The rolling reserve percentage is the proportion of a merchant's card sales that an acquirer or payment facilitator withholds from each settlement under a rolling reserve. The held amount is kept for a fixed holding period and then paid out through a reserve release, so the reserve rolls forward day by day. Percentages commonly fall between about 5% and 15%, with higher figures for riskier merchants.
For example, a merchant with $20,000 of daily sales under a 10% rolling reserve receives $18,000 and has $2,000 held; if the holding period is 90 days, the reserve builds to about dollars before releases begin to offset new holdbacks. Providers set the percentage during merchant underwriting, based on chargeback history, business model, delivery times and financial strength, and may raise or lower it as performance changes. A high percentage protects the provider but can strain the merchant's cash flow.