Payments
Escrow — your money safe until the goods are in your hands
Buyka holds the buyer’s funds in an escrow account until delivery is confirmed. If the supplier never ships, or ships the wrong thing, you get the money back. Commission 1–2.5% depending on deal volume.
Commission tiers
| Deal amount | Escrow fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Under $10,000 | 2.5% | Default tier |
| $10,000 — $50,000 | 1.8% | Auto-applied |
| $50,000 — $250,000 | 1.3% | Auto-applied |
| Over $250,000 | 1.0% | Contact us for custom tiers |
The fee is charged once, on release, on top of the agreed deal price. Refunds and disputes do not incur an additional fee. Card-processing fees (Stripe ~2.9% + $0.30) are charged separately by the payment provider.
How it works
- RFQ accepted. Buyer and supplier agree on price and incoterms inside the Buyka deal page.
- Buyer funds escrow. The full deal amount is held on Buyka’s Stripe escrow account via a manual-capture PaymentIntent. The supplier sees "Funded" and starts producing/shipping.
- Supplier marks shipped. Tracking number is logged on the deal. A 14-day buyer-grace window starts.
- Buyer confirms delivery. Funds are captured and transferred to the supplier’s Stripe Connect account, minus the escrow commission. Done.
- Auto-release. If the buyer doesn’t click "Release" within 14 days of "Shipped", the cron releases funds automatically (the buyer was notified at days 3, 7, 12). This protects suppliers from buyers who simply forget.
What if something goes wrong?
- Supplier never ships → buyer cancels the deal. Stripe voids the uncaptured PaymentIntent. Buyer pays nothing.
- Goods arrive damaged or wrong → buyer opens a dispute. The supplier has 7 days to respond. A Buyka moderator reviews evidence (photos, tracking, packing lists) and splits the escrow between the parties.
- Partial refund. Both sides can agree to a partial refund — pick a % (1–99) and Stripe refunds that share; the rest is released to the supplier.
- Chargeback (force majeure). If the buyer files a chargeback at their card issuer, Stripe holds the funds until the dispute resolves. Buyka submits evidence on the supplier’s behalf.
Why escrow?
Cross-border B2B has a chicken-and-egg problem: the buyer doesn’t want to wire $50,000 to a supplier they’ve never met, the supplier doesn’t want to ship €40,000 of equipment to a stranger on a promise. Letters of credit work but cost 0.5–1.5% per side and take a week of bank paperwork.
Escrow on Buyka is the same idea, instantly: card or wire goes in, money sits with a regulated payment provider (Stripe), it only moves when both sides agree — and if they don’t, a human moderator splits the difference.
Currencies and payment methods
We accept USD, EUR, GBP, RUB, AED and CNY from buyers. The supplier is paid in their Stripe Connect account currency; FX conversion happens at Stripe interbank rates with a 0% Buyka markup.
Card payments (Visa / Mastercard / UnionPay), SEPA, ACH, and bank wires all settle into the escrow. Crypto (USDT / USDC on TRC20 / ERC20 / TON, plus BTC) lands in a separate CryptoCloud sub-account; release semantics are identical to fiat once 12 on-chain confirmations clear.
Compliance
Buyka does not custody funds itself — money sits with Stripe Payments Europe and CryptoCloud, both regulated payment institutions in the EU. KYC / AML on suppliers (Sumsub) and sanctions screening on every party run before any escrow is released. See our privacy policy for the full data flow.
