Online payment methods for your store: cards, COD, bank transfer

In short: in CloudCart, bank transfer and cash on delivery (COD) are added under Settings, Payment methods, "+ Add payment method", with no contract or keys, on every plan. Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay run through CloudCart Pay with a 0% transaction fee through Dec 31, 2026. Stripe and PayPal need only your own account, and installments with DSK Bank, Fibank, TBI and six more lenders need a lender contract.

This guide is written by the team behind CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, from the platform documentation and the Payments and Pricing pages. It is for anyone selling in or from Bulgaria: foreign founders, expats and EU cross-border sellers. For each method you get the admin path, the fields, how the order becomes paid and which stores it suits. Fees for COD against cards are compared in cash on delivery vs card payments in Bulgaria.

Which payment methods can a CloudCart store offer?

A CloudCart store can accept seven kinds of payment: cash on delivery, bank transfer, card, digital wallet, installments, payment in your physical shop and voucher. They sit side by side at checkout and the customer picks one. They differ in when the money arrives and who confirms the order is paid.

Method	How the customer pays	When the order becomes paid	Contract needed?
Cash on delivery	Cash or card to the courier on delivery	Automatically when the courier reports it (Econt, Speedy, BOX NOW and others), or by hand	Only your courier contract
Bank transfer	Sends the amount to your account after ordering	When you see the money and mark it by hand	No
Card (CloudCart Pay)	Visa or Mastercard on your website	At once, automatically	No bank agreement: approval in the admin
Card (Stripe)	Card on Stripe's hosted page	At once, automatically	Your own Stripe account
Card through a bank	Card on the bank's payment page	At once, automatically	Yes: Borica, DSK Bank, Fibank, Raiffeisen, UBB
Wallets	Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, ePay, Revolut Pay	At once, automatically	Depends on the provider
Installments	Applies for credit with a lender	After approval; the lender pays the full amount	Yes, with the lender
Pay in store, voucher	On site, or with a voucher you check	When you mark it by hand	No

COD, bank transfer, pay in store and voucher are offline payments in CloudCart: the order is created at once and the payment stays pending until the money arrives. Cards and wallets report the result to the store by themselves.

The methods are part of the plan price. On the CloudCart pricing table, COD, bank transfer, PayPal, ePay, Stripe and the Borica, Fibank and UBB virtual POS terminals are in all four plans, from Baby Pack (€14/month billed annually, excluding VAT) to CC Master (€249).

How do you add a payment method in CloudCart?

Every payment method is added from one screen: Settings, Payment methods (/admin/settings/payment_providers).

1. Click "+ Add payment method". A window shows the methods you can still add; installed ones are left out.
2. Choose the method. Its settings page opens. The method is not installed yet.
3. Fill in the settings and save. Texts and conditions for COD and transfer, provider or lender details for cards and installments. Saving installs the method.
4. Switch it on. The Active switch shows the method at checkout. If the provider has not approved you yet or details are missing, activation is refused with a message.
5. Place a test order and check the text under the method and after the order.

Important: the window shows only methods for your store's country (Settings, General) and your plan, so Romanian or Greek providers do not appear in a store set to Bulgaria. To pause a method, use Active: uninstalling deletes keys, texts and schemes.

The preselected method is set under Settings, Cart and checkout, in Choose a default payment provider, next to Show a description of payment methods.

How do you add cash on delivery?

Cash on delivery is added under "+ Add payment method", Cash on delivery, with no keys, no test mode and no contract with CloudCart. Econt and Speedy (DPD Bulgaria) are the two main Bulgarian courier networks, and BOX NOW is a parcel locker network; many Bulgarian shoppers still prefer to pay the courier.

Field	What it does	Example
Title	The name at checkout	"Pay on delivery"
Description	Text on the page after the order	"You can also pay the courier by card."
Discount	Surcharge or discount, percentage or fixed	A surcharge covering the COD fee
From / To	When the method is shown	A pause over the holidays
Min price	Minimum order for COD	No COD on very small orders

A COD order becomes paid by hand, with Mark as paid in the order, or automatically: CloudCart checks with Econt, Speedy, BOX NOW and other integrated couriers whether the customer paid and marks the order. The log is under Orders, COD sync.

The automatic checks have a monthly limit on the pricing table: 25 orders on Baby Pack, 50 on Starter Pack, 500 on CC Pro and 1,000 on CC Master, reset each calendar month. Above it, orders are marked by hand, or you add checks from the COD sync screen.

If customers often refuse parcels, the Nekorekten app hides COD for a buyer on your block list or reported on nekorekten.com, a Bulgarian register of problem buyers.

How do you set up bank transfer?

With bank transfer, the customer orders, receives your bank details and sends the amount to your account. In CloudCart the method is Bank Wire Transfer, on every plan, in any currency and with any bank, with no contract or keys. It suits business buyers paying by invoice, large orders and customers abroad who cannot use COD.

The steps

1. Add Bank Wire Transfer in the "+ Add payment method" window.
2. Write the checkout line in Payment-method description: "You get our bank details after ordering. We ship when the transfer arrives."
3. Enter your bank details in the required Description field under Checkout settings. It appears after the order and in the confirmation email and takes formatted text up to 50,000 characters.
4. Set the amounts with Acceptance by order amount, for example only above the sum at which customers pay by invoice.
5. Add a discount if you want. Discounts offers a fixed amount, a percentage or free shipping for paying by transfer.
6. Switch it on and place a test order to check the details in the email.

Put the payee as the bank has it, IBAN and BIC (a table if you have several currencies), the reference "Order no." plus the number, the deadline ("we hold the goods 5 working days") and how the invoice arrives. A store has one Bank Wire Transfer method, so all accounts go in one description.

How the order becomes paid

The bank does not notify CloudCart of a transfer. You find the order by the reference on your statement, click Mark as paid and enter the transfer number. On save, CloudCart records the payment, assigns the invoice number and reduces stock according to your settings.

How long does a bank transfer take?

A euro transfer between two banks in Bulgaria arrives in about 10 seconds when it is instant (Blink, the instant payment service run by Borica) and by the end of the next business day when it is standard.

Type of transfer	Arrives	Works
Instant in Bulgaria (Blink)	Within 10 seconds	24/7, weekends included
Instant in the EU (SEPA Instant)	In seconds	24/7, when both banks support it
Standard in the EU (SEPA)	By the end of the next business day	On bank business days
Outside the EU (SWIFT)	Depends on the banks in the chain	On bank business days

The next-business-day deadline is set by Directive (EU) 2015/2366, Article 83. At UniCredit Bulbank (in Bulgarian), one instant transfer in the mobile app is capped at €15,000; other banks set their own limits. Tell customers in the description they can pay instantly, and you can ship the same day.

What does a bank transfer cost, and who pays the fee?

For a euro transfer in the EU, each side pays its own bank: the customer for the outgoing transfer, the store for the incoming one if its bank charges (Directive (EU) 2015/2366, Article 62(2)). CloudCart adds nothing.

• Instant costs no more than standard. Euro area banks may not charge more for an instant euro transfer (Regulation (EU) 2024/886).
• Cross-border euro transfers cost the same as domestic ones (Regulation (EU) 2021/1230), which helps EU cross-border sellers.
• Check your incoming fee. A fixed fee hurts small orders most; limit the method to, say, orders above €100.

How the customer makes the transfer: text for your description

Paste these steps under your bank details, and a customer pays from mobile banking in 1 to 2 minutes:

1. Open mobile banking and choose "New transfer".
2. Enter the payee and IBAN from this email, with no spaces.
3. Enter the exact order total in euro.
4. Write the reference: "Order no." and the number, nothing else.
5. Choose an instant transfer if your bank offers it, and we ship today.

CloudCart sends no reminder for unpaid transfers, and refunds go from your bank, recorded in the order. A transfer payment needs no cash register receipt in Bulgaria; you invoice businesses, and private buyers who ask. Receipts are covered in Ordinance N-18 for online stores.

Which banks offer installments with CloudCart?

Nine banks and lenders offer installments with CloudCart: DSK Bank, Fibank, TBI Bank (TBI Pay), UniCredit Consumer Financing, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Iute, Mokka, Klear and NewPay. The customer applies, the lender approves, pays the store the full amount and carries the risk of non-payment.

First you sign with the lender and get the store's details (a Store Unique ID with Fibank BNPL and DSK Bank, keys with Klear and Iute), then add the lender under "+ Add payment method". Term, interest and amounts come from the lender for each cart.

• TBI Pay is listed as Fusion Pay: 3 to 60 months, a product page button and 0% interest schemes for selected products.
• Fibank BNPL and DSK BNPL have promotions for individual products.
• Klear hides itself below the lender's minimum amount.

Choosing a lender is covered in installment payments with TBI, Fibank and Mokka.

Card payments and wallets: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, PayPal, ePay

Cards in CloudCart have three routes: CloudCart Pay, the built-in payments; Stripe, with your own account; and a virtual POS from your bank (Borica, DSK Bank, Fibank, Raiffeisen, UBB). CloudCart Pay needs no bank agreement, and the account is approved within a few hours to 2 working days.

• Apple Pay and Google Pay are switched on in the CloudCart Pay settings, with an express button on the product page.
• Stripe sends the customer to Stripe's hosted page, which handles 3D Secure. You enter test and live keys; with Save Customer Card, a signed-in customer pays the next order without the redirect.
• PayPal needs only your account email and a fallback currency, and suits buyers outside Bulgaria.
• ePay, a Bulgarian payment service, needs a KIN and secret key. CloudCart's documentation says the integration sends amounts in leva, so a store in euro should check with ePay first.
• Revolut works with a Revolut Business account: card, Revolut Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

For EU cross-border sellers, Stripe, PayPal and Mollie cover the rest of Europe, as the Payments page lists. On a phone, a wallet replaces typing 16 digits and a CVC with a fingerprint; more mobile checkout tips are in the mobile version of an online store.

In Baymard's survey of US shoppers, 9% of abandoned orders (excluding people only browsing) were down to too few payment methods (Baymard Institute). CloudCart's abandoned cart reminders bring part of them back.

Pay in store and voucher

Pay in store and voucher are offline methods with no keys or contract, added from the same window. With Pay in store, the customer orders online and pays at your shop, in cash or on your POS. With Voucher, the customer pays with a voucher from a separate system that you check yourself; gift cards sold in CloudCart are a different app. Both wait for Mark as paid.

Which payment methods should your store offer?

Most stores selling in Bulgaria do best with three methods: COD for customers who will not pay online, a card with Apple Pay and Google Pay for phone orders, and bank transfer for businesses. Add installments when the average order is large.

Type of store	Main methods	Why
Cosmetics, clothing, gifts	COD, CloudCart Pay with wallets	Small amounts, many phone orders
Electronics, furniture	CloudCart Pay, installments, COD	Installments lower the barrier to buy
B2B and wholesale	Bank transfer with invoice, CloudCart Pay	Businesses pay invoices from their account
Store with a shop	Pay in store, CloudCart Pay, COD	Pickup or delivery
Selling across the EU	CloudCart Pay, Stripe, PayPal, bank transfer	COD is harder abroad; euro transfers cost the same across borders

Good practice for payment methods

1. Preselect the method you want to steer buyers to, for example CloudCart Pay.
2. Say what happens next under each method: "We ship after the transfer".
3. Reward prepayment with a discount or free shipping in the method's Discount field.
4. Set a COD minimum where the courier fee eats the margin.
5. Keep the NRA record current. Under Article 52m of Ordinance N-18, Bulgaria's sales reporting regulation, each online store is registered with the NRA (National Revenue Agency) with its payment methods, and a new method is added within 7 days (Ordinance N-18 on lex.bg, in Bulgarian).

Payment method mistakes to avoid

• Uninstalling instead of pausing, which deletes keys and schemes.
• Bank details in the checkout line. The IBAN belongs in Description under Checkout settings.
• Shipping before the transfer arrives. Check the statement first.
• Forgotten unpaid orders. Cancel after your deadline so the stock comes back.
• Clicking Mark as paid twice. Each save assigns an invoice number and reduces stock.
• Only one method, which loses either the buyers who prepay or those who pay on delivery.

Which payment metrics to track, and how to get them from an AI assistant

Three metrics show whether your payment methods work: the share of orders by method, the average order by method and unpaid or refused orders. An AI assistant (Claude Code, ChatGPT/Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor) with a Read Only PAT token reads them through the CloudCart API and changes nothing; Mark as paid stays in the admin.

Metric	What to ask the assistant
Share of orders by method	"How many orders in the last 30 days were COD, transfer and card, in percent?"
Average order by method	"What is the average order per payment method over 90 days?"
Unpaid and refused	"List transfers unpaid for 3+ days and COD parcels refused this month."

By hand, use the Payment provider and Payment status filters under Orders, one at a time: with Payment status and Order total both active, the list filters by amount only. The setup is on a store run by an AI assistant, and the wider route in an online store with AI.

Frequently asked questions

Send your questions about setting up payments to support@cloudcart.com.