Troubleshooting

1. Check whether other devices in the same room can get online. If nothing can, the problem is your internet, not the terminal — restart your router and try again once it is back.
2. Move the terminal closer to the router. Thick walls, metal shelving and fridges block Wi-Fi far more than people expect.
3. Restart the terminal so it connects again from scratch.
4. If your Wi-Fi password has changed recently, the terminal is still trying the old one. It needs to be reconnected to your network — ask the partner who installed it, as connecting it to your network is part of their setup.

When a connection comes and goes, it is nearly always a weak signal or a busy network.

• Check the signal strength on the terminal where it actually sits, not where it is convenient to test it.
• If your guest Wi-Fi is busy at your peak hours, and you have another network, move the terminal onto that one.
• Terminals using a mobile connection can struggle in basements and back rooms. Moving the terminal a few metres often fixes it.

If it keeps happening in a spot where the signal looks fine, contact your partner. They can check whether the device itself is faulty.

A payment that takes many seconds to confirm usually means a slow connection rather than a broken one. Try the same steps as for a connection that drops, above. Do not cancel a payment part-way through while you wait — let it finish or time out on its own, so there is no doubt about whether the customer was charged.

Contact your partner. Have the serial number from the label on the back of the terminal ready, and tell them exactly what the screen says.

If your terminal is not listed under Settings → Payments, it has not been activated for your business.

Try adding it once using its serial number. If that fails, stop and contact your partner rather than trying again — the serial number may be registered to a different account, and only they can move it.

Do not take payments on it. The money would go to whoever the terminal is registered to. Contact your partner straight away with the serial number.

The checks normally finish within one to two working days.

Longer than that usually means something is waiting on you:

1. Open Settings → Banking in the dashboard and look for a note asking you to correct something or send an extra document.
2. Check the inbox of the email address on your account, including your spam folder. We email you when we need more information, as well as showing it in the dashboard.
3. If there is genuinely nothing for you to do, get in touch with Citizen Pay support — see still stuck below.

The usual reasons, in order:

• The photo cannot be read. Take it again: flat, in daylight, with all four corners of the document in frame and no flash glare across the text.
• The document has expired. Check the expiry date on the ID you uploaded.
• The names do not match. The account holder name, the registered business name and the name on the ID all need to line up. A trading name that differs from your registered name catches a lot of people out.
• The account cannot receive business payments. Some personal and savings accounts cannot. Your bank can tell you in a minute whether yours can.

Put right whatever is wrong and send it in again. There is no penalty for that.

Yes, once your payment connections are switched on. The money is gathered up in your Citizen Pay balance and paid out as soon as your bank account is approved. You lose nothing by starting early.

Open Payment methods in the dashboard and look at the Card terminals (Viva) card. Until card payments fully work, it shows the four Take card payments steps, and the first step that is not green is what is missing:

1. Connect your Viva account — not connected yet: connect it.
2. Notifications from Viva — still waiting: create the webhooks in your Viva account and click Verify there. Without them, no card payment shows up in the dashboard.
3. Your card terminal — none added: add yours. If it has already taken payments, a Card payments waiting for you banner on your overview lets you claim them with Yes, it's mine, and they are booked on the place you choose.

See Take card payments.

Give it a few minutes and refresh the page. A terminal that was briefly offline sends its payments through once it is back online.

If it still has not appeared, check recent payments for the right date and the right terminal — with more than one device it is easy to look at the wrong one. If it is genuinely missing, contact support with the time, the amount and the last four digits of the card.

Work down this list:

1. Is your banking approved? Check Settings → Banking. Payouts only start once it is. See connect your banking.
2. Has a payout been sent? Payouts shows each payout and the payments in it. If none has been sent yet, your money is still in your balance.
3. How long ago was it sent? A payout still takes a working day or so to reach your bank, and weekends and public holidays do not count.
4. Is it your first payout? The first one usually takes longer than the ones after it.
5. Are your bank details right? A wrong IBAN makes the payout bounce back and show as failed. Correct the account details and the money is sent again.

1. Check that it is switched on under Settings → Payments in the dashboard, and that you saved the change.
2. Check that you are looking at the settings for the right terminal — each device has its own.
3. Restart the terminal so it fetches the new settings.
4. If the switch will not turn on at all, that payment method needs something from you first, and the dashboard shows what. See payment connections.

A decline is a message from the customer's bank, not a fault with your terminal, and you will not be told the reason. Ask the customer to try a different card or another way of paying.

If every card is declined, that is a different problem: check that your terminal is online, and that card payments are still switched on for that terminal.