When does my money actually arrive?
A card payment is approved in seconds. The money takes longer. Here is what each Armenian bank publishes, what can hold a payment back, and what nobody publishes yet.
Ameriabank, every card
Within 5 banking days of the processing centre confirming the sale, with the bank's fee already taken.
IDBank: ArCa or Visa
ArCa cards within 2 working days, international cards within 5. The only bank that publishes the difference.
Armeconombank
Within 1 banking day, counted from the day ArCa sends the bank its settlement file, not from the sale.
The longest hold
How long Ameriabank may hold the amount of a disputed payment in your account.
On this page
When a customer pays you by card online, the bank says yes in seconds. That is the authorisation. The money itself moves later, in a batch, through the card network and then through your bank, and it reaches your account days after the sale.
How many days depends on two things: your bank, and the card your customer paid with. Most banks do not publish either. This page collects what they do publish, with the source for every line.
What each bank publishes
Payout times for online card payments (vPOS), from each bank's own terms. “Not published” means we found nothing in writing.
| Bank | ArCa card | Visa / Mastercard | The bank's fee | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ameriabank | within 5 banking days | within 5 banking days | taken from the payout: ArCa 1.5%, any Visa or Mastercard 2.7% | Internet Acquiring Terms, ed. 9, §1.4 and §3.1 |
| IDBank | within 2 working days | within 5 working days (international cards) | charged to your accounts at the bank | Service Rules for accepting cards, in force 15 April 2024, §27 |
| Armeconombank | within 1 banking day of ArCa's settlement file | the same | agreed in the contract | vPOS information bulletin, 24 June 2026, §21 |
| ACBA, Evocabank, Ardshinbank, Converse, Inecobank and the others | not published | not published | not published | — |
Three things to read into that table. You are paid net. Ameriabank transfers the sale “by charging the fee”, so ֏ 10 000 paid on an ArCa card reaches you as ֏ 9 850. Your statement shows the smaller number, and matching it against your sales means knowing the rate.
Days are not calendar days. Banking and working days skip weekends and public holidays, so a sale on a Friday evening can take most of the following week. None of these banks publishes how it counts a holiday.
The number is a ceiling. “Within 5 days” is the most the bank allows itself. It can be faster, and at most banks nobody tells you how often it is. Plan your cash flow on the published number.
Why the card changes the timing
ArCa is Armenia's own card system. A payment on an ArCa card is cleared inside Armenia, in dram, and the banks settle what they owe each other through their accounts at the Central Bank. Nothing crosses a border and nothing is converted.
Visa and Mastercard payments settle through the card networks themselves, usually in dollars or euros, before your bank pays you in dram. That is a longer chain, and it is the most likely reason IDBank publishes 2 working days for ArCa cards and 5 for international ones. This is our reading: no bank explains the difference in writing.
Not every bank makes the distinction. Ameriabank promises the same 5 banking days for every card. Armeconombank counts its 1 day from ArCa's file for every card; our reading is that ArCa's processing centre handles its Visa and Mastercard payments too, which the bank does not say in writing.
What can hold your money back
Ameriabank's terms (edition 9, in force since 27 April 2026) are the most complete a bank publishes. The others agree where they say anything at all.
- A dispute freezes the amount. If a customer disputes a payment, Ameriabank may keep that amount in your account out of your reach for as long as the card network's dispute rules allow, and never longer than 6 months. If the bank accepts the dispute, it takes the money back from you.
- Disputes come late. Under Visa's rules a cardholder has 120 days from the payment to dispute a card-not-present fraud or a subscription payment they had cancelled. A dispute can arrive months after you were paid.
- A deposit can be asked for. Ameriabank may ask for a guarantee deposit, depending on your kind of business. That money stays in your account but is blocked, and can stay blocked for up to 6 months after you close the contract.
- Large businesses keep a reserve. Above ֏ 330 000 000 a month in card sales, in any business, Ameriabank holds a reserve of 10% of the average monthly turnover. Airlines reach that line at ֏ 18 000 000 and travel agencies at ֏ 6 000 000.
- Clawbacks come out of the next payout. When a payment is declared invalid, IDBank takes the money back out of your next payout, or from your account if the payout is too small. A payment you cancel within 72 hours reaches the cardholder in 1 working day; later, in up to 10.
- Without 3-D Secure the risk is yours. Armeconombank lets a business turn off 3-D Secure only if it undertakes to cover any chargeback within 3 working days.
What nobody publishes: questions for your bank
Every one of these is unanswered in public. Ask them before you sign, and ask for the answers in writing.
- When exactly is each payout made: once a day for all sales, or one transfer per payment?
- How many days for an ArCa card, and how many for a Visa or Mastercard? Do weekends and public holidays count?
- Is your fee taken from each payout, or charged separately at the end of the month?
- Is a refund taken from the next payout, or from my account?
- Will you ask me for a guarantee deposit or a reserve, and on what condition?
- Is there a limit per payment for my kind of business? (At Ameriabank: is a subscription service “consulting”?)
- Can I get a daily report of what was paid out, per payment, and a statement export I can match it against?
Stripe, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy: when the money gets home
An Armenian business selling abroad usually looks at three routes. None of them pays into an Armenian account directly, and each adds a step to bring the money home.
| Route | When it pays out | Getting it to Armenia | Sale to money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe, through a US company | 2 business days after the sale, net of fees, to a US bank account. The first payout takes 7–14 days. | An international wire from the US account: free at Mercury (banks in between may deduct) or $15 to guarantee the full amount. Then the dollars are converted at your bank's buy rate, 0.83% below the Central Bank's on 25–27 September. | 2 business days, plus the wire |
| Paddle | Once a month: the balance on the 1st (at least $100) is sent by the 15th and takes up to 3 working days to arrive. | By wire or Payoneer. A cross-border SWIFT payout costs $15; a payout in a currency other than your balance can carry up to a 1.5% margin. | 2–6 weeks |
| Lemon Squeezy | Sales are held for 13 days, then paid out on the 1st and the 15th, taking 1–5 days to arrive. Minimum $50. | 1% of each payout to a bank outside the US, or 3% (at most $30) through PayPal. | 2–5 weeks |
| An Armenian bank | 1–5 banking days, net of the bank's fee. | Nothing to do: it is already in your Armenian account, in dram. | 1–5 banking days |
The weeks for Paddle and Lemon Squeezy are worked out from their published schedules: a sale made just after a payout waits for the next one. Stripe itself is quick; the slow and costly part is the company abroad it requires and the wire home.
An Armenian bank is the only route where the money lands in your own account, in dram, within a working week.
What each route costs per sale, and whether pricing in dollars is even allowed, is in Selling abroad from Armenia. Every bank's card fees are in the fee guide.
How Ronda handles it
Ronda never holds your money. It tells you where it is.
- Your bank pays you directly, with its fee already taken. Ronda is never in the middle of the money.
- Every paid payment shows as “on its way”, with the date it should arrive, worked out from your bank's published rule. Where a bank publishes nothing, Ronda assumes five banking days and says that it is an assumption.
- If money is still missing after that date, the dashboard flags it so you can ask your bank, instead of finding out at the end of the month.
- Upload your bank statement and Ronda matches each transfer to the payments it pays for. Money that was converted on the way is matched allowing for the exchange rate.
- What Ronda shows is the bank's published rule, not a promise. Until our first live payments, we have not seen for ourselves whether your bank sends one transfer a day or one per payment, or how fast a foreign card really pays. We will update this page when we have.
Sources
Read 27 September 2026 unless noted.
- Ameriabank, Internet Acquiring Terms and Tariffs, ed. 9: approved 21 April 2026, in force 27 April 2026. Fees §1.4; payout “within 5 (five) banking days… by charging the fee” §3.1; guarantee deposit §3.3; disputed amounts held up to 6 months §5.3 and charged back §5.4; reserves and per-payment limits, Annex 1.
- IDBank, Service Rules for Accepting Cards as Means of Payment, in force 15 April 2024: payout §27; fees charged to the merchant's accounts §39; cancellations §43; invalid payments taken from the next payout §47–48.
- Armeconombank, vPOS information bulletin (Armenian), published 24 June 2026: without 3-D Secure, chargebacks covered within 3 working days (§20); credited within 1 banking day of ArCa's settlement data (§21).
- Visa Core Rules, 18 April 2026: payments to merchants, rule 1.5.6.2; dispute time limits, conditions 10.4 and 13.2 (120 calendar days).
- Central Bank of Armenia, payment system operators: ArCa's payments are settled on a deferred net basis through the participants' accounts at the Central Bank.
- Stripe payouts: 2 business days by default, first payout 7–14 days. Mercury pricing: international USD wire free (SHA) or $15 (OUR).
- Paddle, when and how do I get paid and payout fees: monthly schedule, $100 minimum, $15 SWIFT fee, up to 1.5% currency margin.
- Lemon Squeezy, getting paid and fees: sales held 13 days; payouts on the 1st and the 15th; a minimum of $50; 1% to a bank outside the US; 3% (≤ $30) through PayPal.
- Ameriabank exchange rates: non-cash USD buy 360.50 against the Central Bank's 363.52 for 25 September 2026.
Ronda is software that connects to the online-payments account your bank issues you. It does not hold your money and is not affiliated with any bank: the bank pays you directly, on the bank's schedule. Know a bank's published payout terms we are missing? Write to ciao@ronda.am and we will add them with the source.
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