A rolling reserve is a percentage of a merchant’s card sales that the acquirer withholds from each settlement and releases after a fixed period, commonly somewhere between 90 and 180 days, on a rolling basis. It exists to cover chargebacks, refunds and fines that may arrive after the merchant has been paid.
Why it matters
For a high risk merchant the reserve is often the single biggest hidden cost of processing, because it is working capital you cannot touch. A ten percent reserve on a six month cycle means well over a month of revenue permanently parked with your acquirer. Reserves are also the most negotiable term on the table: acquirers set them at underwriting when they know the least about you, and a clean processing history is the lever that brings the percentage and the window down.