Get a CBD Merchant Account That Keeps Your Money Flowing
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What’s Standing in the Way Between You and a CBD Merchant Account?
CBD is thriving, but banks still hesitate. Traditional processors reject applications, freeze accounts, or hike fees, all because CBD is in a regulatory grey area. Here’s what you’re up against and how FastoPayments solves it.
CBD exists in a legal gray area. While the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp-derived CBD at the federal level in the U.S., states like Idaho and Nebraska still impose strict restrictions. Internationally, laws vary wildly: CBD is fully legal in Switzerland but banned in Albania. This patchwork of regulations scares off most processors.
How We Solve It: FastoPayments employs a dedicated legal team that monitors regulatory shifts in real time. We ensure your business adheres to THC limits in each market you sell to (in Europe these are set nationally), labeling requirements, and age verification mandates. Our compliance hub auto-updates with new laws, so you’re always audit-ready.
What You Get with a Fasto CBD Merchant Account?
Fraud Prevention That Works
Global Reach, Local Expertise
CBD Payment Processing for Every Business Type
CBD Oils and Tinctures
CBD oils are the best-known CBD product format. From full-spectrum tinctures to isolate drops, customers trust oils for daily wellness. Our platform handles complex oil processing through banks that understand CBD, from subscription refills to wholesale orders.
CBD Edibles and Beverages
Gummies, chocolates, and infused drinks offer precise, consistent servings. Our system processes edible sales through multiple banking relationships, handling both D2C subscription boxes and wholesale orders. Support retail locations and online sales while maintaining perfect compliance across state lines. When promotional volumes spike, your processing scales automatically.
CBD Topicals and Skincare
Creams, balms, and serums are popular in skincare and beauty routines. Our platform processes beauty sales through acquirers who understand CBD skincare. Handle recurring beauty boxes, support spa wholesale accounts, and maintain practitioner portals through one system. Scale your brand from local boutiques to national distribution without switching processors.
CBD Vapes and Smoking Accessories
CBD vape products are a fast-growing category. Our platform understands the unique challenges of vape processing. We maintain relationships with acquirers who handle vape transactions, process age verification automatically, and support both retail and distribution.
Full-Spectrum Products
Full-spectrum CBD products contain a range of cannabinoids, so labelling and lab testing matter even more. These products demand sophisticated processing that adapts to different state requirements. Our platform handles everything from D2C sales to wholesale distribution through banking relationships that understand hemp.
Built for Processing at Scale
Our platform connects instantly with major shopping carts and POS systems like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Square. Custom API integration completes within days, not weeks. Keep processing through your existing setup while we handle the switch behind the scenes.
Beyond PCI DSS Level 1 certification, our platform combines advanced fraud protection with industry-specific tools. Real-time AI monitoring spots suspicious patterns instantly. Device fingerprinting tracks potential fraud attempts during sessions and automated AML and KYC checks run silently in the background.
Traditional CBD processors shut down accounts at the first sight of high volume. Our platform routes transactions through multiple forward-looking acquirers who understand the CBD industry. When one bank raises concerns, your payment continues through alternative paths. This multi-bank setup keeps you running during compliance reviews and volume spikes.
Support customers worldwide without complexity. Our platform processes 135+ currencies while handling cross-border compliance. Support local payment methods like iDEAL in European markets. Process through regional acquirers to maximize approval rates. Scale your CBD business internationally through one unified platform.
How to Get a CBD Merchant Account?
Get Quote
Now that you know what it takes to get approved, let’s explore how FastoPayments makes onboarding fast, compliant, and stress-free.
Company Documents
KYC for Directors & UBOs
Business Operations
Website Compliance
Financials
CBD-Specific Extras
POS Onboarding (if needed)
FAQs
Are CBD merchant accounts legal in all countries?
No, the legality of your account will depend on the country or region you operate in. When you apply for a FastoPayments account, we’ll let you know quickly whether you’re compliant or not.
Why can’t I use regular payment processors?
PayPal, Stripe, and traditional banks refuse CBD transactions. They’ll shut your account without warning if they detect CBD sales. We maintain relationships with banks that understand CBD, ensuring stable processing through multiple acquirers.
What payment methods can my customers use?
Most processors limit CBD to basic card processing. Our platform supports every major payment method your customers prefer. Process through Visa, Mastercard, and American Express while supporting local European options like SEPA and iDEAL. Handle digital wallets, bank transfers, and alternative payments through one unified platform.
What happens if regulations change?
CBD regulations evolve constantly. Our compliance team monitors changes across markets in real-time. When new requirements emerge, your processing adapts automatically. From updated age verification protocols to new product restrictions, our system handles compliance shifts without interrupting your business.
How long does it take to get a CBD merchant account approved?
Again, this depends on your business details, documentation, and compliance with industry regulations, but if you meet all criteria, we can get you started within days.
What payment methods can I accept with a CBD merchant account?
With a CBD merchant account from FastoPayments, you can accept major credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and even alternative payment options like crypto, depending on your business needs.
How do you handle returns and refunds?
CBD returns require careful management. Process refunds instantly through our dashboard while maintaining detailed documentation for compliance. Support partial refunds, subscription cancellations and product exchanges automatically. And with our fraud prevention tools, you can track refund patterns to identify potential issues before they impact your bottom line.
What kind of volume can you handle?
From startup to enterprise, our platform scales automatically. Handle sudden volume spikes during promotions or seasonal peaks without slowdown. Our multi-bank infrastructure processes millions in transactions daily while maintaining sub-second response time. Support unlimited SKUs, manage multiple locations and process high-volume sales orders, all through FastoPayments.
How High are CBD Credit Card Processing Fees at FastoPayments?
At FastoPayments, we typically see fees in the ballpark of 2% to 4% per transaction for CBD merchant accounts. But the overall cost can vary quite a bit. It comes down to factors like which payment provider you choose, how we assess the risk of your business, your transaction volume, and the specific services you need.
When you work with us, we determine our rates by looking at your past processing history, the way you handle your sales, the countries where you do business, your overall sales volume, and even the nature of your products. It’s about finding a solution that fits your unique business needs, so you get the best possible processing rates without any surprises.
CBD rules in Europe and the UK: what acquirers check
Most of the risk in a CBD merchant account comes from the law, not the payments. An acquirer needs to know that each product is legal in every market it is sold to, which in Europe depends on what the product is, what it contains and where it is sold. The rules below are as of October 2026.
CBD food and supplements in the EU: still a novel food
The EU treats CBD extracts, and foods that contain them, as novel foods. A CBD oil, gummy or drink sold as a food or food supplement needs authorisation under the Novel Food Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 before it can lawfully go on the market.
- 2022: the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said the safety of CBD as a novel food could not be established, citing data gaps, and put pending applications on hold.
- February 2026: EFSA set a provisional safe intake of 0.0275 mg per kg of body weight a day, about 2 mg a day for a 70 kg adult. It covers only CBD of at least 98% purity, not full-spectrum products, and safety cannot be established for people under 25, pregnant or breastfeeding women and people taking medication (EFSA).
- Now: EFSA is assessing individual applications again and gave its first positive opinion on one in September 2026. An EFSA opinion is not an authorisation: the European Commission and member states still have to add a product to the Union list.
CBD food in the UK: the FSA public list
In England and Wales, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) publishes a public list of CBD food products linked to applications it is assessing. Being on the list is not an authorisation, but the FSA says products not on it should not be on the market in England and Wales.
The FSA advises healthy adults to limit CBD from food to 10 mg a day, a figure updated in October 2023 and still current. It does not recommend CBD for people under 18, anyone taking medication, or people who are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive (FSA). In September 2026, FSA officials recommended that ministers in England and Wales authorise the first three high-purity CBD applications. The final decision rests with ministers.
THC limits: there is no single EU product limit
Many CBD sites say the EU allows products with up to 0.2% THC. That figure came from EU farm subsidy rules on THC in the hemp plant. Since 2023, the Common Agricultural Policy sets that limit at 0.3% for hemp varieties grown on eligible land (Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, Article 4). It says nothing about how much THC a finished oil, gummy or cosmetic may contain.
THC in finished products is a national matter, set by each country's drugs and food laws, and the limits differ. The EU does set maximum THC levels for foods made from hemp seeds, but not for CBD extracts. In the UK, THC is a controlled substance, and the FSA has set a safe upper limit of 0.07 mg of THC a day for CBD food. Check every target market.
No health claims
EU and UK food law allow only authorised health claims, and none has been authorised for CBD. Saying a product relieves anxiety, pain or sleep problems also risks it being treated as an unlicensed medicine. Acquirers review your product pages, ads and social media for this wording and will ask you to remove it before approval.
Card scheme position
Visa and Mastercard do not publish a CBD-specific rule. Their rules prohibit illegal transactions and let the schemes act against brand-damaging ones, so acquirers will only process CBD sales into markets where the product is legal. There is no dedicated CBD merchant category code either: the acquirer assigns the code that matches what you actually sell, as our MCC codes guide explains. Cannabis with THC is a separate case, covered in our guide to cannabis merchant accounts.
Lab certificates: what acquirers ask for
A certificate of analysis (COA) is only useful to an underwriter if it proves the label is true. A good one has:
- an independent, accredited laboratory as the issuer (ISO/IEC 17025 is the usual standard), with a test for each batch;
- a full cannabinoid profile, including CBD and THC, that can be compared with the label and with local limits;
- contaminant results for heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents and microbes;
- a batch number and test date that match the product and the website.
Publishing COAs on product pages, linked by batch, also gives you evidence in disputes. The rest of the paperwork is on our requirements checklist.
Payment methods and chargebacks
Approval for cards does not automatically cover other payment methods. Wallets, buy now pay later providers and local bank methods each have their own acceptable use policies, and some restrict CBD, so check each one before you add it at checkout. To limit disputes, use a clear billing descriptor, tracked delivery and easy refunds. See how to prevent chargebacks.
Guides for CBD merchants
Fasto works with CBD merchants. Tell us about your business and we'll tell you what's possible. Approval typically takes two to three weeks.
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