← RetryHub

Square is closing or restricting my CBD / hemp account. What now?

Short answer: Square has said it is winding down its CBD Program, and that once the new federal hemp law takes effect, selling CBD and hemp-derived products online or in person will no longer be permitted on its platform (Square Seller Community, Square Loans Team reply, August 21, 2026). If you received a notice, follow the dates in it, export your data now, and move CBD sales to a dedicated high-risk merchant account underwritten for CBD. RetryHub reviews CBD and hemp applications; approval is not guaranteed.

Query focus: Square closing CBD accounts / Square hemp account closed / CBD payment processor after Square

For years Square was one of the few mainstream platforms that ran a program for CBD sellers, so many hemp shops, wellness stores, and pet-CBD brands built their counter and their online store on it. Losing it means replacing the card reader and the checkout at the same time, while working out which products you can still sell at all.

This page covers what Square has said publicly, what to do in the first days after a notice, and how to prepare a CBD merchant account application. It is underwriting prep, not legal advice.

RetryHub helps with merchant-account placement and underwriting prep; PayFresco is a separate payments + CRM / orchestration product.

What Square has said, and where

In a reply on the Square Seller Community, a member of the Square Loans Team wrote: “A new federal law takes effect … that redefines which hemp and hemp-derived products are legal. Because of this change, Square is winding down its CBD Program. After the law takes effect, selling CBD and hemp-derived products — online or in person — will no longer be permitted on Square’s platform.” Source: Square Seller Community, “CBD program loan restrictions” thread, reply dated August 21, 2026.

Square has also emailed affected sellers directly. The deadlines that apply to you are the ones in the notice on your own account, not the dates quoted in blog posts or forums. Read it closely and check one thing first: does it ask you to remove CBD and hemp items so the account can keep selling other products, or does it say the account itself will close? Those two situations need different plans.

If your catalog is mixed (CBD plus other products)

• Do what the notice asks, by the date it gives. Remove every affected item from both the in-person and the online catalog.
• Do not keep selling CBD through the account you are keeping for other products, and do not rename CBD items to get them past a review. That is miscoding, and it risks the whole account.
• Give the CBD line its own home: a dedicated merchant account underwritten for CBD, ideally with its own descriptor and, if you sell online, its own checkout.

If your business is mainly CBD or hemp

• Assume you need a full replacement for payments, and possibly for your POS too.
• Start the new application now. Underwriting, document requests, and terminal or gateway setup all take time, and you want the new account live before the old one stops.
• Tell repeat customers early if checkout or in-store payment will change.

First steps after a Square notice

1. Save the notice (a screenshot and the email). Your next underwriter will ask why you are moving.
2. Export everything from the Square Dashboard: sales and payout reports, customer list, catalog, disputes and refunds, and tax forms. Keep your account open while you do this.
3. Audit your SKUs against the new federal definition with counsel, and check state rules where you sell and ship. Products that fall outside the law can't be processed by any legitimate acquirer, so leave them out of the application.
4. Gather certificates of analysis for every SKU you plan to keep selling, matching the batch and label.
5. Clean up product pages: remove disease or health-cure claims, and add age gating where your products or state rules call for it.

The workflow: from Square to a dedicated CBD merchant account

Application documents

Owner ID and formation documents, a bank letter or voided check, processing statements (your Square reports work), the Square notice, a full product list, COAs, label images, website policies (refund, shipping, terms, contact), and any licenses your state requires. The full list is in the high-risk document checklist, and the CBD specifics are in CBD merchant account prep.

Underwriting

Expect questions about how COAs map to what you sell, where you ship, how you market (no medical claims), your refund and dispute history, and whether you sell in person, online, or both. Being plain about the Square exit helps; underwriters see it in your statements anyway.

Reserves and terms

CBD is treated as higher risk, so the acquiring bank may set a reserve or other conditions. RetryHub doesn't set them. Ask how any reserve is calculated and released; the rolling reserve guide lists the questions to ask.

Go-live

For online sales, connect the new gateway to your store and test a live transaction before switching traffic. For in-store sales, get the merchant account approved first, then choose a terminal or POS that works with that processor, not the other way round. Keep the new descriptor recognizable so customers don't dispute charges they don't recognize.

What to avoid

• Listing CBD under another category, or leaving CBD off the application.
• Running CBD sales through a friend's or partner's merchant account.
• Signing a long contract before you know how the federal change affects your catalog.

How RetryHub helps

CBD and hemp is one of the industries listed on retryhub.com. RetryHub helps you assemble the file (COAs, product list, statements, and the Square notice) and routes it to acquiring paths that review the category, in the US, EU/UK, and Canada. RetryHub is a placement and onboarding partner, not the bank. The acquirer decides and sets terms, approval is not guaranteed, and acquirer appetite for CBD may change as the federal rules take effect. If your account was frozen for another reason, see Square froze my account.

FAQ

Related: CBD merchant account prep · Square froze my account · Document checklist · Rolling reserve · FAQ

Apply: retryhub.com/apply · Site: retryhub.com · Services: retryhub.com/services · Email: help@retryhub.com