PROHIBITED MERCHANT LIST
XTP does not onboard merchants that are directly or indirectly engaged in the following:
Prohibited Merchant List
- All Card Brand and Bank Prohibited items not listed
- Age Verification
- Aggregators
- Alcoholic Beverages
- Any Product/Service Considered Illegal
- Any Product/Service or Activity Prohibited by MasterCard and/or Visa
- Artifacts, Graver-Related and Native American Crafts
- Astrology/Tarot card/Fortune telling/Spells/Sorcery
- Auctions of any type (penny auctions are prohibited)
- Authenticity Disclaimers
- Bail bonds
- Bankruptcy lawyers
- Business physically located outside the U.S.A. (offshore acquiring)
- 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 services only), Prepaid Phone Cards, Phone Services and Cell Phones, Phone Unlocking Services and Unlocked Cell Phones
- Centralized reservation services
- Chain Letters
- Charities without 501 (c )(3) or equivalent status
- Child Support/Alimony
- Contracts
- Credit Cards/Credit Card and Identity Theft Protection/Credit Repair or protection services
- Currency (in and out of circulation), Commodity Exchange
- Debt Collection
o Mortgage Reduction Services/Mortgage/Loan Modification
o Collection agency services recovering/collecting past due receivable, Payment of last resort where prior method of payment has been difficult to collect or has been uncollectible
o Debt consolidation, interest consolidation services or reduction services
- Decryption and descrambler products including mod chips
- Direct Marketing – Subscription Merchants (including Lifetime subscriptions-any product or service)
- Door to Door Sales
- E-Cash
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- Embassy, Foreign Consulate, or Other Foreign Government
- Essay mills/paper mills (i.e., ghostwriting services that sell essays, term papers, etc. with intent that purchaser will submit documents as their own)
- Fake references and other services / products that foster deception (including fake IDs and government documents)
- Fantasy Sports
- File hosting/sharing services including Cyberlocker and similar storage entities
- Financial transactions, including but not limited to:
o cash advances (by non-financial institutions)
o check cashing
o currency exchange or dealer
o foreign currency sales or exchange
o money orders/wire transfer
o money transmitter
o Provider or seller of prepaid access/stored value, including both open- loop and closed-loop* exceeding $2,000
o quasi cash or stored value
o securities
o traveler’s checks
*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
- Fireworks and fire crackers
- Foreclosure protection/guarantees (including “how to” guides”)
- Gambling – including but not limited to
o Betting
o Casino Gaming
o Contests
o Illegal gambling including internet gambling
o Internet Gaming
o 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
o Lotteries
o Lottery clubs
o Odds Making
o Off Track Betting
o Online
o Poker Chips or gambling credits
o Skill Games
o Sports Forecasting
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o State Lottery Merchants
- Golf Clubs/Accessories (online only)
- HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Decryption Devices
- Human/Animal body parts, remains, cells, tissues, etc.
- Illegal products and services
o Amyl Nitrite Inhalants
o Any service providing peripheral support of illegal activities (i.e. drugs)
o Bath salts (containing mephedrone, methylone or MDPV)
o Bootleg Recordings
o Counterfeit, Imitation or Knock-off Items
o Drugs and Paraphernalia
o Embargoed Goods, Prohibited Countries
o Good or services in violation of intellectual property rights
o Marijuana, marijuana dispensaries, marijuana products, marijuana services and marijuana related businesses (excluding hemp)
o Psilocybin Mushrooms and Spices
o Psychoactive Herbal Products
o Stolen Property
o Substances designed to mimic illegal drugs and/or other psychoactive products (e.g., K2, salvia divinorum, nitrite inhalers, bath salts, synthetic cannabis, kratom, herbal smoking blends & herbal incense)- Non- pharmaceutical synthetic Drugs
o Substances made to closely resemble or look like illegal substances
o Substances marketed as producing effects similar to effects of illegal substances
o Unauthorized Copies
- Jammers or devices that are designed to block, jam or interfere with cellular and personal communication devices/signals (e.g., GPS)
- Loan payment and loan underwriting
- Medical Devices
- Merchants engaged in any form of UDAAP practices
- 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 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 or upsell without cardholder’s active consent)
- Merchants engaged in unlicensed aggregation and factoring (defined as charging your own personal credit or debit card)
- Merchants Offering Prizes, free gifts, Sweepstakes, incentives or enticements or the winning of a contest as an inducement to purchase a product and/or service
- Merchants or principals on MATCH
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- Merchants that have ransom-like or extortion-like basis for their business model
- Merchants that use tactics to evade Card Brand excessive chargeback or fraud monitoring programs
- Money laundering or the Financing of Terrorist Activities
- Money Transfer businesses, money transmitter, other money service businesses
- Multi-level / Affiliate Marketing Businesses
- 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 (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
- Online and/or Non-face-to-face Pharmacy or Pharmacy Referral
- Pay Day Lenders, payday loans and unsecure loan/lines originating from non-FDIC insured banks, Predatory lenders
- Payment Facilitators
- Payment Processors with transactional processing
- Pharmacies
- Ponzi/Pyramid Schemes
- Prescription Drugs and Devices
- Products/services that promote hate, violence, harassment or abuse
- Programs on how to apply for low interest credit cards
- Real Estate Agents and Brokers
- Real estate purchase with no money down
- Recalled items
- Resale of social media “click farms” (e.g. the sale of clicks/likes/reviews/endorsements) and other activity
- Sales leads/lead generation
- Security brokers
- Sexually Oriented or Pornographic Products and Services – including but not limited to
o Audiotext/Videotext
o Adult Book/Video Stores
o Adult Telephone Conversations
o Adult websites and content
o Any products on the internet containing graphic or nude content
o Bestiality
o Companion/Escort Services, Dating Services
o Fetish Products
o Gentleman’s clubs, topless bars, and strip clubs
o Mail order spouse/international match making services
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o Modeling Agencies
o Massage Parlors
o Rape Violence
o Topless Bars/Clubs
o Prostitution
o Sexually oriented dating services
o Video (web-based sexually oriented video)
- Shipping/Forwarding Brokers
- Software/Downloadable Software/Spyware/Malware
- Splitting transactions to circumvent account limitations
- Structuring (defined as processing the same credit or debit card multiple times within a 24 hour period)
- Telemarketing companies involved with the following methods of operations:
o Inbound telemarketing companies that receive calls as the result of post cards or similar mailings (as opposed to catalog or media advertising)
o Inbound Telemarketing with an Up-Sell
o Offering a free gift, prize or sweepstakes, contest entry as an inducement to purchase their product or service
o Outbound Telemarketing (all)
o Selling products/services as an agent for a third party
- Tobacco Products, tobacco-less cigarette or e-cigarette (online only if you are ok with face to face tobacco shops)
- Travel related merchant to include:
o Airlines (including airlines “nested” under another entity)
o Cruise lines
o Timeshares and Timeshare Programs
o Travel Agencies and Clubs
o Vacation rentals/Lodging
- Unqualified Multi-Level Marketing Companies
- Unqualified Pseudo Pharmaceuticals/Neutraceuticals (e.g., anti-aging pills, colon cleansers, detox products, muscle-building, sexual stimulants, weight loss, diet, etc.)
- Used Vehicles
- Virtual currency that can be monetized, re-sold, or converted to physical/digital goods/services or otherwise
- Warranty Companies and Extended Warranty Companies
- Weapons and ammunitions, and firearm parts, Internet/MOTO