You may only use your approved Swivel Transactions, LLC Merchant Account (“Account”) for the services or sale of goods or services as disclosed by you on the Merchant Card Processing Application and the Merchant Services Agreement.
Swivel Transactions, LLC does not allow merchants to use its merchant processing service for high risk sales transactions. Such activities are prohibited by Swivel Transactions and are in violation of our High Risk and Acceptable Use Policy. Swivel Transactions, LLC reserves the right, from time-to-time, to revise this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy. Your submission to Swivel Transactions, LLC of any transaction that violates this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy may result in Swivel Transactions, LLC 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 closing of your Account 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) Swivel Transactions, LLC exercising its security interest and or set of rights as defined in your Merchant Services Agreement.
Purpose
The purpose of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy is to communicate Swivel Transactions, LLC 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 Merchant the activities, business types, and transactions that are prohibited from use of the Services
- Protect the integrity of the Swivel Transactions, LLC system and network
- To specify the authorized actions Swivel Transactions, LLC may take if Merchant violates the requirements specified in this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy
Prohibited Activities
Prohibited activities of the Swivel Transactions, LLC High Risk Acceptable Use Policy include, but are not limited to, the following sales transactions:
- 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)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Fireworks and firecrackers
- 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
- Off track betting
- Gambling chips or gambling credits
- HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Decryption Devices
- Human body parts and remains
- 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
- 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
- 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)
- Merchants engaged in deceptive marketing practices (e.g., hidden disclosures, bogus claims and endorsements, refund/cancellation avoidance, poorly disclosed negative option, pre-checked opt-in boxes for payment without cardholder’s active consent
- Merchants engaged in Data Pass (i.e., merchants up-selling or cross-selling products or other merchants and then sharing the cardholder data with the third party or receiving cardholder data from third parties)
- Merchants engaged in unlicensed aggregation and factoring
- Merchants offering substantial rebates or special incentives (e.g., free gift, prize, sweepstakes, or contest) as an inducement to purchase products/services
- Merchants that have ransom-like or extortion-like basis for their business model (e.g., mugshot removal)
- Merchants utilizing tactics to evade Payment Network chargeback monitoring programs
- 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 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
- Payday Lenders, payday loans and unsecure loan/lines originating from non-FDIC insured banks
- Prescription Drugs and Devices sold without a prescription
- Products/services that promote hate, violence, harassment, intolerance, violence, suicide criminal activity or abuse
- Pyramid schemes (multi-level marketing)
- Real Estate Agents and Brokers
- Real estate purchase with no money down
- Recalled items
- Salvia Divinorum
- Sales leads / Lead generation
- Security brokers
- Sexually oriented or pornographic 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
- Structuring (defined as processing the same credit or debit card multiple times within a 24 hour period)
- 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
- Travel related merchant to include:
- Airlines (including airlines “nested” under another entity)
- Cruise lines (including airlines “nested” under another entity)
- Timeshare Sales
- Unqualified Vacation rentals/Lodging
- Unqualified 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 Swivel Transactions, LLC to be similar to those activities listed above
If you use your Swivel Transactions, LLC Account to process a sales transaction(s) in violation of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy set forth above, Swivel Transactions, LLC 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 Swivel Transactions, LLC for any and all damages assessed upon Swivel Transactions, LLC 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 Swivel Transactions, LLC for any and all assessments, fines and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by Swivel Transactions, LLC and/or levied on Swivel Transactions, LLC by Visa, Mastercard or Discover, and/or its sponsor bank, as a result of your activities in violation of this High Risk Acceptable Use Policy.