This page constitutes the Reserve Conditions appendix provided for in article 12 of the General Terms of Sale governing the Merchant’s use of Alma’s payment solutions.
Reserves may be put in place in the Dashboard of any Merchant using the Alma Solution. For the purposes hereof, the term Reserves means an amount (whether fixed or variable) that is not directly transferred into the bank account associated with your Dashboard, and which is used to manage the risks associated with your business activities (refunds, chargebacks, etc.).
Reserves serve to protect your business interests as well as ours.
Funds placed in a Reserve account are owed to you. Alma will only use them if you are unable to meet your obligations. If these funds are not used, they will be returned to you in full when you cease to use the Alma Services.
The types of Reserves that may be put in place fall into two categories:
- Fixed Reserve: a fixed balance kept in your Dashboard to facilitate the operational management of your payments with Alma. For example, a Fixed Reserve may be used to issue customer refunds if your account balance is insufficient.
- Rolling Reserve: instead of becoming immediately available in full, a predefined share of each Transaction is withheld for an additional period, the length of which determined in advance. The funds in this Reserve enable us to manage the end of your use of the Alma Services if your account balance is insufficient.
The circumstances in which the funds contained in the Reserves mentioned above may be used include, without limitation:
- Requests for refunds corresponding to goods or services that were not provided. In other words, if one of your customers did not receive the products (goods or services) they ordered from your company, they may receive a refund from the Reserve. For example, if an end customer purchases a service that is supposed to be provided within two months and you are unable to provide that service, the Reserve may be used to issue a timely refund to the end customer.
- Refunds for your customers who exercise their right of withdrawal after the end of your business relationship with Alma. If an end customer exercises his or her right of withdrawal after you decide to no longer use our services, the funds from the Rolling Reserve will be used to issue a refund to the end customer.
- Payment of Alma’s fees.
Terms and conditions
Please keep in mind that Reserves serve to protect both your business interests and ours.
Reserves may be put in place in your Dashboard at different periods of your use of the Alma Services, either:
- When you first begin using the Alma Services, if, in our assessment, there is a high level of risk associated with your business activities;
- During your use of the Alma Services, if the level of risk associated with your business activities proves higher than average for your industry.
We use the following indicators to determine the level of risk associated with your business activities:
- Refund rate;
- Chargeback rate (percentage of payments disputed by your end customers);
- Complaint rate (lengthy delivery or refund times or complaints pertaining to product quality);
- Order suspension rate.
Depending on the results of our risk evaluation, Reserves may also be put in place in the following cases:
- A sudden, unexplained increase in the number of payments processed via Alma;
- Use of the Alma Services for less than 6 months;
- Your company enters insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings;
- Line of business identified as high-risk;
- Infrequent activity with Alma (below-average frequency of sales made via Alma compared to the rest of your industry);
- Delivery times for goods or services that exceed 7 days from the date of the end customer’s purchase on your website.
If our risk evaluation leads us to the conclusion that a Reserve should be put in place for your business, our teams will contact you at the email address specified in your Dashboard to inform you of the terms and conditions of the Reserve that will be associated with your Alma balance.
The amount and duration of the Reserve will be stated:
- In the initial email approving the creation of your Dashboard, if the Reserves are put in place at the time of creation of the Dashboard;
- In the email bearing the subject “Implementation of Reserves”, if the Reserves are put in place after the creation of your Dashboard;
- In your Dashboard.
How long will my account be subject to the Reserves?
The terms and conditions of the Reserves associated with your Dashboard are applicable for a period 90 days, which will continue to be automatically renewed thereafter.
Once this period has expired, however, if you would like the Reserves associated with your Dashboard to be reviewed by our team, you can send a message to support@almapay.com with “Modification of Reserves” as the subject line. They will indicate whether the terms and conditions of the Reserves associated with your Dashboard can be modified.
Please note that our staff will be unable to respond favorably to your request if you contact us before the 90-day period has expired.
Can I refuse to allow Reserves to be put in place?
We always notify you before placing Reserves on your Alma balance.
If you are opposed to Reserves being put in place, you may inform us by directly responding to the email you receive regarding this matter. Our team will review your request, and, if possible, offer you alternative terms of use for the Alma Solution.
However, please note that if you choose to contest the Reserves, this may result in the suspension of your access to the Alma Services.
In addition, in the event of suspicion of fraud, high levels of risk, or your failure to perform your obligations (such as failure to deliver goods or services ordered), Alma reserves the right to unilaterally put such Reserves in place. In this case, we will be unable to respond favorably to your request that the Reserves not be put in place. As a result, the funds corresponding to the Reserves will be withheld until the associated financial risk is eliminated.