These terms apply when you accept payments with Caravel Pay as a merchant, through the API, one of our plugins or integrations, or a payment link. You agree to them when you get API keys (POST /v1/connect), save a payout wallet in a plugin, or create a payment link. If you don't agree, please don't use Caravel Pay.
Who we are#
Caravel Pay ("we", "us") runs this service. You can reach us at hello@caravelpay.app.
What Caravel Pay does#
- We give you a hosted checkout. Your buyer pays by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through an independent card provider, which sells them USDC and delivers it on the Polygon network. Buyers can also pay directly in USDC, USDC.e or POL on Polygon.
- Each checkout gets its own one-time deposit address, controlled by our software. When the payment is confirmed, the payout goes automatically, on-chain, to your payout wallet: what arrived, minus the 2% Caravel fee.
- We send signed webhooks so your site knows when a checkout is paid, and we offer payment links you can share without a website.
- There is no account, login or dashboard. Your merchant id and secret are your identity: anyone who holds them can create checkouts and read your checkouts as you.
What Caravel Pay doesn't do#
- We're not a bank and not a card processor. Card payments are processed by the card providers, not by us. We don't offer accounts, deposits, credit or interest, and nothing on this site claims that we hold a banking, payment or money-transmission licence.
- We don't hold a balance for you. There's nothing to withdraw: each paid checkout is its own transfer to your wallet. Until that transfer is sent, the payment waits at the checkout's deposit address. A payment that needs review waits there until the review is resolved.
- We don't swap your funds. You're paid out in the token the buyer paid with: card payments and USDC arrive as USDC, USDC.e as USDC.e and POL as POL.
- We're not part of your sale. The contract for the goods or services is between you and your buyer. We don't check what you sell, and we don't deliver it.
On-chain transfers are final#
Payments and payouts are blockchain transfers. Once confirmed, they can't be reversed, by us or by anyone else. If your payout wallet is wrong, or can't receive the token that is sent to it, the payout may be lost, and we can't get it back.
Payments that don't fit the normal path (too little, after the checkout expired, or in a token or network we can't credit automatically) go to review. We'll try to resolve them, but we can't promise that funds sent the wrong way can be recovered.
Fees#
- The 2% Caravel fee. We charge 2% of the order total of each payment. It's deducted on-chain from the payment before your payout is sent. There's no setup fee and no monthly fee.
- Network gas is covered. The 2% Caravel fee also pays the Polygon gas for your payout.
- Card providers keep their own fees. Your buyer pays the order total. Most card providers take their fee and exchange-rate spread out of that amount before the USDC arrives, so it reduces what you receive; a few show it to the buyer on top instead. Those fees aren't ours, we take no cut of them, and each provider sets and changes them.
- Fee changes. If we change our fee, we'll post the new fee on this site before it takes effect. A change applies only to checkouts created after that date.
Payouts#
- Payouts are sent automatically when a checkout is paid. How long that takes depends on the card provider and the network, and we don't guarantee a time.
- Each payout goes to the wallet that was on file when the checkout was created. To change your wallet, get new keys with the new address (or save a new wallet in the plugin). Checkouts that are already open still pay out to the old wallet.
- Fulfil an order only when its checkout is paid. Not when the buyer returns to your site, and not while a payment is still confirming.
Your responsibilities#
As a merchant, you're responsible for:
- Running a lawful business, and following the laws that apply where you and your buyers are, including consumer-protection rules and any licence your business needs.
- Telling the truth when you connect. Only connect a site you operate and a wallet you control. Describe what you sell honestly, and deliver it.
- Taxes. Declaring and paying the taxes on your sales, including VAT or sales tax. We don't collect or pay taxes for you.
- Refunds. We can't pull a payment back, so refunds are yours to send, from your wallet or by another method you agree with your buyer.
- No chargebacks; disputes stay with the card provider. Payouts are final on-chain transfers to your wallet. Neither we nor anyone else can reverse them, and we never claw a payout back. If a buyer disputes a card payment, that is between the buyer, their bank and the card provider that sold them the USDC. The provider may ask you for proof of the sale, and may stop serving sellers whose buyers dispute a lot, so keep order and delivery records. Refunds are your choice, sent from your wallet.
- Customer service for your buyers: questions about orders, delivery, returns and refunds.
- A correct payout wallet: an ordinary Polygon address that you control and that can receive USDC, USDC.e and POL on Polygon. Smart-contract wallets and token addresses can't receive payouts. If you use an exchange address, make sure that exchange accepts all three tokens on Polygon at that address.
- Keeping your secret safe. Keep it on your server, never in browser or app code. We show it once and can't recover it. If it leaks, get new keys, stop using the old ones, and email us so we can pause the old merchant id.
If a buyer, a card provider or anyone else makes a claim against us because of your sales or because you broke these terms, you're responsible for it, including our reasonable costs.
Acceptable use#
You may only use Caravel Pay for what our acceptable use policy allows. It is part of these terms. Card providers also have their own rules, and can refuse a payment, a buyer or a country even when we allow it.
Pausing, blocking and refusing service#
We can refuse, pause or end service to any merchant, site, wallet or email address, at any time and without notice, for example when we suspect illegal activity, fraud, a sanctions risk, a risk to buyers or card providers, or a breach of these terms. We can also block a site, wallet or email from connecting again. We may hold new merchants for review before they can create checkouts, and we can stop accepting new checkouts across the whole service for a while.
When we pause a merchant, new checkouts are refused. Payments that were already under way may still arrive and settle on-chain.
You can stop using Caravel Pay at any time: stop creating checkouts and remove the plugin or your integration. There's no contract term and nothing to cancel.
Availability#
Caravel Pay is provided "as is" and "as available". We don't guarantee any uptime, and we don't promise that the service will be free of errors or interruptions. Card providers and blockchain networks can be slow or unavailable for reasons outside our control. We may change, pause or stop features. We try to avoid breaking changes to the /v1 API, and we document changes in the docs.
Card providers and other third parties#
Card providers are independent companies with their own terms, fees and privacy policies. Each one decides which buyers, countries and amounts it serves. A provider may ask a buyer to verify their identity before it sells them USDC, and may decline or hold a purchase. We don't control any of this, and we're not responsible for what card providers, blockchain networks, token issuers or wallet software do, or fail to do.
Limitation of liability#
As far as the law allows:
- We're not liable for indirect or consequential losses, such as lost profits, lost sales, lost data or damage to reputation.
- We're not liable for losses caused by a wrong or unsuitable payout wallet, a leaked secret, card providers, blockchain networks, token issuers, buyer fraud, a card provider's decisions about disputes, or events outside our reasonable control.
- Our total liability to you for all claims is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event that caused the claim.
Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law doesn't allow us to limit.
Changes to these terms#
We may update these terms. We'll post every change on this page with a new "Last updated" date before it takes effect. If you keep using Caravel Pay after a change takes effect, the new terms apply to you. If you don't agree with a change, stop using the service.
General#
If part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later. How we handle personal data is described in our privacy policy.
Contact#
Questions about these terms? Email hello@caravelpay.app.