# Managed Support

Provide card and account holder support for your Stripe Issuing or Treasury program.

Managed Support lets platforms launching Issuing or Treasury programs outsource support operations to Stripe. Stripe provides a phone support line for card and account holders in your program, which you print on the back of the card, in billing statements, and on your FAQ site.

- Stripe builds and maintains the support tooling for your program.
- Stripe handles all card and account holder support requests directly.
- Support agents handle the support workflows that you and Stripe agree on, while your team retains ownership of your product and program decisions.

In the most common implementation, your card and account holders call the phone number Stripe issues for your program and complete authentication. Stripe then:

- Resolves the request directly, including account questions and regulated requests, such as disputes.
- Handles urgent matters when your team isn’t available, such as outside business hours.
- Reroutes the request to you if it requires your internal systems to resolve.

Use Managed Support for programs that use [Consumer Issuing](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/consumer-issuing.md), [consumer wallets for marketplaces](https://docs.stripe.com/treasury/connect/examples/closed-loop-respend-wallet.md), or [stablecoin-backed cards](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/stablecoin-cards-for-financial-accounts.md).

## Eligibility 

Managed Support is available for platforms operating in the US with consumer wallet, consumer credit, consumer debit, or stablecoin-backed card programs. Support is available in English and Spanish.

You can design your service so that your card and account holders contact Stripe directly for full-service implementations, or get routed to Stripe from your existing support line or chat for disputes-only implementations.

Branded Support requires a minimum of 30,000 projected card and account holders.

Eligibility also depends on where your platform operates, your issuer arrangements, the support channels you select, and your contracted service scope.

[Contact Sales](https://stripe.com/contact/sales) to discuss eligibility, scope, availability, and launch requirements for your program.

## Choose a support model 

Stripe offers two support models: Branded Support and Unbranded Support.

### Branded Support

Choose Branded Support if you want Stripe support agents to represent your platform under your brand. You approve the card and account holder communications, policies, and procedures that apply to the agreed support scope. This model can support a broad set of card and account holder issues and the channels included in your service design.

### Unbranded Support

Choose Unbranded Support if you want Stripe to handle a specific, limited issue type without representing your platform or using your brand. This model can be a fit for platforms that want to use Managed Support for selected workflows, but not the entire support scope.

For either model, Stripe handles the workflows in the agreed service scope. Your team owns policy decisions and workflows outside that scope.

The following table compares Branded Support and Unbranded Support:

| Attribute | Branded Support | Unbranded Support |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Line identity | Support agents represent your brand, and canned responses and IVR recordings use your branding. Agents can apply your program-specific policies, answer program-specific FAQs, and escalate issues to your team over a private channel when needed. | Support agents use a generic support identity rather than your brand. Agents handle general account requests but don’t answer program-specific questions, and redirect card and account holders to your team for those questions instead. |
| Support | Dedicated ops manager | Weekly metrics report |
| Product development | Stripe shares card and account holder insights and improvement suggestions based on complaints or misunderstandings | Not included |
| Pricing format | Flat fee per active card or account holder in your program | Usage-based fee per minute, email, and IVR session |

## Support workflows and optional services 

You and Stripe define the workflows for your program. The scope can include help with:

- General account or product questions.
- Card activation, controls, lost or stolen cards, and replacement requests.
- Balances, account activity, statements, and transaction questions.
- Declined transactions and fraud-related issues.
- Disputes, billing inquiries, complaints, and program notices.
- Digital wallet and tokenized-card support, where applicable.

Coverage is adapted by program. For example, a virtual stablecoin-backed card and a consumer credit card often require different workflows, product knowledge, and handoffs. Stripe routes questions outside the agreed upon scope to the appropriate team.

### Clear fraud alerts for consumer credit 

For eligible consumer credit programs, Managed Support can include a separately scoped service that helps applicants complete the verification required to clear a fraud alert before opening a new line of credit. Depending on the fraud alert and your program requirements, this can include identity verification and outreach through an agreed upon contact channel.

Stripe configures this service with your application and underwriting workflow so that agreed upon handoffs occur before you open a new line of credit.

## How onboarding works 

During onboarding, Stripe and your team define the following for your program:

- Support scope
- Channels
- Branding
- Policies
- Escalation routes
- Training
- Launch requirements

Your service design can include the following, when they’re part of the agreed upon scope:

- Phone, interactive voice response (IVR), and branded email options
- Program-specific documentation
- Agent preparation
- Testing

### Choose an authentication model and customize your IVR

The data available to authenticate your card and account holders when they call in depends on the product you use and the information you collect from them. If you choose Branded Support, you can also customize the script for the IVR system they interact with when they call in.

## Set up support workflow processes 

You and Stripe configure Managed Support for agreed upon support workflows, including applicable error-resolution, dispute, complaint, and escalation processes. Your legal and regulatory obligations depend on your program and remain your responsibility.

Stripe also prepares sample canned responses for these workflows. If you choose Branded Support, you can customize them to match your brand guidelines.

### Customize agent training and canned responses

Stripe maintains a set of standard (canned) responses for each workflow in your program. If you choose Branded Support, your marketing, legal, or product team can review these responses and request changes to their content or to the process Stripe uses to resolve them.

Unbranded Support uses standard responses and processes that you can’t customize.

## Email integration 

If you choose Branded Support, Stripe uses your company’s domain to send support communications to your card and account holders on your behalf. The following guides describe the configurations needed so Stripe can send and receive emails on behalf of your card and account holders.

- [Connected account email configuration](https://docs.stripe.com/connect/account-emails-config.md)
- [Custom email domain](https://docs.stripe.com/get-started/account/email-domain.md)
- [Branding your Stripe account](https://docs.stripe.com/get-started/account/branding.md#other-customization-options)

### Email addresses

Depending on your program type, you need to create several email addresses and allow Stripe to use your domain to set them up on our system.

| Sender address | Reply-to | Configurable sender/reply-to address | Usage |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `[product]-notices@[company-domain.com]` | Your company’s support email, or a no-reply address. Contact Stripe for a custom no-reply address. | No | Stripe uses this address for [all regulated customer notice emails](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/compliance-us/issuing-regulated-customer-notices.md): dispute submitted and provisional credit granted, dispute won, dispute lost. |
| `support@[product]support.[company-domain].com` | `support@[product]support.[company-domain].com` | Yes | Stripe uses this address for outbound support emails: collecting dispute evidence, resolving complaints, or following up on cases you initiated over the phone. |
| `identity-verification@[product]support.[company-domain].com` | `identity-verification@[product]support.[company-domain].com` | Yes | Stripe uses this address to email a card or account holder, or applicant when we require additional identity verification (for example, because of fraud alerts on their credit report). |
| `security@[company-domain].com` | No-reply address | Yes | Stripe uses this address to send multi-factor authentication messages for support cases. |

### Design

Stripe sends all emails with your branding (logo, icon, and theme colors), which you [configure](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/compliance-us/issuing-regulated-customer-notices.md?issuing-notices-sender=stripe#confirm-branding-settings) and preview in the [Stripe Dashboard](https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/connect/communication/email_preview?activeProduct=issuing_notices_spend_card).
![Example of a branded Managed Support email](https://b.stripecdn.com/docs-statics-srv/assets/managed-support-email-design.118759e3b7c218b66b99bde47d12edb3.png)

### Custom domain setup

Custom domain setup covers two types of email: regulated notices that Stripe sends automatically, and support emails that agents send.

#### Regulated customer notice emails

Even if you don’t use Managed Support, you still need to set up regulated customer notice emails.

For regulated customer emails sent from `[product]-notices@[company-domain.com]`, follow the [custom email domain guide](https://docs.stripe.com/get-started/account/email-domain.md) and [Issuing regulated customer notices](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/compliance-us/issuing-regulated-customer-notices.md).

#### Support emails

If you use Managed Support, follow these instructions to customize the templates that Stripe agents use to communicate with your card and account holders.

Stripe uses [Amazon SES](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/) to send and receive emails for `support@[product]support.[company-domain].com` and `identity-verification@[product]support.[company-domain].com`, so you must complete a separate setup process.

**DKIM keys**: Stripe provides DKIM keys that you must add to your DNS records for [product]support.[company-domain].com. These keys prove ownership of your domain to Stripe and Amazon SES.

**MX records**: MX records make sure Stripe correctly receives replies to the email addresses. You must set up an MX record for [product]support.[company-domain].com with the following value:

`inbound-smtp.us-west2.amazonaws.com`

Follow the [AWS guide for receiving email](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/dg/receiving-email-mx-record.html#receiving-email-mx-record-links) to set up MX records.

## See also

- [Customer support for Issuing and Treasury for platforms](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/customer-support.md)
- [Issuing onboarding overview](https://docs.stripe.com/issuing/onboarding-overview.md)