Close an Account

Overview

Closing a financial account permanently ends an account holder's access to the account and to any payment cards attached to it. Before launching your card product, Highnote works with your team to establish steps for account closure that are specific to your card product and servicing responsibilities.

Where you can close an account depends on the surface and the environment:

Surface	Test environment	Live environment
Highnote Dashboard	An admin in your organization can close an account	Not available—contact Highnote
Highnote API	Simulated account closure	Not available

The account closure flow is outlined in the following graphic:

Live environment

In the Live environment, a typical account closure process takes place as follows:

1. Your team contacts Highnote to request the closure. Highnote records who requested it: your team, the account holder, the Partner Bank, or Highnote.
2. The financial account status transitions to PENDING_CLOSURE.
3. During the PENDING_CLOSURE status, (a) any closure blockers on the account are resolved, and (b) authorizations are blocked on any associated payment cards.
4. The financial account status is updated to CLOSED.

Test environment

In the Test environment, your team can close an account from the Highnote Dashboard as follows:

1. Initiate Closure to move the account to PENDING_CLOSURE.
2. Resolve any closure blockers on the account.
3. Close Account to move the account to CLOSED.

Your team initiates each status transition and resolves any closure blockers, not Highnote.

In Test, the Dashboard offers closure only on account holder financial accounts, not on product-level accounts such as those that fund your card product or hold reserves.

Simulated closures move a Test financial account through the same statuses as a real closure, but they don't check closure blockers, and consent is supplied automatically rather than captured from the account holder.

Your team cannot undo account closure. If an account is closed in error, contact Highnote.

Blockers and restrictions

Two things need resolving before an account closes: blockers, which Highnote validates, and items your team settles directly with the account holder.

Closure blockers

Account closure blockers are conditions on the account that must be resolved before the account can close. Blockers are evaluated at both the initiation and finalization stage, but they only prevent finalization. That is:

• an account can move to PENDING_CLOSURE with blockers present
• an account cannot move to CLOSED with blockers present.

In the Dashboard Test environment, required ledger balances must be $0 or your team cannot close the account. Common blockers include the following:

Blocker	How to resolve
ACTIVE_PAYMENT_CARD	All cards associated with the account must have status SUSPENDED or CLOSED
PENDING_AUTHORIZATION	Wait for pending authorizations on the account to clear or expire
PENDING_TRANSFER	Wait for in-progress transfers to reach a terminal state, e.g., PROCESSED, FAILED
SCHEDULED_TRANSFER	Cancel scheduled one-time and recurring transfers on the account
ACCOUNT_BALANCE_PAYABLE ACCOUNT_BALANCE_RECEIVABLE	Required ledger balances on the account must be $0
OPEN_LINE_OF_CREDIT	Contact Highnote to close a line of credit
RISK_HOLD	Contact Highnote to resolve a risk hold on a transfer associated with the account
ACTIVE_AUTHORIZED_USER_ACCOUNTS	Each authorized user account on the account must have status CLOSED

See the AccountClosureBlocker enum for all possible values.

Funds owed

losing rewards

Rewards may be forfeited when a financial account is closed for a card product with a rewards program. Any unclaimed rewards should be communicated to the account holder by your support team.

Funds owed to the account holder are returned before the account closes — an outstanding balance is a closure blocker. Unclaimed rewards don't block closure, but they should be resolved with the account holder before the account is closed. For example, if an account holder has funds in their financial account and unclaimed rewards, the funds are returned to the account holder and the rewards are forfeited.

Notify the account holder

account holder notification

Some card products may require notifying an account holder by regulation. Contact support@highnote.com to inquire whether your card product requires account holder notification.

When closing a financial account, we recommend notifying the account holder of any related account closure events. Subscribe to the following notification events to notify account holders of account closure events:

Notification event	Description	Reference
ACCOUNT_STATUS_PENDING_CLOSURE	Notifies you when an account is pending closure, e.g., after your team initiates an account closure from the Dashboard.	Financial account status
ACCOUNT_STATUS_CLOSED	Notifies you when an account has been closed. You can send a confirmation message to the account holder to inform them of their financial account’s change in status.	Financial account status
ACH_FUNDS_WITHDRAWAL_INITIATED	Notifies you when an ACH withdrawal of funds owed to your account holder is initiated prior to account closure. Related ACH funds withdrawal events track the transfer through processing.	ACH funds out

Simulate account closure

Simulations run only in the Test environment and don't affect real accounts. Highnote's account closure simulation lets you test the following:

• Initiating an account closure
• Fully closing an account