A MATCH listing lasts five years, after which Mastercard purges it automatically. There is no application to file, no fee, and no form. The record simply comes off. Removal before that point is possible in only two narrow situations, and neither is a general appeal.
How long a MATCH listing lasts, and what the clock runs from
Five years from the date the listing was added, not from the date of the underlying problem and not from the date you found out about it. Since a processor is required to add a qualifying terminated merchant within one business day of the termination, the add date and the termination date are usually within a day or two of each other.
That gap matters if the termination was slow. A business that spent three months in a review process before the account was finally closed starts its five years from the closure, not from the month the chargebacks spiked. Ask the terminating acquirer for the add date in writing, since it is the only date that counts.
The two ways off before five years
Mastercard’s rules allow the acquirer that placed the listing to remove it in two situations. The first is that the acquirer added the business in error. The second is that the listing is reason code 12 for PCI DSS non-compliance, and the acquirer has confirmed the business is now compliant.
That is the entire list. There is no good-behaviour reduction, no settlement route, no appeal to Mastercard, which publishes that it does not assess the accuracy of listings in the first place. Anyone offering removal outside those two paths is selling a service that cannot deliver, which we go through in how MATCH list removal actually works.
Why the listing weighs less well before it expires
Underwriting is not binary, and this is the useful part. A listing from four months ago, on a file with no processing history since, gives an underwriter almost nothing to work with. The same listing from three years ago, on a file showing three years of clean processing through another account with a falling dispute ratio, is a different proposition entirely.
The listing is the same in both cases. What changed is the evidence sitting next to it. Time helps mostly because time is when you accumulate that evidence, which is an argument for getting an account running somewhere rather than waiting the clock out.
What to do with the waiting period
Get processing history. That means finding an acquirer that boards listed merchants, accepting that the first terms will reflect the reduced history, and then building the record that makes the next conversation easier. The route is set out in getting a merchant account after a MATCH listing and MATCH list credit card processing.
Fix the thing that caused the listing while you are at it, and document that you did. A file that shows the dispute ratio falling after a specific change, with the change named and dated, does more for you at month eighteen than the calendar does at month sixty. Practical detail is in how to lower your chargeback ratio.
Restructuring does not restart or shorten anything
Forming a new entity does not clear the listing, because MATCH records the principal owner’s name, address, phone number and tax ID alongside the business details. A new EIN with the same principal on the application surfaces the same record.
It can also make things worse. An application that omits a known listing and is then caught by screening reads as concealment, and that is a harder conversation than the listing ever was. Disclose it, explain it, and bring the evidence. More on how these files get read is in what underwriting actually looks at.
Visa’s list runs separately
The five-year purge is a Mastercard rule for MATCH. The Visa Merchant Screening Service operates on its own terms, with its own codes and thresholds, and an acquirer may check both systems. Clearing one does not clear the other. The full reference for both is on our MATCH list reference page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I get told when the listing is purged? No notification is sent. The record comes off automatically at five years.
Does the clock pause if I stop trading? No. The five years run from the add date regardless of what the business does in the meantime.
Can the same acquirer relist me for the same event? A listing relates to a termination. A fresh termination by a different acquirer for a fresh reason is a separate entry with its own five-year clock.
Is five years the same for every reason code? Yes. The retention period is the same across the table, and only code 12 and an added-in-error finding provide a route off before it.
Sources: Mastercard Security Rules and Procedures Merchant Edition (SPME manual), and Stripe’s published documentation at docs.stripe.com/disputes/match.