Square is closing hemp and CBD accounts: what happens to your money, your data, and your catalog

Summary

Square has told hemp and CBD sellers to stop. Mixed catalogs lose their CBD listings on October 15, 2026. Accounts built mainly on hemp close entirely on November 5, 2026.

Two more dates sit behind those. Before you move your store, sort which of your products are still hemp in December. Then find out what your Square Loan does the day the account closes.

Introduction

The notice went out to affected accounts around August 7, 2026. You found out by email, from a company you have never spoken to. The wording was plain: “selling CBD and hemp-derived products, online or in person, will no longer be permitted.”

Two dates came with it, and they are not the same for every seller. This guide covers which deadline is yours, what happens to your money, and what you can take with you. It also covers the order to do things in, which matters more than most people expect.

What did Square actually tell hemp and CBD sellers?

Square told sellers that CBD and hemp products can no longer go through Square, in stores or online. The notice reached affected accounts around August 7, 2026. It named a product category rather than a particular business.

That wording comes from the seller notice, as merchants who received it have described it. Square has not published a policy page saying the same thing. Treat the dates as reported.

This was a decision about a whole category. Nobody at Square looked at your refund rate, your paperwork, or your lab results. None of this is your fault.

Square is not the first hosted platform to drop a category at short notice, as vape retailers on Shopify found. Federal law changed what the word hemp means, and that is the bigger story.

Which Square deadline applies to you, October 15 or November 5?

Your deadline is October 15 for a mixed catalog, or November 5 if hemp is your main business. Square sent different instructions to the two groups. Work out which group you are in before you do anything else.

October 15, 2026, if CBD is one part of a wider catalog

If CBD sits alongside other products, those items have to be gone by October 15, 2026. That covers every CBD, hemp, and hemp-derived item, in person and online.

Hemp-derived simply means the compound came from the hemp plant. CBD, delta-8, and THCA all count.

The rest of the account stays open, so your other sales, your card reader, and your payouts carry on.

November 5, 2026, if hemp is your main business

If hemp and CBD are most of what you sell, the whole Square account closes on November 5, 2026. The reported cutoff is 11:59pm EST.

Not the listings. The account. That means your point of sale card reader, your online store, your customer list, and your payouts.

One honest caveat: reported closure dates have varied between sellers, so treat November 5 as the outside edge.

How do you work out which group you are in?

Pull last quarter’s sales by item and work out what share came from hemp and CBD products. Your Square transaction report gives you that number in about twenty minutes.

If those items are most of your revenue and most of your catalog, plan for the November 5 outcome.

If you sit on the line between the two groups, plan for the worse one. The work is the same either way, and a Square hemp store migration takes longer than a catalog edit.

Did the hemp law date move, and what does that mean for you?

Part of it moved. The full hemp redefinition now lands on December 11, 2026. A narrower piece still lands on November 12, 2026.

Congress split the date in two on September 2, 2026. Here is where each piece landed.

What changed on September 2, 2026

The rule underneath this is Section 781, part of Public Law 119-37. It has been law since November 12, 2025, with a one-year delay written into it.

Then Congress passed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027. The House voted it through 370 to 48 on September 1. It was signed the next day.

Section 2019 of that act limits what Section 781 covers until December 11, 2026. The wording sits in the H.R. 6500 bill text if you want to read it yourself.

What each of the two dates covers

On November 12, 2026, Section 781 applies only to cannabinoids the plant cannot produce on its own. In practice that means delta-8, delta-10, HHC, THC-O, and other converted cannabinoids.

On December 11, 2026, Section 781 applies to everything. That is when the new measuring stick and the new cap reach ordinary CBD.

So a converted product falls out of the definition in November. A plain full-spectrum tincture follows about four weeks later.

Why 0.4 milligrams per container is the number to check

From December 11, a finished product is hemp only if its container holds 0.4 mg of total THC or less. Total THC now includes THCA, the acid form that turns into THC when heated.

It is milligrams per container, not a percentage, and not per serving. A small tincture and a large drink get the same allowance.

The plant standard tightens as well, to 0.3% total THC by dry weight. Fiber, stalk, grain, seed oil, and edible greens keep their own carve-out.

Does the later date reopen your Square account?

No. Square set its own dates for its own commercial reasons, and federal law does not move them. December 11 is being read as a reprieve, but not for your Square account.

Which of your products still count as hemp?

A finished product still counts as hemp only if its container holds no more than 0.4 mg of total THC. Moving your store does not change that number. No migration makes a 5 mg gummy legal.

That is why this is the first job rather than the last one. It costs an afternoon and no money, and it stops you paying for a fix that cannot help.

How do you sort your catalog into two lists?

Work through every product once.

• Pull the lab report. Get the current certificate of analysis, or COA, for every product you sell.
• Read total THC. Use the total THC line that includes THCA, not the delta-9 line on its own.
• Convert to milligrams. Work out milligrams per container, not per serving and not as a percentage.
• Flag the converted items. Mark anything made with a cannabinoid produced outside the plant.
• Separate industrial hemp. Put fiber, seed oil, and grain lines into their own group.

Two lists come out of that afternoon. One survives Section 781. One does not.

What if most of your catalog lands on the wrong list?

Then this is a product problem before it is a platform problem. The honest answer may be a reformulated line rather than a new store.

The FDA has also concluded that CBD does not fit the existing rules for food and supplements. No agency, ours included, can make a product compliant that is not.

If your catalog clears the cap, your problem is the store and the payments, and that is fixable. CBD store setup is the build side of it.

Confirm your own product conclusions with a lawyer and with your lab. We build and move stores, and this article is not legal advice.

What happens to your money and your Square Loan?

Square can hold part of your money after the account closes. An open Square Loan can also come due in full. Both are written into agreements you already accepted.

The 120-day tail on refunds

Square documents that refunds can be processed up to 120 days from the day you took the payment. A sale you made in September can still come back at you in January. That is long after the store is gone, and it is why a payment processor keeps money back.

Square’s terms let it hold funds in reserve and delay a payout at its own discretion. A chargeback, which is a customer asking their bank to reverse a payment, stays your liability either way.

What a Square Loan does when the account closes

A Square Loan repays itself out of your daily card sales, at a fixed percentage. A minimum payment is due regardless, and closing the business does not pause it.

Square’s own help pages go further. Closing the business before the loan is repaid puts it in default under your loan agreement.

On default, Square Financial Services may demand the whole outstanding balance at once. It may also debit past-due amounts from your linked bank account and raise your repayment rate.

There is a way through, but it is not automatic. Square says an alternative repayment option may exist, and tells borrowers who cannot repay to contact them.

Do that in writing, and do it before the account closes rather than after. Square’s guidance for closed businesses sets out what happens if you do not.

Is the 90-day hold on Square funds real?

No. The widely repeated 90-day hold appears nowhere in Square’s terms, and neither does the 180-day version.

Both figures circulate through blogs published by firms selling competing merchant accounts. The documented number is the 120-day refund window above.

Expect that same slant almost everywhere you read about high-risk payment processing this month. Nobody has published a neutral count of affected sellers either.

What can you take with you when you leave Square?

You can export your products, your sales history, and your customer list yourself. Saved cards are the exception, and they need a phone call. The self-serve exports take about half an hour.

The exports you can run yourself this week

• Item library. Dashboard, then Items and services, Items, Item library, Actions, Export Library. Square recommends the Excel file.
• Transactions. Reports, then Transactions, set your date range, then Export. Customer names come with it.
• Customer directory. Export it from the Dashboard, along with your 1099-K forms.

Do these this week, not on deadline day. Keep a copy off the machine you run the store on. That catalog export is what your next store gets built from.

Saved cards, the one export with a two-week clock

Cards on file are the card details saved for repeat customers. Square will move them, but the route is narrow.

Only the account owner can ask, and the request goes in by phone rather than through the Dashboard. Square sends card data only to a processor certified at PCI DSS Level 1, the top card-security tier.

Square’s stated timeframe is up to two weeks. The order catches people out, so read the next part twice.

You have to be approved by the new processor before Square will release the cards. So choosing how you take payments next is the gate on rescuing your saved cards.

Picture a hemp drinks seller with 400 subscription customers who phones Square on November 3. Without a receiving processor already approved, those 400 customers have to enter their card details again.

If you are still comparing payment gateway providers, that is the job to finish first.

What does not come with you

Reviews, loyalty balances, gift card balances, and booking history do not transfer. Budget time to rebuild them.

A Square Online store is not portable either. The storefront gets rebuilt rather than moved, which is a design job. The WooCommerce migration guide walks through what that involves.

What is the right order to do this in?

Sort your catalog first, sort payments second, and move the store third. Every step below exists because the step after it cannot start until it is done.

Week 1, sort and export, do not buy

• Step 1. Do not buy anything this week.
• Step 2. Sort every product into survives and does not, using total THC per container.
• Step 3. Export your item library, transactions, and customer directory. Save a copy off-site.
• Step 4. Confirm which Square deadline is yours and write the date where you will see it daily.
• Step 5. Email Square about any open loan balance, and keep the reply.

Step 1 is not a delay tactic. Until the catalog is sorted, you do not know what you are buying.

Weeks 2 to 4, new payments and a new store

Square is the merchant of record right now, which means Square holds the bank relationship, not you. Your own account, often called a high-risk merchant account in this category, puts that relationship in your name. It takes documents and time, so start early.

• Step 6. Apply for your own merchant account. Have lab reports, processing statements, and formation documents ready, and allow about six weeks.
• Step 7. Start the new store in parallel, as a self-hosted store you control. Import the item library you already exported.
• Step 8. Once the processor approves you, phone Square for the card on file export. Allow the full two weeks.

What the reviewers ask for, and why they say no, is a subject on its own. Merchant account underwriting covers it.

Approval is the long pole, so steps 6 and 7 run at the same time. WooCommerce migration services covers running both tracks at once.

Weeks 5 to 6, switch over and leave the tail running

• Step 9. Test checkout on the new store with a real card before you switch anything off.
• Step 10. Email your customers before Square does. A subscriber who hears it from you re-enters a card.
• Step 11. Keep the Square account open, with hemp items removed, until the 120-day refund window runs down.

Step 11 matters more than it looks, because closing in a hurry does not release money faster. If your date is November 5, that option is gone and the tail runs without you. Square CBD migration support exists for exactly that case.

The one-page checklist

Screenshot this. Nothing below the line you are stuck on can move yet.

• Catalog sorted. Two lists exist, by total THC per container.
• Exports saved. Products, transactions, and customers, stored off-site.
• Deadline confirmed. October 15 or November 5, written down.
• Loan asked about. Question sent to Square in writing, reply kept.
• Application in. Documents attached, six weeks allowed.
• Card export requested. Phone call made, new processor approved first.

People also ask

Does the December 11 delay change Square’s deadlines?

No. Square set its own dates, October 15 for mixed catalogs and November 5 for hemp-first accounts. The federal change moves what the law covers, not what a private company decides.

What happens to my Square Loan if my account closes?

Closing the business without repaying puts the loan in default under your loan agreement. Square may then demand the full balance and debit your linked bank account. Ask Square in writing about an alternative repayment option before the account closes.

Can I take my saved customer cards with me?

Yes, with conditions. Only the account owner can request it, only by phone, and only to a PCI DSS Level 1 processor. Square’s stated timeframe is up to two weeks, so the new processor has to be approved first.

Conclusion

You are dealing with two problems that look like one. The first is your setup: where the store lives and whose name is on the payments. That one is fixable.

The second is your catalog, and no platform, processor, or agency fixes it for you. Sort that this week, before you spend a dollar on anything else.

Square’s dates are October 15 and November 5. The law’s are November 12 for converted cannabinoids and December 11 for everything else.