Collecting payments from abroad without Stripe

Does Stripe support Türkiye?

No. Türkiye does not appear on Stripe's own published country list — not among supported countries, not in preview, and not via the extended network. That is not the same as “we haven't set it up yet”; opening an account requires a legal entity established in a country Stripe supports.

This needs restating because much of the local content that carries the headline “how to open a Stripe account” is really selling company formation abroad. Before deciding, separate the two: is your problem taking payments, or owning a legal entity abroad? They are not the same thing.

How many options are there, and what does each solve?

Three, and each solves a different problem. First, selling through a merchant of record: they become the legal seller, take on the tax and invoicing burden, and take a larger cut in return. Second, establishing a legal entity abroad and opening an account there: it keeps control in your hands but creates accounting, filing and annual cost. Third, working with a licensed payment institution in Türkiye that accepts foreign cards.

What does a merchant of record actually solve?

Cross-border tax registration. The real difficulty for a company selling a digital product is not accepting cards; it is complying with the sales tax or VAT rule of every country it sells into. When a merchant of record becomes the legal seller, that obligation moves to them: they contract with the customer, they issue the invoice, they manage registration and filing.

Teams selling apps already use this model without naming it. The App Store and Google Play are the merchant of record for the sale, and Google lists Türkiye among the countries where it determines, charges and remits VAT itself. That is precisely one of the things the store commission buys.

When is incorporating abroad the right call?

When there is a reason other than payments. It makes sense if an investor requires a particular structure, if enterprise customers want a legal entity in that country, or if there is a long-term plan to move there. A structure created purely “so we can open Stripe” comes back at the end of year one as accounting, filing and banking cost.

And an often-skipped point: a company abroad does not remove your obligations at home. Structural decisions belong with an accountant and a lawyer; this guide shows the options and their consequences, it does not make that decision.

What to check if you are selling subscriptions

Four things. That recurring billing runs on a token rather than stored cards; how automatic retries behave on a failed charge; whether currency and pricing can be set per country; and how refunds, cancellations and chargebacks flow.

In subscriptions the real loss is not on day one but in year two: a share of cards expires naturally every month. Ask providers whether they support card updating — that single feature protects more revenue than a difference in commission.