lines originating from non-FDIC insured banks
- Payment facilitator to other merchants
- Payroll lenders (including small dollar lenders)
- Post-Acute and Long-Term Care
- Prescription Drugs and Devices sold without a prescription
- Prescription Opioid Manufacturers and Distributors
- Products/services that promote hate, violence, harassment, intolerance, violence, suicide criminal activity or abuse
- Private prison operators
- Purchase of Non-Fungible Tangible (NFT) assets, cryptocurrency, funding of crypto wallets, funding of initial coin offerings
- Pyramid schemes (multi-level marketing)
- Real Estate Agents and Brokers
- Real estate purchase with no money down
- Recalled items
- Repossession Agencies
- Salvia Divinorum
- Sales leads / Lead generation
- Security brokers
- Sexually oriented or pornographic Sub-Merchants, including but not limited to the following:
- Audio/video (phone sex and adult phone conversations)
- Dating services/apps (sexually-oriented)
- Related to illegal activity (e.g., child pornography, products depicting children or characters resembling children in a sexually suggestive manner, bestiality, human trafficking)
- Massage parlors (sexually-oriented)
- Fetish products
- Mail order spouse and international match-making services
- Companion/escort services/prostitution
- Web based sexually oriented video
- Websites/apps containing graphic/nude content, such as – streaming video and other sexually oriented content (including but not limited to subscription, on-demand, live, etc.)
- Gentleman’s clubs, topless bars, and strip clubs (may include for-hire live performer)
- Shipping/Forwarding Brokers
- Software
- Splitting transactions to circumvent account limitations
- Start-up professional sports leagues
- Structuring (defined as processing the same credit or debit card multiple times within a 24 hour period)
- Sub-Merchants engaged in Data Pass (i.e., sub-merchants up-selling or cross-selling products or other
- Sub-Merchants and then sharing the cardholder data with the third party or receiving cardholder data from third parties)
- Sub-Merchants engaged in unlicensed aggregation and factoring
- Products/services solely based on guaranteed rebate, refund or price or Sub-Merchants offering substantial rebates or special incentives (e.g., free gift, prize, sweepstakes, or contest) as an inducement to purchase products/services
- Sub-Merchants that have ransom-like or extortion-like basis for their business model (e.g., mugshot removal)
- Sub-Merchants utilizing tactics to evade Payment Network chargeback monitoring programs
- Substances designed to mimic illegal drugs (e.g., herbal synthetic cannabis, herbal smoking blends, herbal incense, CBD, or CBD derivatives, and HCG/HGH-like substances)
- Substances made to closely resemble or look like illegal substances
- Substances marketed as producing effects similar to effects of illegal substances
- Telemarketing companies involved with the following methods of operations:
- Offering a free gift, prize or sweepstakes, contest entry as an inducement to purchase their product or service
- Inbound telemarketing companies that receive calls as the result of post cards or similar mailings (as opposed to catalog or media advertising)
- Selling products/services as an agent for a third party
- Tobacco products (B2C & CNP), tobacco-less cigarette or e-cigarette, E-cigarettes/ Vaping
- Travel related Sub-Merchant to include:
- Airlines (including airlines “nested” under another entity)
- Cruise lines (including airlines “nested” under another entity)
- Timeshare Sales
- Unqualified Vacation rentals/Lodging
- Multi-Level Marketing Companies
- Virtual currency that can be monetized, re-sold, or converted to physical/digital goods/services or otherwise exit the virtual world
- Activity prohibited by the Payments Networks
- Weapons, firearms, explosives, ammunitions, and firearm parts, Internet/MOTO Weapons (3D Printers) – accessories/equipment or plans/programs for the creation of firearms using 3D printers
- Any other activity deemed by Payment Facilitator to be similar to those activities listed above
If you use the Services to process a sales transaction(s) in violation of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy set forth above, Payment Facilitator may incur substantial liability and/or suffer significant damages, including, without limitation, assessments, fines and other related expenses from Visa, Mastercard, or Discover, and/or its sponsor bank. By selling goods or services, including access to content, in violation of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy you are liable to Payment Facilitator for any and all damages assessed upon Payment Facilitator as a result of your activity, despite any language in your Merchant Services Agreement to the contrary. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree to reimburse Payment Facilitator for any and all assessments, fines and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by Payment Facilitator and/or levied on Payment Facilitator by Visa, Mastercard or Discover, and/or its acquirer bank, as a result of your activities in violation of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy.
