Open Banking and A2A payments
Payment straight from the customer's bank account to yours, no card and no card fee.
The customer picks their bank, approves the transfer in their banking app and returns to your site. No IBAN to type, no manual matching.
On larger amounts the difference is real: instead of a percentage of the whole sum you pay a flat transfer fee. That makes A2A the sensible choice for furniture, electronics, building materials and high-value services.
What you get
Straight from the account
No card, no card interchange.
SEPA Instant
Funds arrive in seconds, not business days.
No chargeback risk
A bank transfer is not disputed like a card transaction.
Flat fee
The cost does not grow with the order value.
Virtual IBAN
Every payment is matched to its order automatically.
PSD2 compliant
Authentication happens at the customer's bank, not with you.
How it works
Choose bank
The customer selects their bank at checkout.
Approve
They confirm the transfer in their banking app.
Settlement
Funds move immediately over SEPA Instant.
Reconciliation
The payment is linked to the order automatically.
A payment with no card and no card fee
An Open Banking payment does not go through Visa or Mastercard. The customer picks their bank, logs in with the same credentials they use every day, confirms the transfer and returns to your shop. The money moves straight from their account to yours over SEPA Instant, usually in under ten seconds.
Because there is no card, there is no interchange, no scheme fee and no card-rule chargeback. That cuts the cost on large amounts dramatically. On a 3,000 euro purchase the card fee is several tens of euro, while an A2A transfer costs a flat amount in the region of a coffee.
The legal basis is PSD2. The directive obliged banks to open interfaces through which licensed providers can initiate a payment on the customer's behalf, with their explicit consent. We work through a licensed provider, so neither you nor we hold the customer's banking credentials.
Where it makes sense and where it does not
It makes sense on high amounts, because the saved percentage is real money. It makes sense on B2B sales, where the buyer pays from a company account and dislikes handing over a card anyway. It makes sense on large recurring amounts, for example monthly deliveries. It makes sense for balance top-ups, deposits and instalments on big orders.
It makes little sense on a 20 lev impulse purchase, where the two extra taps in the banking app cost you more conversion than you save in fees. It makes no sense when you expect the customer to want instalments, because an A2A transfer is a single payment.
The right approach is to offer both: card for small amounts and A2A for large ones, clearly labelled so the customer knows what each gives them. Many merchants nudge customers toward A2A with a small discount that still works out cheaper than the card fee.
What you need to know about refunds
On a card payment a refund is a reverse transaction on the same card. On an A2A transfer the money came from a bank account and goes back to a bank account. We store the payer's IBAN at initiation, so a refund is one click in the panel and does not require chasing the customer for details.
The absence of card-rule chargebacks is an advantage, not immunity. A customer can still dispute the transfer with their bank on a claim of fraud. The same good practice applies: a recognisable payee name on the statement, an email confirmation, trackable delivery.
What it changes for your bookkeeping
An A2A transfer lands in your bank account as an individual transfer, not as a lump settlement. That has two consequences for your accounts.
The good one is that reconciliation gets easier. Every transfer carries a reference that ties it to a specific order, instead of you unpicking one lump sum covering fifty sales minus fees. Your bank statement is effectively already posting-ready.
The other is that the fee is not deducted from the amount but invoiced separately. On card payments the net amount reaches your account with the fee already inside it. On A2A the gross amount arrives and the fees come on a monthly invoice. That changes how revenue is booked, and it is worth settling with your accountant before you start rather than at quarter end.
Both differences work in your favour for VAT reporting, because the taxable base is visible without extra arithmetic.
Questions about this
Are all Bulgarian banks supported?
Coverage includes the major Bulgarian banks and several thousand banks across the EEA. The list is refreshed whenever a bank changes its interface. If one particular bank matters to your business, tell us and we will check before we start.
How quickly do I see the money?
On SEPA Instant the transfer usually arrives in seconds and is final. That is a substantial difference from a card payment, where approval is a hold and the actual money arrives at settlement.
Can I enable A2A for only some orders?
Yes. The usual rule is a value threshold: below a certain amount you show card only, above it you show both. The threshold is set in the configuration and can be changed at any time.
Does the customer give us their banking details?
No. They authenticate directly inside their own bank's environment. We only receive the confirmation of the initiated payment and the data needed to reconcile it against the order.
Does it work for recurring payments?
There is a variable recurring consent model where the customer authorises a series of transfers. Support depends on the individual bank, so for a subscription business we usually pair A2A with a card as a fallback.
How do I tell which transfer belongs to which order?
Every initiation carries a reference that we pass both into the transfer's remittance information and back to you over a webhook. In the panel and in the export you see the order and the transfer on one line.
What if the customer starts the payment and abandons it halfway?
The payment stays pending and expires after a set time with nothing taken. Your order is not marked paid until we have confirmation from the bank. The customer can start again without having funds held.
Ready to start accepting payments?
Send us an enquiry and you will get a concrete quote with calculated fees for your business, usually within one business day.