Amazon has not paid out and the email only gives a generic message. First work out whether it is a standard reserve after delivery, a held disbursement, or a suspended account. That decides whether you simply supply a document and wait, or write an appeal with a Plan of Action.
The disbursement from Amazon did not arrive on the usual date, Seller Central shows a notification, and the email only says the payment is on hold. Most sellers start messaging support at that point and send documents blind. It is a waste of time, because Amazon holds money for three completely different reasons and each one needs a different response.
Amazon holds a disbursement for three reasons: the standard reserve, where money from an order is released only on the seventh day after delivery; a held disbursement on an active account because of a review or a missing document; and a suspended account, where the money is released only when the account is reinstated. The first is solved by waiting, the second by supplying documents, the third by an appeal.
At EXPANDO we handle account reinstatements regularly. This is the sequence we start with: first identify which of the three situations you are in, and only then act.
Open Seller Central. Two places tell you almost everything: Payments → Payments Dashboard and Performance → Account Health.
| What you see | What it means | What to do on day one |
|---|---|---|
| The Payments Dashboard shows an amount in the Deferred transactions line and the account is otherwise fine | Amazon's standard reserve. Money from an order is released 7 days after delivery. It is not a hold. | Nothing. Check that you upload tracking numbers with your orders so Amazon knows the delivery date. |
| The account is fine, orders keep coming, but no disbursement reaches your bank or part of the money sits in the Account level reserve line | A held disbursement. Most often an account review, an unverified company or bank detail, or open claims and chargebacks. | Find the request in Performance notifications or in Account Info and supply what Amazon asks for. |
| Account Health shows a banner at the top saying the account is suspended or deactivated | A suspended account. You are not selling and Amazon holds the money too. The disbursement is released only when the account is. | Read the reason under Learn more. Do not write an appeal before you understand it. |
A delivery-date reserve is not a held disbursement
From August 2023 Amazon gradually rolled out a single rule for sellers in the EU and the United Kingdom: money from an order is available for disbursement only on the seventh day after delivery. When Amazon has no delivery confirmation from the carrier, it uses the estimated delivery date. Amazon introduced the same rule for US sellers on 12 March 2026. Sellers who ship from their own warehouse without tracking wait the longest for their money. It is a standard, not a penalty.
An account review. Amazon reviews accounts on an ongoing basis and can hold the disbursement while a review runs. If it has not asked you for anything, nothing can be sped up. If it has, reply in a single message with all the documents.
An unverified company or payment detail. For Czech companies this is the typical case. Amazon wants proof of the company registration, the tax details or the contact person. Usually that means an extract from the commercial register or a founding document, mainly for joint-stock companies and companies with several shareholders, where Amazon verifies the beneficial owners.
A change of bank account. After you change the account number, Amazon delays the disbursement until it verifies the new account. It is fraud protection, not a penalty. There is no way around it, only waiting. And note: the company name on the bank account and in Seller Central must match exactly, and even a difference such as “s.r.o.” against the full legal name can stop the verification.
On top of that comes the Account level reserve: Amazon holds back part of the money already settled against open A-to-Z claims, chargebacks or refunds. You see the amount and the reason directly in the Payments Dashboard. It is released as soon as the disputes close.
At that point the disbursement is a secondary problem. Amazon deals with it only when the account is reinstated. The route runs through an appeal with a Plan of Action, in which you describe the root cause, what you have done to fix it, and how you will make sure it does not happen again.
The most common reasons for suspension are:
We cover the types of suspension in detail in our series Suspension on Amazon A to Z.
Is it your disbursement that is stuck, or the whole account?
Send us what you see in Account Health and in the Payments Dashboard. We will tell you which of the three situations you are in and whether we can help. Account reinstatement is work we do every week, so send us a no-obligation enquiry.
A checklist to prepare before you start writing:
Send legible scans with the company name visible and matching the details in Seller Central exactly. The common reason for rejection is not a missing document, but a document where the name or the address differs from the details on the account.
When the account has been down for more than a few days, an appeal has already failed once, or related accounts and suspected fraud are involved, it pays to leave the communication to someone who does it daily. Our Amazon account reinstatement service works like this: first we assess whether we can help, we agree the price upfront, and you pay only once it is resolved.
It depends on the reason. For the delivery-date reserve it is 7 days after the order is delivered. For an account review or a bank change it is days to weeks, depending on how fast you supply what Amazon asks for. For a suspended account, until it is reinstated. Amazon states no single deadline.
Yes. Once the account is reinstated, Amazon resumes disbursements as well. It can keep part of the money in reserve against open claims until they are closed.
Usually not. If Account Health shows no suspension notice, it is a reserve, a review or a missing document, not a penalty.
No. One complete reply with documents is faster than five incomplete ones. Follow up in the same case.
Money from orders waiting for the 7 days from delivery to pass. It is released on a rolling basis, so there is nothing to do about it.
The delivery-date reserve rule comes from Amazon's announcement to sellers in the EU and the United Kingdom (Seller Forums Europe, August 2023) and from the extension of the same rule to North American sellers on 12 March 2026 (Seller Forums US). The reasons for held disbursements and the appeal process come from our own reinstatement cases and from our older English article Why are your Amazon disbursements on hold (2024). The Seller Central section names reflect the state in October 2026; Amazon changes the interface without notice, so verify them in your own account before you decide anything. This is not legal advice.
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