Accept card payments online with CloudCart Pay: fees, setup, payouts

In short: to accept card payments online in a CloudCart store, you switch on CloudCart Pay, the payment method built into the platform. It takes Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay, needs no bank contract, and charges a 0% transaction fee through Dec 31, 2026. Approval takes a few hours to 2 business days, and payouts reach your account in 2 to 5 business days.

This guide comes from the team behind CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, and is based on the platform documentation and the CloudCart Pay page. It is for foreign founders with a Bulgarian company, expats and EU sellers serving Bulgarian buyers: the registration steps, documents, fees, payouts, settings and common errors.

Since Bulgaria joined the euro area on Jan 1, 2026, at €1 = 1.95583 leva (European Commission, Bulgaria and the euro), a Bulgarian store sells in euro and CloudCart Pay pays out in euro with no conversion.

What is CloudCart Pay?

CloudCart Pay is CloudCart's own payment method: the customer pays by card or phone directly in your store, and the money is paid out to your company's bank account. It has been live for all merchants since Oct 6, 2026, and it is the recommended way to accept card payments in CloudCart.

With a bank virtual POS, you negotiate with the bank, receive a terminal number and a certificate and enter them in the store. With CloudCart Pay, registration, documents and terms are all in your store admin, and there are no keys to enter.

• Cards and wallets: Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Where the customer pays: at checkout, or straight from the product page with an express checkout button.
• Payouts: by SEPA transfer to your account, in 11 currencies: EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, PLN, RON, CZK, HUF, DKK, SEK and NOK.
• Plan: CloudCart Pay works on every CloudCart plan, with no plan restriction.

Accepting card payments online without a bank contract: who CloudCart Pay is for

Companies can register, including sole traders (ET, the Bulgarian sole-trader form), and so can non-profit organisations. The bank account for payouts must belong to the company or its representative.

The method helps most in three situations:

• Your store only takes cash on delivery. With cash on delivery, the courier collects the money at the door, you pay a courier fee and risk refused parcels; a card order is paid on the website. The numbers are in cash on delivery vs card payments.
• Customers leave at the payment step. The average documented cart abandonment rate is 70.22%, and in the US survey 19% of those who left did not trust the site with their card and 9% did not find enough payment methods (Baymard Institute). Apple Pay and Google Pay remove card typing.
• Most visits come from phones. The express button takes email, phone and address from the phone's wallet, and the customer confirms the payment in the same sheet. What else to check on mobile is in the guide to the mobile version of your online store.

If you give a discount for paying with CloudCart Pay (the Discount field in the settings), say so in your newsletter and ads: a customer who arrives from an ad can reach a paid order straight from the product page.

CloudCart Pay is one of the methods at checkout. Cash on delivery, bank transfer and buy now, pay later stay next to it if you want them. The full list of methods is in the guide to payment methods for an online store.

What does CloudCart Pay cost?

Through Dec 31, 2026, the CloudCart Pay transaction fee is 0%, whatever the card, currency or country. From Jan 1, 2027, standard rates apply: a percentage of the amount plus a fixed part, excluding VAT. There is no monthly fee.

The standard fee for a store registered in Bulgaria depends on the customer's card:

Customer's card	Through Dec 31, 2026	From Jan 1, 2027 (excl. VAT)	Example: a €133.90 order
Consumer Visa and Mastercard cards issued in the European Economic Area (EEA)	0%	1.29% + €0.05	€0 through Dec 31, 2026, then €1.78
Business cards from the EEA and all cards issued outside the EEA	0%	2.69% + €0.05	€0 through Dec 31, 2026, then €3.65

The rates are in the Fee Schedule you accept in step 5, which allows changes with at least 30 days' notice. The fee on each payment is in the Fee column of the Transactions tab.

Important: the 0% promotion covers the transaction fee. Disputed payments (chargebacks) and the related card scheme fees stay with the merchant and can be deducted from the payout amount.

In the EU, a store may not add a surcharge for paying with a consumer card (Your Europe, payments and transfers), so the card fee is a cost you plan into your margin. A discount for a chosen method is a different thing, and CloudCart lets you set one.

The platform takes no percentage of your sales either. Plans are fixed: billed annually and excluding VAT, Baby Pack is €14, Starter Pack €33, CC Pro €83 and CC Master €249 a month (CloudCart pricing). The full running costs are in what an online store costs in Bulgaria.

How to activate CloudCart Pay: the 7 steps in the admin

You activate CloudCart Pay from Settings → Payment methods → CloudCart Pay: install the method, complete the 7 steps of the Registration tab and, once approved, turn on the Active toggle. It all happens in the admin, and a closed browser resumes at the first unfinished step.

1. Profile. Country, business type and email. The country and business type lock once the account is created, so check them first.
2. Business. Trading name, website and merchant category code (MCC), then company name, UIC (EIK, the Bulgarian company number), structure and registered address.
3. Representative. The legal representative, every beneficial owner with 25% or more and every director. People can be added and edited, not removed.
4. Documents. Upload the documents (table below) and submit the account for review. While a file is missing, you see a list of missing documents.
5. Verification. Tick the six documents, including the Tri-Party Merchant Agreement, the Fee Schedule and the Paynetics privacy policy, accept, and send the legal representative the identity verification link.
6. Bank. Holder name and type, country, currency, IBAN and BIC/SWIFT of the payout account.
7. Status. The Payments and Payouts cards show the review. Once Payments is active, switch the method on.

Which documents CloudCart Pay asks a Bulgarian company for

From a Bulgarian company, CloudCart Pay asks for one company bank statement and two documents for each person from step 3. Files are PDF, PNG, JPG or JPEG, up to 10 MB.

For	Document	Requirement
The company	Bank statement of the legal entity	No older than 3 months, with the holder and IBAN clearly visible
Each person	ID card (front and back) or passport	A valid document; for a passport, the photo page
Each person	Proof of address	A utility bill, bank statement or other official document with the address, no older than 3 months

Add every director and every owner with 25% or more in step 3 with their documents, or the application cannot be approved. For a foreign founder, this means the passport and a recent proof of address from wherever you live are enough; you do not need a Bulgarian ID card. Company options for foreign founders are in the guide to registering a company for an online store.

How long does approval take?

A new CloudCart Pay account is approved within a few hours to 2 business days after you submit it, longer for a complex ownership structure. A person checks the documents, so uploading the same file again does not speed it up.

Every change arrives as an admin notification and an email to the store owner. If the compliance team needs another document, the request and the reviewer's message appear in step 4. While you wait, the store keeps selling with its other payment methods.

When does the money from card payments arrive?

CloudCart Pay pays out by SEPA transfer to the account you entered in step 6, usually within 2 to 5 business days. The payout schedule is set by the agreement and cannot be changed in the admin.

The Payouts tab shows the payout status (Enabled or Disabled), the default currency and your bank accounts. With Add Bank Account you add a second account, for example in RON for sales in Romania.

Existing accounts are read-only there, and there is no list of individual payouts. To reconcile with your bank, use Total Payments, Total Refunds, Total Fees and Net in the Transactions tab.

CloudCart Pay settings: the card form, Apple Pay and express checkout

How CloudCart Pay behaves at checkout is set in Settings → Payment methods → CloudCart Pay → Settings. There are no API keys and no test switch here: what is left to you is how the customer sees the payment.

Setting	Options	Default
Card form display	Inline on the checkout page; a popup window after the order button; a separate CloudCart Pay payment page	Inline
Digital wallets	Apple Pay and Google Pay, each on its own	Both on
Express checkout	Buttons on product pages, in the cart and at checkout	Product page and cart on, checkout off
Save Customer Card	Registered customers save their card and pay next time without typing it again	On
Logo, title, description	The method's name at checkout, for example "Pay by card"	Standard
Amount (min / max) and discount	Which orders the method shows for, and a discount for paying with CloudCart Pay	Empty

Apple Pay shows only after Apple verifies your domain: use Register domain on the Apple Pay domain card in the same tab.

Express checkout offers address delivery only, with the active couriers sorted from the cheapest; an Econt or Speedy office or a BOX NOW parcel locker (the main Bulgarian couriers and locker network) is picked in the regular checkout. Every payment is captured at once on success (there is no delayed capture), and if the customer's bank asks for 3-D Secure, the check shows in the form without the customer leaving the site. Under EU rules, an online card payment over €30 needs at least two authentication elements (see the Your Europe page above), so a smooth 3-D Secure step matters.

A declined card does not close the payment session: the customer tries another card in the same form, and a payment left open for 3 hours is closed by the system.

Transactions, refunds and fee invoices

Every CloudCart Pay payment is in the Transactions tab, with filters for order number, payment ID, customer ID, status and period, and each row shows the card, amounts, fee, bank response and order.

• A full refund is the Refund payment button on the order page.
• A partial refund goes through an order return with a refund to the card; the payment then shows as Partially Refunded.
• Invoices for CloudCart Pay fees are in the Tax Invoices tab, as a PDF once the status is Issued.

How returned orders are handled and what the legal deadlines are is in the guide to returns in an online store.

CloudCart Pay and the NRA: the data for the Ordinance N-18 declaration

A store registered in Bulgaria files an electronic store declaration with the NRA (the National Revenue Agency) under Ordinance N-18, the Bulgarian rule on sales documents. Its Appendix 33 asks how you accept cards, and step 7 of CloudCart Pay registration has the answer ready in the NRA declaration information card.

The card shows the payment service provider, the merchant ID (MID), the virtual POS terminal ID (TID), the settlement method and the receiving account, with a PDF button. CloudCart Pay does not file the declaration: you or your accountant do, with this data.

Which document you issue for a card payment and how the monthly file is filed is explained in Ordinance N-18 for an online store.

CloudCart Pay or a bank virtual POS: comparison

CloudCart Pay is the faster route to card payments; a bank contract makes sense if you already have good terms or need Amex and JCB, which CloudCart Pay does not support. CloudCart has ready integrations for both routes and for payment providers (all are on the payments page). Borica is the Bulgarian card processing company behind the banks' virtual POS terminals.

	CloudCart Pay	Card through a bank contract (Borica)
Bank contract	No, the terms are accepted with ticks in the admin	Yes, an ecommerce contract with the bank
Cards	Visa and Mastercard	Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, JCB, Diners and Amex
Setup	7 steps in the admin, approval in a few hours to 2 business days	Terminal ID, certificate signing request (CSR), certificate signed by Borica
Transaction fee	0% through Dec 31, 2026, then 1.29% + €0.05 for consumer EEA cards	As agreed with the bank
Apple Pay and Google Pay	Yes, also as a product page button	Yes
Delayed capture	No, the amount is captured at once	Yes, on plans with this feature

PayPal and Stripe, with their Bulgarian fees and payout times, are compared in PayPal and Stripe in Bulgaria, and the choice between a bank, a provider and CloudCart Pay is covered in the part on virtual POS and payment providers.

Good practice with CloudCart Pay

1. Prepare the documents first. A company bank statement and a proof of address per person, no older than 3 months.
2. Register the Apple Pay domain right after approval. Without it, Apple Pay does not show.
3. Keep the express button on the product page. It takes the customer from product to paid order in one step.
4. Rename the method in plain words. "Pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay" says more than a system name.
5. Give a reason to pay by card. Use the Discount field, and keep cash on delivery for those who do not pay online.
6. Publish clear delivery and return terms. The agreement requires them, and they are your first evidence in a dispute.
7. Reconcile every month. Compare Net in the Transactions tab with what reached your bank account.

Which numbers to watch after you switch CloudCart Pay on

After you switch CloudCart Pay on, watch five numbers: the share of orders paid by card, paid against started card payments, Total Refunds, Total Fees and Net for the month. The first two show whether cards sell more and whether customers get stuck in the form or in 3-D Secure; the last three, in the Transactions tab, show whether the money in your account matches your sales.

An example of the fee after the promotion: a store in Bulgaria with 300 orders a month paid with consumer EEA cards and a €50 average order takes €15,000 by card. From Jan 1, 2027, the fee on them is 1.29% of €15,000 plus 300 × €0.05, or €208.50 a month excluding VAT. Through Dec 31, 2026, the same payments cost €0.

A payments report built by an AI assistant

An AI assistant such as Claude Code, ChatGPT/Codex or Gemini CLI, connected with a read-only PAT token (personal access token), reads orders from CloudCart and answers questions like "compare card and cash on delivery orders for the last 30 days". A read-only token cannot change anything and is revoked at any time from Settings → PAT tokens. How to connect it is on the store with an AI assistant page, and the wider picture is in running an online store with AI.

Errors that stop CloudCart Pay from switching on

The most common reason CloudCart Pay will not switch on is that payments on the account are not active yet; the Active toggle then refuses with an explanation.

Message or situation	What it means	What to do
"Connect a CloudCart Pay account before enabling this payment method."	The store has no connected account	Start registration or connect an existing account
"CloudCart Pay payments are not active on the connected account yet…"	The account is not approved yet	Check step 7 and any pending requests
Wrong country or business type	They lock once the account is created	Click Disconnect in step 1 and register again with the right data
Apple Pay does not show	The domain is not registered, or the device does not support Apple Pay	Click Register domain on the Apple Pay domain card in the Settings tab

If you run several CloudCart stores, one CloudCart Pay account serves them all through Connect Existing Account, with transactions shown per store.

Frequently asked questions

Send your questions about card payment setup to support@cloudcart.com.