My payment has been blocked as the business I’m paying is unsupported by Tide, why is this?

As part of our commitment to the security of all Tide members, there are certain business types we are unable to service. 

This is because each business that joins Tide carries a certain level of risk, and we carefully control this through our acceptance criteria to ensure the safety of our members. 

• Be a minimum of 18 years old

• Have a valid UK mobile phone number

• Have a device that's registered to a UK App or Goggle Play store.

If the business you try to pay is outside of this criteria, we are unable to process your payment.

The business could be outside of this criteria for a number of reasons. Most often this is because it operates in an industry we are unable to support, such as gambling. It could also be because the business is funded fully or in part by donations, which creates a higher level of risk as we are unable to verify the source of these finances.

• Have a valid UK home address

• Be registered with HMRC 

You can find our full list of acceptance criteria here.

• Have a valid home address in the UK or overseas

• Be registered with Companies House 

We’re on a mission to help business owners spend less time on money admin.

However, there are a number of high risk industries that we can’t take on, as this would mean not being able to focus our time and energy on the rest of our members.

We don’t currently offer current accounts to businesses in the following industries:

• The holding, managing and/or controlling of a third party’s (client’s/customer’s) finances in the Tide account. This includes using the money on behalf of other individuals

• Insurance companies (incl. insurance brokers)

• Trading of crypto/virtual currencies

• Operating as a pawnbroker

• Extraction of precious metals and stones

• Investments (incl. real estate investments)

• Money services (such as foreign exchange, loan providers, money transfers)

• Banking services (incl. BCAs, loans, digital wallets, etc.)

• Casinos, prize draws and other betting or gambling activities

• Sale of unlicensed pharmaceuticals

• Sale or trade of cannabidiol (CBD) products

• Trading of weapons, explosives or armaments

• Unlicensed trading and processing of scrap metal

• Unlicensed waste management

• Unlicensed animal breeding

• Sale, import and export of used vehicles or heavy machinery

• Escort services and other services in the adult industry

• Bidding fee auctions

• Non-profit organisations, including charities

• Operating as, but not limited to, CICs and CIOs, PLC, LLP, Partnership, Trust.

You can read more about this in our blog post: Providing financial security for our members.