What is a reserve, why do I have one, and how much is it?

What is a reserve? 

A reserve is a temporary hold on a certain portion of a merchant’s transactions. The reserve calculation occurs on a daily basis prior to any Airwallex fees and is applied only after settlement. 

Why is there a reserve on my account? 

A reserve amount is an established industry underwriting practice to preserve the integrity and operation of Payment Acceptance. The reserve amount will assist in streamlining and reducing any issues created by the risks of online payments such as credit risk, refunds and chargebacks. 

What are the types of reserve?

Airwallex has two types of reserves that merchants can choose from:

  1. Rolling 30 day reserves: Take a percentage of a transaction for a 30 day period. (e.g. on a $100 transaction, $10 is held for 30 days and returned to the customer after 30 days). Note that the exact percentage and period will depend on a variety of risk based factors.
  2. Delayed settlement: Net transaction amount is held for a number of days before being settled with the merchant.

Can I remove the reserve? 

Airwallex continually monitors the level of merchant risk to determine if we can lower/remove the reserve level. However, you can take steps to limit a reserve which include: 

  1. Providing a financial report of the last 2 years (audited preferred, for both the onboarding entity or its parent company) can be accepted, including incoming statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement
  2. Providing a sample invoice or contract with your refund policy

How can I find out how much reserve is being held? 

Airwallex provides you with the transparency and visibility of the fees and reserves held or returned. To view this information navigate to your wallet and click on a specific currency. You will see the account balance and the reserved balance as well.