Reserve not lifted after 30-day condition confirmed met by Shopify advisor — 30+ days overdue

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
1

Looking to hear from merchants who have actually had a Shopify Payments reserve released early.

My timeline:

  • Reserve applied: April 8, 2026 due to a chargeback rate of >1.5%

  • Shopify advised that the reserve could be released early if my chargeback rate remained below 1% for 30 consecutive days while continuing to process through Shopify Payments.

  • I met those conditions on May 15, 2026 and have maintained them since.

  • The case was escalated to the Credit Risk team and assigned a Trust Platform reference.

  • Since then, multiple support advisors have confirmed:

    • No further action is required from me.
    • No documents have been requested.
    • No blockers are visible on the account.
    • The case remains open.

However, as of today, I still have not received a decision from Credit Risk and the reserve remains in place.

The reserve balance has now grown to nearly $10,000, so this has become a significant cash flow issue for my business.

The most recent support advisor told me they could not see any new activity, notes, or communications on the file since the escalation was submitted, but they also could not see inside the Credit Risk team’s workflow.

I’m trying to understand whether this is normal.

For anyone who has gone through an early reserve release review:

  • How long after meeting the conditions did the reserve actually get lifted?
  • Did Credit Risk contact you before making a decision?
  • Did the reserve disappear automatically, or did you receive an email first?
  • Did support continue telling you to wait while the review was pending?

I was able to speak with one merchant who had a similar experience and eventually had their reserve released, so I’m hoping to hear from others who have gone through the same process.

Any timelines or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

2

the gap you’re hitting is that the advisor’s “we can release early if your rate stays low” isn’t a binding trigger, it’s a maybe. reserve release is a risk and underwriting decision and it runs on its own review cycle, so even when you hit the condition the release lags until they actually re-review the account, which is rarely automatic and almost never on the date an advisor implied.

couple of things that tend to move it. push it through the risk or underwriting email thread rather than front line support chat, those are different teams and only the former owns the reserve. ask them in writing for the specific review date and the exact metric they’re measuring, because “chargeback rate” can be calculated on a trailing window that still includes the bad month. and get a backup gateway connected now so a slow release isn’t also choking your cash flow.

did anyone give you the reserve’s review interval in writing, or just the verbal “if it stays low”?

3

It’s not the advisor that stated the reserve could be released early. The advisors have been mostly useless and claim they cannot see or contact the underwriting team. However, they were able to confirm I met the conditions and that they escalated the case to the risk management team. Since this (1+ month ago), nothing has happened. The initial email from Shopify (attached below) that told me the reserve was being placed outlined these conditions in writing. There is no way to push anything to the risk/underwriting team as the initial email came from a noreply.

IMG_9329
IMG_93291206×2292 388 KB