Payment Gateway Croatia: Local Acquiring and Fees

Choosing a payment gateway in Croatia comes down to two decisions: which gateway sends the card data, and which bank actually acquires the payment and pays you. Most guides blur the two. This one separates them, names who offers local acquiring, and works through the cost for a real-sized shop.

In short

• A gateway (PSP) carries the transaction; an acquirer (a bank or card company) approves it on your behalf and settles the money to your account.
• Local acquiring in Croatia is offered by card acquirers such as PBZ Card, Erste Card Club, Zagrebačka banka and OTP banka, usually reached through a Croatian gateway like CorvusPay or Monri WSPay.
• Stripe supports Croatian businesses with all-in-one pricing (1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards); it is gateway and acquirer in one.
• Only a local acquiring contract lets you offer instalments on Croatian bank cards.
• 3-D Secure 2 (Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2) applies to most card payments either way.

Which providers offer local acquiring in Croatia?

As of October 2026, local acquiring for a Croatian web shop means a contract with a Croatian card acquirer, connected to your shop through a gateway. CorvusPay’s own FAQ names Zagrebačka banka, PBZ Card, Erste Card Club and OTP banka as the acquirers you contract with to accept their cards in instalments, and notes that foreign-currency acquiring is arranged through Teya and Worldline. Monri WSPay lists PBZ Card, Erste Card Club and Zagrebačka banka as acquiring partners, plus PayPal and the Aircash wallet (an e-money institution supervised by the HNB).

Stripe is the main alternative: its Croatian pricing page is in euros and needs no bank contract, because Stripe acquires the payment itself. Stripe does not publish whether it routes Croatian cards through a Croatian acquirer, so treat it as a fast, simple option rather than as “local acquiring”. PayPal works as an extra method next to either route.

Local vs cross-border acquiring: what actually changes

Stripe’s own guide defines local acquiring as using an acquirer in the same country as the payment, and says approval rates are “typically higher” because the card issuer sees a domestic transaction. Inside the EU the fee gap is smaller than many sales pitches suggest: the Interchange Fee Regulation (EU) 2015/751 caps consumer card interchange at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit for both domestic and cross-border acquiring.

What local acquiring really gives a Croatian shop:

• Instalments (obročno plaćanje) - the issuing bank must also be your acquirer, so you need a contract with each bank whose customers you want to serve.
• Cheaper “on-us” cards - CorvusPay explains that banks usually charge a lower fee for their own cards and route the rest to whichever acquirer gave you the best rate.
• Negotiated rates and payout terms, EUR settlement to your Croatian account and local-language support.

Worked example: €20,000 a month in card turnover

Take a shop with €20,000 a month in card payments and an average order of €50, so 400 orders.

Stripe (verified rates, stripe.com/en-hr/pricing, 10 October 2026): if 70% of volume is standard EEA cards and 30% premium EEA cards (2.8% + €0.25), the cost is €14,000 × 1.5% + €6,000 × 2.8% + 400 × €0.25 = €210 + €168 + €100 = €478 a month, about 2.4% of turnover.

Local acquirer + gateway (hypothetical figures, for illustration only): monthly cost = turnover × acquirer % + orders × gateway fee per transaction + gateway monthly fee. With a hypothetical 1.3% acquirer rate, €0.10 per transaction and a €30 monthly fee: €260 + €40 + €30 = €330 a month.

On those assumptions the gap is about €148 a month, or roughly €1,800 a year, before you count instalment sales. Plug in the real offers you receive into the same formula: below a few thousand euros a month, Stripe’s speed often wins; above that, quotes from two acquirers usually pay for the extra paperwork.

Hosted vs API, and the common pitfalls

A hosted/redirect page (CorvusPay, Monri WSPay, Stripe Checkout) keeps card data and most PCI scope off your servers. An embedded/API flow keeps buyers on your site but adds compliance work. Never mark an order paid on the redirect alone: confirm it through the provider’s callback or API, then push it to stock and accounting. That last step is where a web shop to ERP connection saves hours of retyping. Card payments are also subject to fiscalisation, which no gateway does for you.

For booking and accommodation sites, both Croatian gateways offer pay-by-link, so you can take a deposit without a full checkout; see our booking system guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which payment provider offers local acquiring in Croatia? Croatian card acquirers such as PBZ Card, Erste Card Club, Zagrebačka banka and OTP banka. A shop contracts with one or more of them and connects through a gateway like CorvusPay or Monri WSPay, which routes each card to the right acquirer.

Can a Croatian company use Stripe? Yes. Stripe supports businesses in Croatia, with pricing of 1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards as of October 2026. It needs no separate bank acquiring contract, but it does not offer Croatian bank instalments.

Do I need both a merchant agreement and a gateway? With CorvusPay or Monri WSPay, yes: the bank acquires and pays out, the gateway processes. The gateway usually helps arrange the bank contracts. With Stripe, one contract covers both.

Is 3-D Secure mandatory in Croatia? For most consumer card payments, yes. PSD2 requires Strong Customer Authentication, and 3-D Secure 2 is how cards meet it.

Can I charge subscriptions automatically? Yes, through tokenisation. CorvusPay, Monri WSPay and Stripe all store the card as a token, so you can bill recurring or one-click orders without holding card numbers.

Related Articles

• How much does a web shop cost in Croatia?
• How to connect a web shop to ERP: orders, stock, prices
• API integrations: how they work and what they cost

Choosing a payment gateway?

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