A Botwrights tool — free while we test demand
Your processor is holding your money. In about ten minutes, you'll know exactly which hold it is — and the steps that end it.
In the next few minutes, this page will show you the six holds a payout like yours can be sitting in, why the wrong fix quietly wastes weeks, and the eight questions that tell you which hold is yours. The diagnostic itself is free, runs entirely in your browser, and your answers never leave your device. Keep reading and you'll know your stage before you ever open it.
You made the sales. You did the work. Then the payout didn't come — and the notice they sent you could mean six different things, each with a different fix. HoldFast tells you which one you're actually in.
Open the free HoldFast bot Download the free kit (PDF)You know this week, don't you?
The payout was supposed to land Tuesday. It didn't. Your dashboard shows a word like "paused" or "pending review" — or nothing at all. The email, when you find it, is written in a language that sounds like English and reads like a riddle.
So you open a support ticket. You get a cheerful reply that answers a question you didn't ask. Days pass. Your supplier is waiting. Your rent is not. And somewhere inside Square, PayPal, Stripe, Wave, QuickBooks Payments, or Shopify Payments, your money sits in a hold you can't even name — while every day you spend guessing is a day the right paperwork isn't in front of the right team.
Here's what most merchants try next, and why it fails:
- More support tickets — the front-line queue can't release a hold it doesn't own, and each new ticket can start your story over.
- Forum advice — someone else's hold, from a different processor, in a different year, with steps that don't match your notice.
- A done-for-you service — some charge thousands of dollars to make the same diagnosis and send the same documents you could send yourself, today, for free.
The missing piece was never effort. It's knowing which hold you're in — because a verification hold, a reserve, and a closure hold end three different ways, in a specific order, and doing them out of order wastes the one thing you can't get back: time.
Want the name of your hold — and the way out of it?
HoldFast is a self-serve diagnostic built from the processors' own published policies. You answer eight questions about the notice you received, and it lands on your stage, in your processor's own vocabulary:
- Stage 0 — not a hold at all: normal settlement timing (the best news there is, and worth knowing for sure)
- Stage 1 — verification / information hold
- Stage 2 — payment review
- Stage 3 — reserve
- Stage 4 — account limitation
- Stage 5 — closure hold
Here's what that looks like in real life. Say your notice mentions a percentage of each payout being kept back for a set number of days. That single detail — a percentage, a duration — points to a reserve, Stage 3: not a document problem at all, and no amount of re-uploading your ID will shorten it. Without the diagnosis, that's the mistake most merchants make first: sending verification documents to fix a hold that was never about verification. With it, you know your stage, your timeline, and your actual options in one sitting.
Then you get that processor's playbook for your stage:
- What your stage actually means — in plain language, not processor-speak, so you know where you stand.
- The documents that processor actually asks for — so your case lands complete, in front of the right team, the first time.
- Exactly where to submit them — the right door, not the general support queue.
- Realistic timelines — so you can plan your cash instead of refreshing your dashboard.
- A fill-in message template — written for your processor and your stage, ready to send today.
Prefer paper? The full written kit — the diagnostic plus all six processor playbooks — is a free PDF download. Download it and keep it either way: it's yours, whether or not it ever earns us a tip.
About ten minutes to your answer — sound manageable?
Run the diagnostic — eight questions about the notice you received.
Get your stage — named in your own processor's terms, with what it means for you.
Follow the steps in order — and send the fill-in message for your processor.
Keep a record — every submission, date, and reply in one folder, so nothing restarts your case.
Your processor's notice is the contract.
The email, dashboard banner, or letter from your processor is the single most important document in your case: it names your hold type, lists what's requested, and often states your deadline and release date. If a number in your notice — a percentage, a date, a deadline — differs from a general figure in HoldFast, your notice wins.
Worried a free tool is a trap?
Private by design
The bot runs entirely in your browser. Your answers never leave your device — there's no account to create, and nothing about your business is collected or sent anywhere. Your hold is embarrassing enough without becoming someone's data.
Checked against the sources
Every playbook was verified against the processors' own public documentation — help centers, published terms, and user agreements — as of November 2026. Not forum lore. Not a guru's guess.
Honest about its limits
HoldFast is educational — not legal or financial advice — and only your processor can release your funds. What it guarantees is narrower and real: your case arrives complete, at the right team, in the right order. US documentation; other countries' terms differ.
One more free fact for your folder: if your balance is very large, or you believe a law was broken, a payments attorney is the right spend — and US consumers can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov/complaint), free, which processors answer in writing.
Your questions, answered straight
Is it really free?
Yes — the bot, the kit, all of it, free while we test demand, with no upsell waiting inside. The proof is mechanical: the bot runs entirely in your browser, there's no account to create and no checkout to reach. And the kit is yours to keep either way — download the PDF now; if it never helps you, you've lost ten minutes and zero dollars.
Will HoldFast contact my processor for me — or log into my account?
No, and that's by design, not by limitation. HoldFast never touches your processor accounts. It names your stage and hands you the playbook and a fill-in message — you send the documents, from your own account, so your case is unmistakably yours. Because it runs in your browser and collects nothing, there's nothing about your business for anyone to hold. The whole thing stays free, and you stay in control.
How do I know the steps are the right ones?
Because they aren't ours — they're your processor's. Every playbook was verified against the processors' own published help centers, terms, and user agreements as of November 2026. One rule outranks even that: if a figure in your actual notice differs from a general figure in the kit, your notice wins — the kit tells you so itself. Checking costs you nothing: the kit is free to keep.
Can HoldFast guarantee my money gets released?
No — and any tool that promises you that is lying to you. Only your processor can release your funds. What HoldFast does guarantee is narrower and real: you'll know which hold you're in, and your case will arrive complete, at the right team, in the right order — instead of dying in the general support queue. It costs nothing to find out where you stand; keep the kit regardless of what you decide.
It's free. The tip jar is optional.
HoldFast is free while we test demand — the bot, the kit, all of it, with no upsell inside. There's nothing to lose by keeping it: download the PDF, run the bot, and if it never helps, you're out ten minutes and zero dollars. The expensive option is another week of guessing. If it did help you get your money back, you can tip the workshop:
Every week it sits frozen is a week it isn't paying your bills
The short version: 1. Your payout is in one of six holds. 2. Each hold ends a different way, in a specific order. 3. Eight questions name yours in about ten minutes. 4. The playbook and the message template are free, and the kit is yours to keep.
You don't need another support ticket. You need the name of your hold and the steps that end it. Eight questions. Ten minutes. Free.
Start the free diagnostic Get the kit as a PDFP.S. Before you click, find the actual notice — the email, banner, or letter where your processor told you about the hold. Your answers come straight from it, and your diagnosis will only be as good as the document it's based on. It's the most valuable piece of paper in your case. Then run the diagnostic with it in front of you.