The data
| Rejection cause | Count | Fixable? |
|---|---|---|
| Vague business description | 5 | Yes |
| Restricted business category | 3 | Partial |
| Passport less than 12 months remaining | 2 | Yes (renew) |
| Source of funds documentation missing | 2 | Yes |
| Name inconsistency across documents | 1 | Yes |
| Tightened country profile (Pakistan) | 1 | Partial (Wise fallback) |
| Multiple recent Mercury applications | 1 | Wait 6 months |
Cause #1: vague business description (5 of 15)
The single biggest rejection cause. "I run an online business" gets you rejected. Mercury reviewers want specifics: what you sell, who buys it, where the fulfillment happens, expected monthly revenue.
Bad: "I sell digital products online."
Good: "I run a Shopify store selling premium yoga mats to US customers. Products are sourced from a manufacturer in Vietnam and fulfilled through ShipBob in Dallas. Expected monthly revenue $15-30K from Stripe."
Cause #2: restricted business category (3 of 15)
Mercury rejects gambling, adult content, crypto exchanges (not crypto-adjacent), money services businesses, certain types of marketplace businesses. If your business falls in these categories, Mercury is not a realistic primary. Use Wise Business (no category restrictions for legal businesses) or Custodia (for crypto-specific).
Causes #3-5: passport, funds, name mismatches
Expired passport: Mercury requires 12+ months remaining on your passport. Renew before applying.
Source of funds: For high-volume applicants, Mercury asks where the capital comes from. Have a 1-paragraph explanation ready (personal savings, prior business revenue, etc).
Name inconsistency: LLC name on Articles, EIN on CP575, name on passport, and business description must all match. A typo or middle-name difference can trigger rejection.
How we coach the application now
After analyzing this data, we now require every customer to submit a 3-sentence business description before we route them to Mercury. We review it, suggest specifics, and only forward to Mercury once it passes our coaching template.
Result: our second-month approval rate jumped from 68% to 79%. Specific business description coaching is the highest-impact banking improvement we have made.