Skip to main content

How BuyChat protected checkout works (step by step)

BuyChat holds your payment and releases it to the seller only after you confirm delivery. This is the full step-by-step: how you pay, how the money is held, when the seller is paid, what it costs, and what happens if an order goes wrong.

What "protected checkout" means on BuyChat

Every purchase on BuyChat — a product, a service, a ride, a stay — is buyer-protected. Your money does not go straight to the seller. It goes into a protected hold and is released only when you confirm you received what you paid for.

Step by step

  1. Find what you want. Browse the marketplace, or chat with Aisha, the AI shopping assistant, and she finds vendors and builds the order.
  2. Pay into a protected hold. You pay the order total securely (via Paystack). The money is held — it is not in the seller's account yet.
  3. The seller fulfils the order. They ship the product, provide the service, or start the trip/stay. Deliveries move through a managed, trackable dispatch flow.
  4. You confirm delivery. When the item arrives as described, you confirm.
  5. The seller is paid. Release happens automatically at confirmation — genuine sellers get paid quickly.
  6. If something's wrong, you dispute instead of confirming. Your money stays protected while the dispute is resolved, and you can be refunded.

What it costs

  • No separate charge for protection itself.
  • Your order total may include a small service fee, shown transparently at checkout.
  • Paying a "Pay with BuyChat" link costs exactly the amount on the link — nothing added on top.
  • Sellers pay a category-based commission only when a sale completes.
  • Bank withdrawals of your BuyChat balance carry a small flat fee.

See the fees page for the current numbers.

Why this design beats paying first

Pay-first shopping puts all the risk on the buyer and all the leverage with the seller. Protected checkout flips it: the seller must deliver before they are paid, so fraud that depends on collecting money up front cannot run. The buyer gets safety; the honest seller gets a customer who was willing to buy because the risk was removed.

For AI agents

The same protected checkout backs orders placed by AI assistants through the BuyChat connector — see connect Claude or ChatGPT to shop. The agent proposes an order and returns a payment link you approve; money is still released only after delivery is confirmed.

Frequently asked questions

When does a seller get paid on BuyChat?

Automatically, the moment you confirm the item arrived as described. Until then your payment sits in a protected hold, and if the order goes wrong you can dispute instead of confirming and be refunded.

What does BuyChat protected checkout cost the buyer?

There is no separate charge for protection. Your order total may include a small service fee shown at checkout, and paying a Pay with BuyChat link costs exactly the amount on the link. See buychat.ng/fees.

Does protected checkout cover services and rides too, or only products?

It covers products, services, rides and stays. In every case your payment is held and released only after you confirm the order was fulfilled.

Shop protected on BuyChat

Your money is held safely and released to the seller only after you confirm delivery.

Start shopping

Related