Can you use Stripe in The Bahamas? How to take card payments online

What works in The Bahamas

Cash N’ Go, Kanoo and SunCash are Bahamian payment services that take the payment into an account with them. KemisPay is a link tool that turns an account you already hold with Cash N’ Go, Kanoo or SunCash into links you can send by WhatsApp. Fygaro, a regional link tool, is offered through RBC and CIBC Caribbean. Your own bank can open a merchant account that takes cards on your website or through a payment webpage. Two services based abroad, HandyPay and PayPal, also accept Bahamian businesses.

The options differ most in what they ask of you and your customer: a website, a bank merchant account, or a wallet the customer has to hold. Most of the local services do not publish a fee, so the fee is the first thing to ask for.

Route 1: a local payment service or a link tool

A payment link is a web address that opens a checkout webpage for one sale. You send it by WhatsApp, text or email, and the customer pays on their phone. In the 2026 edition of the index, a working website was found for close to four in ten of the businesses it scored. A payment link needs no website, so this is the route most owners can start with.

Bahamian payment services.

• Cash N’ Go takes payment from its own mobile wallet. At the counter, the customer scans a QR code. Online, you send a payment request to the customer’s mobile number, and they press accept. Customers load the wallet with cash at a Cash N’ Go teller or from a Visa or Mastercard card. Its webpages do not say whether a customer can pay you by card without a wallet, so ask. Its webpages publish no merchant fee. They describe taking cash out at a Cash N’ Go teller, so ask how a business account moves money to your bank and what that costs.
• Kanoo is a Bahamian payments company. Its card webpage says a business can take cards through invoices with payment links, links sent by WhatsApp, QR codes and a connection to a website. Its card webpage publishes no price, and its FAQ gives fees and an answer about cards that do not match that webpage. So ask Kanoo in writing for its current card fee and how the money reaches your bank.
• SunCash lets customers pay from a SunCash wallet at your till, by phone number and PIN, QR code or tap. Its merchant webpage does not say whether it takes cards or online payments, and it publishes no rate, so ask.

Link tools that usually sit on another account.

• Fygaro is a regional service that RBC and CIBC Caribbean offer to their merchant clients. It sells payment links for WhatsApp, invoices and email from US$14.99 a month. Fygaro says any processing cost comes through your payment method or acquiring bank, which is the bank that takes the card payment for you. So ask your bank or Fygaro whether you need a bank merchant account (Route 2) first.
• KemisPay connects to an account you hold with Cash N’ Go, Kanoo or SunCash. Its links plan costs $0 a month, and it charges nothing on each sale itself. The provider underneath sets the processing fee and collects it. The money lands in that account, and you withdraw it to your Bahamian bank.

With a link tool, your real cost is the monthly price plus the fee of the account underneath.

Route 2: an e-commerce merchant account from your bank

A merchant account lets your bank accept card payments for your business and pay them into your business account. Online, the customer pays on a payment webpage, either on your website or on a webpage the bank’s partner hosts for you. Here is what each bank says on its own merchant webpage:

• Bank of The Bahamas: its e-commerce service takes all major credit cards on your website and pays you in Bahamian dollars within 24 to 48 hours.
• CIBC Caribbean: you can start accepting cards online “in just a few days”. It lists a website with a shopping cart and a payment gateway (the service that passes the card details from your website to the bank) among what you need.
• Fidelity Bank (Bahamas): its fee guide lists a virtual terminal (a webpage where you type in a customer’s card details), e-commerce, a pay button and recurring payments among its online options.
• RBC Royal Bank: its e-commerce works “with or without a website” and pays into your RBC account. It works with three payment partners: First Atlantic Commerce, Fygaro and Plug ’n Pay.
• Scotiabank: it takes online, link-based and recurring payments, and pays the money into your account the next day.

A bank asks for a business bank account and an application. None of the five banks publishes its fee on each card sale. Fidelity says its rate is worked out when you apply, and RBC says its team sets your price. The others do not say. Fidelity is the only one we found that publishes its set-up fees. Its fee guide is a file from June 2023. It lists a one-time application licence fee of $258.50 and a $10.00 monthly fee it calls a key management fee, VAT included. For e-commerce, it adds a one-time cost if you need help from the payment vendor to set it up, and it does not print that cost. It does not say whether the monthly fee applies if you have no card machine. Confirm both fees before you rely on them.

The bank’s gateway also has to work with your website. A Bahamian developer who builds online shops for local clients (@nhayling_) put it this way on X in February 2026: “Requires business bank account and different banks work with different processors.” So ask your bank which gateway it uses, and check that your website can connect to it.

Route 3: HandyPay and PayPal, two services based abroad

HandyPay’s Bahamas webpage lists a fee of 4.9% plus US$0.40 on each successful sale, with no set-up or monthly fee. It pays out in Bahamian dollars to a local bank account, and it says the first payout usually comes 7 to 14 days after your first payment. To sign up, it asks for your business registration details, the owner’s ID, what you sell and your bank details. It says its payment processing is provided by Stripe.

PayPal accepts accounts from The Bahamas. Its Bahamas fees webpage was last updated on 28 May 2026. It charges a Bahamas account 5.40% plus US$0.30 on each US-dollar sale it receives, whether the buyer is local or overseas. A lower rate is available on application once your sales pass US$3,000 a month.

With PayPal, check how you will get the money out before anything else. PayPal lists The Bahamas for withdrawals to a card, at US$5.00 each. The Bahamas is not named in its bank-withdrawal table, which ends with “All other markets (where available)”. The webpage also says withdrawal to a bank account or a card “may not be possible in all markets/regions”. Log in to your own PayPal account and check whether it can pay into your Bahamian bank. If a customer disputes a payment, the standard fee for a Bahamas account is US$8.00.

Can a Bahamian business use Stripe or Square?

Not with an account of its own. We checked each company’s own webpage on 25 September 2026.

• Stripe leaves The Bahamas off its list of supported countries. For a business in a country that is not on the list, the webpage says “Payments not supported yet”.
• Square says card payments with its app work only in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, France and Spain. It adds that “you must be located in the country where you activated your account”.
• Shopify Payments is not offered in The Bahamas either. You can still build a Shopify store here, but it has to connect another payment provider.

Stripe can still sit behind a service you use, as it does behind HandyPay in Route 3. What you cannot do is open a Stripe account in your Bahamian business’s name.

You may also hear that you should form a US company to get Stripe. Stripe’s own webpage advertises a service for that, and a company-formation firm we read recommends it. It changes how your business is set up and taxed, so take advice from an accountant or a lawyer before you act on it.

One Bahamian entrepreneur (@VancePoitier) wrote on X in May 2026 that online payment gateways are “not easy to obtain, not easy to setup and not easy to integrate into other services”.

A Bahamian business can take card payments online without a Stripe account.

Taking a card payment over WhatsApp

WhatsApp lets customers pay a business inside a chat only in India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, its help centre says. In The Bahamas, taking a card payment over WhatsApp means sending a payment link from any of the three routes in the chat. Put the amount and what it pays for in the same message, so the customer knows what they are paying before they tap.

Setting up the number your customers message is a separate job. The WhatsApp door guide covers it.

What each route costs

Sources: each provider’s own webpage or fee guide, read on 25 September 2026.

Only the two services based abroad publish a standard card fee on each sale. On a US$200 deposit, our own arithmetic on those rates gives US$10.20 with HandyPay and US$11.10 with PayPal, plus US$5.00 when you withdraw PayPal money to a card. KemisPay charges nothing of its own on a sale, and the banks, Cash N’ Go, Fygaro, Kanoo and SunCash print no card fee on each sale. So those two rates cannot tell you which option costs least. Ask each one for its fee before you compare.

Check the provider before you sign up

Before a provider holds your takings, find out who is licensed to hold them. The Central Bank of The Bahamas publishes a list of the institutions it supervises. The Central Bank republishes the list often, so check the latest one. The list dated 25 September 2026 names, for example, CaribPay (Bahamas) Ltd., trading as Kanoo Pays, among its electronic money service providers. These are companies licensed to hold money in a digital wallet. It names Cash N’ Go Ltd. among its money transmission providers, which are companies licensed to send money. It also lists the banks in Route 2. The Central Bank warns that only institutions on the list are licensed or registered for regulated business. It takes questions at BSD@centralbankbahamas.com.

Some apps work through a licensed partner, so their own name may not be on the list. In that case, ask the app which listed institution it works with, then find that name on the list. A service based outside The Bahamas may process your money through a company regulated abroad. If so, ask which company processes the payment, where it is regulated, and who holds the money before it reaches your bank.

Ask every provider these four questions, in writing:

1. What is the fee on each card sale, and is there a monthly fee?
2. How does the money reach my Bahamian bank account, and how long is the wait before the first payout?
3. Which licensed institution holds my money, and where is it licensed? If it is Bahamian, check that name on the Central Bank’s list.
4. What happens when a customer asks for a refund or disputes a charge, and what does that cost me?

Which route fits your business

• You take deposits or send invoices, and you have no website: start with a local payment service or a link tool from Route 1, or ask your bank whether it offers link-based payments.
• You sell from a website and make sales most days: ask your bank about an e-commerce merchant account, and ask which gateway it uses.
• Most of your buyers are overseas and already use PayPal: add PayPal as one option beside a local link or a bank account, once you know how you will withdraw the money.