Alena Kuznetsova

Sep 24, 2026

Account permanently closed without explanation

I had an extremely disappointing experience with Payoneer. I registered using my real personal information and submitted the documents requested for verification. I currently live in Vietnam, provided my valid passport, my Vietnamese bank account details, and an official bank document confirming that I am a customer of the bank and showing my local address. I also answered the registration questions honestly. I clearly stated that I do not currently have a registered business. I did not attempt to hide anything, provide false information, create fraudulent transactions, or misuse the service in any way. Despite this, Payoneer permanently closed my account after what they described as an “internal investigation.” Their explanation was that “certain activity on the account did not align with Payoneer’s Terms and Conditions and Prohibited Transactions.” The problem is that they refused to tell me what activity they were referring to. They did not identify: - any transaction that violated their rules; - any incorrect information that I submitted; - any document they considered invalid; - any specific provision of the Terms and Conditions that I allegedly violated; - any prohibited transaction I allegedly conducted; - or any action I could take to clarify or correct the issue. Instead, I was simply told that the details of their investigation cannot be disclosed. Even more concerning, Payoneer informed me that the decision is final, cannot be reversed, and that any future application from me will also be declined. In other words, I have effectively been permanently banned from Payoneer while being given no meaningful opportunity to understand what I supposedly did wrong. I specifically asked whether the decision was related to my Russian citizenship or to the fact that my husband and I had the same phone number associated with our accounts. Payoneer stated that neither of these was the reason. However, they still refused to provide any alternative explanation. This leaves me in an absurd situation: Payoneer claims that I violated or failed to comply with its rules, but will not tell me which rule, which action, or which piece of information was problematic. I understand that financial companies have AML, fraud-prevention, sanctions-compliance and internal risk-management obligations. I also understand that they may sometimes decide not to provide services to a particular customer. What I do not consider acceptable is presenting such a decision as if the customer had violated the Terms and Conditions while refusing to provide even the most basic information necessary for the customer to understand the allegation. There is an important difference between: “We have decided that we do not want to provide services to you because of our internal risk assessment” and “Your activity did not comply with our Terms and Conditions / Prohibited Transactions.” If Payoneer is making the second claim, customers should at least be told what category of violation allegedly occurred. Otherwise, there is no way to distinguish an actual violation from a false positive, an automated compliance flag, an incorrect risk assessment, or an error in the verification process. I provided genuine documents, accurate personal information, a legitimate Vietnamese bank account, and my real residential address. To the best of my knowledge, I did not violate Payoneer’s rules. Yet I have apparently been permanently excluded from the platform without being told what I actually did. This complete lack of transparency is the reason for my negative review. I would strongly advise anyone considering Payoneer to understand that an account can apparently be permanently closed based on an internal review, with no specific explanation provided and no meaningful possibility of appeal!