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Prohibited and Restricted Businesses

Last updated: September 2024

We have clarified the list of financial services that Paycron does not support, reinforced restrictions on certain industries, and emphasized that services such as psychic consultations are not permitted in specific regions. Additionally, we have updated our policy regarding Paycron’s prior written approvals, making it clear that these approvals can be modified or revoked at Paycron’s discretion.

How to use this page

This page describes the types of enterprises, goods, and sectors that cannot use Paycron’s services. To use Paycron’s services, you must adhere to certain rules and limits. For additional information on why we are unable to collaborate with every business, please check our business constraints article.

High-Risk Jurisdictions and Persons

Use of Paycron’s services for any dealings, engagement, or sale of goods or services either directly or indirectly with the following are prohibited:

High-risk jurisdictions

Persons located in, residents in, or citizens of jurisdictions that Paycron has determined to be prohibited for a variety of reasons, including legal, contractual, and commercial reasons, such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.

High-risk persons

Paycron has determined to be prohibited for various reasons, including legal, contractual, and commercial reasons, such as those individuals or entities named to a restricted person or party list of, or otherwise restricted by, the US, United Kingdom, European Union, or United Nations, including the sanctions maintained by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control or the Denied Persons List or Entity List maintained by the US.

Additionally, it’s prohibited to use Paycron’s products and services to directly or indirectly:

Prohibited services

Accounting, trust and corporation formation, management consulting, architectural, and engineering services may be exported, re-exported, sold, or supplied to anyone in USA.

Prohibited goods

Deal in any products that are illegal to export or import into USA (such as luxury goods).

Prohibited Businesses

You may not use Paycron’s services for any unlawful activity, or for the businesses or product types indicated below. The types of enterprises listed here indicate restricted categories, however this is not an entire list.

Any illegal products and services

  • Illegal drugs, compounds designed to resemble illicit narcotics (including kava)

  • Equipment and objects designed to be used for producing or consuming drugs

  • Fake references or identification services

  • Telecommunications manipulation equipment, including jamming devices.

  • Businesses that promote or engage in violence against individuals or property, including those based on race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or other immutable characteristics.

  • Any additional items or services that are in violation of the law in the jurisdictions where your company is based or targeted.

Adult content and services (See the FAQs for additional details)

  • Adult services include prostitution, escorts, pay-per-view, sexual massages, fetish services, mail-order brides, and adult live chat capabilities.

  • Adult Video Stores

  • Gentlemen’s clubs, topless bars, and strip joints

  • All online dating services.

  • Pornography and other mature audience content (including literature, images, and other media) that depicts nudity or graphic sexual actions

  • Any AI-generated material that fits the aforementioned requirements

Content creation

Transactions that compensate producers but do not include any underlying digital material. Examples include free, public content subscriptions and a tip button on a profile page.

Debt relief companies

Debt settlement, debt negotiation, and debt consolidation

Gambling

  • Games of chance include gambling, internet gambling, casino games, sweepstakes and contests, and fantasy sports leagues with a monetary or material prize.

  • Games of skill include video game and mobile game tournaments or competitions, darts, card games, and board games with a monetary or material prize.

  • Payments of an entry or player fee that guarantees the entrant or player will win a valuable prize.

  • Sports forecasting or odds-making for a monetary or material prize

  • Lotteries and fee-based auctions

Government services

  • Providing products and services on behalf of embassies and consulates

  • Providing government services without authorization or extra value

  • Providing government services with deceptive claims

  • Disbursement of government economic assistance, such as grants

Identity services

Identity theft protection services including monitoring and recovery

Products and services that infringe on intellectual property rights

  • Sales or distribution of music, pictures, software, or any other licensed materials without proper authorization

  • Counterfeit products

  • Illegally imported or exported goods

  • Unauthorized sale of brand name or designer products or services.

  • Any such items or services that directly infringe or assist the violation of any third party’s trademark, patent, copyright, trade secrets, property or privacy rights

The legal services listed below

  • Bankruptcy Lawyers

  • Bail Bonds

  • Law firms gather revenue for uses other than paying legal service fees.

Lending and credit

  • Credit Card Loan Repayments

  • Credit monitoring, restoration, and counseling services.

Marijuana (See the FAQs for additional details)

  • Cannabis products

  • Cannabis dispensaries and affiliated companies

  • CBD products with THC levels higher than the applicable local jurisdiction’s legal limit, including CBD edibles.

  • Hydroponic and other cultivation or production equipment sold for growing cannabis

  • Courses and information on growing marijuana

Nutraceuticals and pseudo-pharmaceuticals

  • Pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals targeted at considerable weight loss or sexual performance.

  • Pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals with unsubstantiated or dangerous claims

Non-fiat currency

  • Cryptocurrency mining and staking

  • Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

  • Secondary NFT sales.

Travel

  • Commercial airlines and cruises

  • Timeshare services

Acts or activities that violate laws, rules, regulations, or guidelines issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, or other local consumer regulatory organizations are considered unfair, misleading, or abusive.

Pyramid schemes

  • Services for multi-level marketing that provide commission- or recruiting-based sales “Get rich quick” scams include things like websites that promise quick and simple money, investment possibilities, and other services that deceive customers by offering huge benefits with little effort or upfront work.

  • Companies that employ fictitious testimonials, high-pressure upselling, misleading testimonials, or outlandish promises (with or without a formal contract)

  • Companies enticing customers to buy goods or services with irrational incentives or rewards

  • No value-added services, such as the selling or reselling of a service without providing the customer with further value or authorization, or the reselling of government offers without providing additional value

  • sales of web interaction or traffic

  • Negative option membership clubs, negative option marketing, and reduced price trials with ambiguous or concealed pricing

  • Telemarketing

  • Mortgage advice that is predatory

  • Opportunities for predatory investments requiring little or no cash down

  • Untrustworthy remote technical assistance

  • Sales at doors

  • Services for falsifying documents

  • Any other companies that Paycron views as being predatorial, dishonest, or unjust to customers.

Weapons, firearms, explosives and dangerous materials

  • Fireworks, ammunition, firearms, gunpowder, and other explosives

  • Firearm conversion kits, magazines, clips, firing pins, and any other 3D-printed weapon parts

  • Toy guns and other modern firearms with incorrect markings

  • Stun guns and pepper spray

  • Swords and katanas, unless they are intended for use as practice weapons or as replicas

  • Cutters

  • Knives that are hidden or have opening mechanisms intended to quickly discharge a blade pesticides that need to be applied by a licensed expert

  • Investigate chemicals

  • Radioactive, flammable, toxic, or combustible materials

  • According to the US Postal Service, unmailable goods

Restricted Businesses

The following uses of Paycron’s services are prohibited unless Paycron has given you prior written consent. Please get in touch with us if you believe your company fits under one of the prohibited categories. In light of regulatory constraints imposed by card networks, banking partners, and us, Paycron may not be able to approve your business’s use of our products if it fits any of the following categories. If we do provide approval, please be aware that it is particular to each service offer and that Paycron has the right, at any time, to change or withdraw it in accordance with the conditions of the Paycron Services Agreement.

Read more about Restricted Businesses in our FAQs.

While not all-inclusive, the business categories mentioned below serve as an example of our restricted enterprises.

Content creation

  • Content creation-related transactions

  • Gifts and advice pertaining to content

  • Purchases of digital goods or access to exclusive content

Regulated industries

  • Cannabidiol (CBD) (For further information, see the FAQs)

  • CBD products that, in accordance with local limits, contain very little THC

Financial products and services

  • Investment and brokerage services, encompassing investments grounded in real estate

  • Lending products and services, such as home loans

  • Funding of bank accounts

  • Buy Now, Pay Later services

  • Using crowdsourcing

  • Debt collection agencies

  • ATMs

  • Services related to insurance, such as medical benefit packages

  • Remittances, currency exchange services, money transmitters, and other money service enterprises

  • Peer-to-peer transfer of funds

  • Escrow services

  • Challenger banks, or neobanks

  • Cashing of checks

  • Payable via account

  • Sponsored prop trading Shell companies

  • Bearer share sales

  • Additional financial services

Pharmaceuticals, medical devices and telemedicine (See the FAQs for additional details

  • SaaS platforms and online pharmacies

  • Prescription-only goods and medications that require no card

  • Controlled and prescription-only medical equipment

  • Prescription delivery services

  • Services for telemedicine and telehealth

Tobacco

  • Products made of tobacco, such as herbal cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and cigars

  • Manufacturing machinery marketed exclusively for the manufacture of tobacco goods

Others

  • Products and services with age restrictions, including alcoholic beverages

  • Facilitating and aggregating payments (including accepting settlement funds on behalf of one or more third-party vendors for products or services you did not provide)

Non-fiat currency and stored value

  • Wallets & exchanges for cryptocurrencies (such as dogecoin, cardano, ethereum, ripple, bitcoin, and so on). Please refer to the crypto supportability page for information on NFT and crypto availability and support by location.

  • First-party platforms such as marketplaces and SaaS providers that mint and sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs). SIM cards, prepaid phone cards, and phone services

  • Sales of credits or stored value that are kept, approved, and issued by parties other than the seller

  • Sale of virtual world assets or in-game currency, unless the company runs the virtual world

  • Preloaded gift cards, virtual credits, preloaded payment cards, and other goods and services where a monetary value is stored in the object (digital or physical)

Businesses that might pose elevated financial risk

  • Travel

  • Travel reservation services and clubs

  • Charter and private airlines

Businesses that are prone to abuse by fraudulent actors

  • Multiple tiers of marketing

  • A business model in which enterprises generate income through retail product sales, network marketing, and referral marketing programs, and participants receive commissions

  • Shipping Other Dropshipping

  • Requesting financial contributions or gifts

  • Raffles and charity sweepstakes with the express goal of raising money

  • You can read about business limitations to find out more about Paycron’s policy regarding restricted businesses and the reasons why certain businesses aren’t permitted to utilize Paycron’s services.

Jurisdiction-Specific Prohibited Businesses

Brazil

  • Prosthetic genitalia

  • Realistic sex toys and sex accessories

Canada

  • Mortgage consulting

India

  • Alcohol

  • Captive insurance firms.

  • Cash couriers

  • Charities

  • Chit funds

  • Currency Exchange

  • Currency Transportation

  • Dating and matchmaking services

  • Gambling Equipment

  • Genital prostheses

  • Junket Operators

  • Lobby groups and political organizations

  • Mining, oil drilling, and refining

  • Personal investment vehicles and companies

  • Religious organizations

  • Sex accessories and toys

  • Trust the service providers.

  • Unlicensed Financial Institutions

Japan

  • Animals

  • C2C services outside Paycron Connect, and online gaming/gambling consulting and prediction services.

  • We offer consultation, knowledge, and tools for profiting from trading or investing in financial items or cryptocurrency, as well as running a resale or dropshipping business. We also make donations to individuals.

  • Fundraising or financing of businesses designated as forbidden or restricted above

  • Genital prostheses

  • Health Instruments

  • Devices for disposing of industrial waste, rubbish, and purifying water

  • International Marriage Brokerage Businesses

  • Mortgage Consulting

  • Private Investigators or Protection Services

  • Psychic Services and Fortune Tellers

  • Sex Accessories and Lifelike Sex Toys

  • Businesses that lack a “Commercial Disclosure” page on their website as required by the Specified Commercial

Malaysia

  • Genital prostheses

  • Matchmaking

  • Sex accessories or sex toys?

  • Mexico

  • Adoption Agencies

  • Cross-border currency exchange services

  • Debt Collection Agencies

  • Direct marketing for travel

  • Electronic cigarettes for card-not-present transactions

  • Ephedrine and console modification devices

  • Genital prostheses

  • HCG Weight Loss

  • Investment Services

  • Sex accessories or lifelike sex toys?

  • Penny auctions

  • Private Investigators or Protection Services

  • Psychic Services and Fortune Teller

  • Search engine optimisation

  • Telemedicine

Singapore

  • Prepaid phones and SIM cards

  • Sales of products that permit payments to any of these products or services are considered unlawful in Singapore

  • Sex accessories or sex toys?

Thailand(Prohibited = P, Restricted = R)

  • Charities P

  • Dating services P

  • Food and cosmetics R

  • Historical artifacts P

  • Hotels, tour operators, and transport services R

  • Online alcohol sales P

  • Private investigators or detective agencies P

  • Psychic services and fortune tellers P

  • Timeshares P

  • Vehicle sales P

  • Vitamins P

United Arab Emirates

  • Gambling equipment

  • Genital prosthetics

  • Historical artifacts, ivory products, prison-made products

  • Private investigators or detective agencies

  • Matchmaking services

  • Sex accessories or sex toys

United States

  • Extended warranties and subscriptions over one year

  • Mortgage consulting

  • Pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals focused on weight loss

  • Shipping brokers and freight forwarders, without prior authorisation from Paycron

  • Sex accessories

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