How card payments and online payments really work for merchants: cost, contracts, law, technology.
The payments guides explain what card and online payments really cost a merchant and what matters in contracts, with sources, worked examples and an as-of date. To get started: the fee components of card payments and renting or buying a card terminal. Who is involved in a payment is explained in network operator, acquirer, issuer. What a card payment costs at published list prices is shown in the card acceptance cost index. Wero has its own overview: Wero for merchants. For the planned obligation there is a continuously updated status: mandatory card payment in Germany. SENZA offers concrete terms and terminals at senzapay.com; this section is about the analysis.
No, cash is not being abolished. The EU even wants to secure the acceptance of notes and coins by law; from 2027 there is only an upper limit.
“Cash will not disappear by law. It disappears when nobody pays for the cash machine, the till and the change any more — and that is exactly what the EU is now legislating against.”
PCI DSS applies to every merchant that accepts credit cards, including the kiosk with a single terminal. For small businesses this usually means filling in a short questionnaire once a year. Forget it, and some providers charge a penalty fee every month.
“For a small merchant, PCI DSS is not an IT project but one questionnaire a year – it only gets expensive when you leave it lying around.”
If you accept cards today, every draft so far says you will also have to accept the digital euro. One number is still open: the fee cap. What the Commission proposal says, where Council and Parliament differ, and what merchants really need to do before 2029.
“For merchants, the question is not whether the digital euro arrives. It is a single cap that nobody has put a number on yet.”
A pure card terminal needs no certified technical security device — a SmartPOS with a till app does. Exactly where the line runs, what chain of duties hangs on it (TSE, receipt, notification to the tax office), what the TSE costs per ticket, and what the bill of 7 August 2026 envisages for a mandatory till from 2028.
“The TSE question is not decided by the device but by its function: as soon as the terminal enters orders, it is a till — and from then on the whole chain of security device, receipt and notification applies.”
From when is card payment mandatory in Germany? As at 20 October 2026: not yet at all. There are key points from the Federal Ministry of Finance of 11 September and an entry into force planned for 2027 — what that means for merchants and for customers, and whether it abolishes cash.
“An obligation to accept cards only becomes a burden when a business goes into the contract without its own figures — the obligation costs little, the wrong contract costs again every year.”
50 euros per payment, then a PIN after five transactions or 150 euros in total at the latest. Both limits are set out in Article 11 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389, not in your terminal contract. What the merchant can influence, what the card decides and how often the PIN appears at a given ticket size.
“A PIN prompt on a 12-euro payment is not a terminal fault and not a trick played by the payment network operator — it comes from the card.”
48 or 60 months initial term, renewal for twelve months at a time, three months' notice — miss the cut-off date and you are stuck for another year. The documented clauses of the large providers, a calculation of what a missed date costs depending on ticket size, and the five traps beyond the deadline.
“The most expensive clause in a terminal contract is not the merchant discount rate, it is the sentence about automatic renewal.”
An instant payment is not a new card but a separate rail: the money reaches your account within ten seconds instead of one to two banking days. What the Instant Payments Regulation really gives merchants.
“An instant payment is not a new card — it is the question of whether your money is in the account in ten seconds or in two days.”
Buy now pay later and invoice purchase usually cost merchants around 3 per cent plus a fixed fee; in return the provider carries the default risk.
“With invoice purchase the merchant is not paying for the booking but for someone else to carry the default risk. Once you grasp that, you stop comparing the percentage alone.”
Wero for merchants explained: who is behind it, where it works online, when it reaches card terminals, how pricing works and how to accept it in Germany.
“Online, Wero is a payment method you can test. At a German till it is still an announcement. Keep the two apart and you will not make an expensive mistake in 2026.”
Low value up to 30 euros, transaction risk analysis up to 500 euros, recurring payments, trusted beneficiaries: which exemptions from the two-factor requirement the law allows, how much of that providers actually implement, and why every exemption used shifts liability to the merchant.
“Every exemption from strong customer authentication is a trade: fewer abandoned baskets for more liability, and anyone who does not understand that trade is surprised by the chargebacks later.”
With cards, the customer has 120 days to dispute and must give a reason. The merchant can defend itself with evidence. With SEPA direct debit, the customer has eight weeks and needs no reason at all. Deadlines, fees and defence options compared.
“Direct debit is the cheapest payment method in online retail. It is also the only one where the customer can claw the money back for eight weeks without a reason. If you only look at the price, you miss the risk.”
How a shop connects payments technically decides onboarding time, conversion and security effort. An overview of the integration types, the payment method mix in the DACH region and the payment link as a sales channel without a shop.
“The hosted payment page is not the convenient solution, it is the smart one: it takes the bulk of the PCI obligations off the merchant, and that is the most expensive item nobody sees in the quote.”
Apple Pay and Google Pay have no merchant rate of their own: they cost exactly what the card inside the wallet costs — debit, credit or girocard.
“Apple Pay costs the merchant nothing extra. The price sits in the card inside the phone — not in the phone.”
How much does a PayPal payment cost a merchant in Germany? PayPal charges 2.99 per cent plus €0.39 per payment — what that means at a €10, €50 or €250 basket, what refunds and buyer-protection cases cost, and when a PayPal surcharge holds up legally.
“PayPal is rarely the cheapest payment method at checkout, but it is often the one the customer buys with. The question is not whether to offer PayPal, but whether you know what each basket size costs you.”
A neutral reference: what a girocard payment and a Debit Mastercard/Visa Debit payment of 10, 50 and 100 euros costs a merchant in Germany at the published list prices of nine providers. As of 03.10.2026, with methodology, tariff overview and CSV.
“On a ten-euro ticket it is often the fixed cent amount that decides what a card payment costs, on a hundred-euro ticket it is the percentage.”
For consumers, Visa versus Mastercard is a matter of taste; for merchants they cost almost the same: identical statutory caps, the same line in the price lists. What really drives the price is debit versus credit, consumer versus commercial card and where the card was issued.
“Whether it is Visa or Mastercard hardly matters to the merchant; whether it is debit or credit costs him a euro on every 100-euro ticket.”
Credit card fees for merchants: what a payment of 5 to 100 euros costs, which surcharges are added and when refusing cards pays off.
“On a five-euro ticket it is not the credit card that is expensive but the transaction – on a 250-euro ticket it is exactly the other way round.”
At the terminal the three cards look the same; in the statement they are worlds apart: in the same price lists girocard sits at 0.16 to 0.26 per cent, the international debit card at 0.89 to 1.25 per cent. Where the difference comes from, what it costs on a real card mix, and who decides at the terminal which brand runs.
“The most expensive card payment of the day is often the one where the customer did nothing differently — they simply had a different card in their hand.”
Cash is seen as free because no fee statement comes with it. The Bundesbank has measured it. Per payment, cash really is the cheapest. Relative to turnover, it costs almost three times as much as girocard. Here are the cost components on both sides, what banks charge for cash deposits and the totals by ticket size.
“Cash has no fee statement. It has a timesheet nobody fills in.”
Amex has a reputation for being expensive — but the sum is almost always set up wrongly. What matters is not the percentage, but the route you accept through, how large your Amex share actually is, and what a turned-away guest costs. With figures per ticket size and the thresholds at which the advertised entry price ends.
“The Amex question is rarely decided by the fee and almost always by the guest who otherwise pays somewhere else.”
The EU has capped the interchange fee — but expressly not for corporate cards, cards from outside the EEA and three-party systems. What that costs, why it hits your largest bills of all, and which pricing model is right for which card mix.
“The EU cap ends precisely where your largest bills begin — with the business customer’s corporate card.”
The answer does not hang on the useful life, it hangs on the provider. At CCV the break-even for buying now sits beyond the end of every one of the four rental terms on offer — at Nexi the purchase has paid for itself after seven months. Plus: what a card terminal without a minimum term costs and what matters when comparing fees, with a monthly sum for a kiosk and a bakery.
“Whether renting or buying is cheaper is not decided by the useful life — it is decided by the provider.”
Negotiating card fees starts with the question of who gets which share: interchange and scheme fee are fixed, only the provider's margin is open. The eight cost components, girocard compared with credit cards and why the per-transaction fee matters most on small tickets.
“A per-transaction fee of nine cents turns a five-euro ticket into a fee of 1.8 per cent, before the advertised merchant discount rate has even been counted.”
Using an iPhone or Android phone as a card terminal has worked in Germany since 2024, including girocard with PIN. Where the limits lie – contactless only, no printer, till integration, security standard – and from how many payments a month a dedicated terminal becomes cheaper.
“SoftPOS is not a cheap terminal but a terminal without a base fee – and that makes a difference once the till starts ringing.”
In Austria the major providers sell neither a device nor network operation on its own, but a package of terminal and transactions. Anyone comparing renting with buying is therefore comparing a flat rate with a percentage. With worked examples from the published price lists, as of 23 September 2026.
“In Austria you rarely buy a device — you buy a turnover band, and it only fits if your month fits the tier.”
A card tip runs in the same transaction as the bill, lands first in the business's account and incurs a merchant discount rate there. How the function works technically, why girocard has no subsequent adjustment, and what applies for tax: section 3 no. 51 EStG, section 10.1 UStAE, section 146 AO.
“The tip belongs to the staff, but the fee on it is paid by the landlord — on every cent that runs through the same terminal.”
Three routes lead from the till system to the card terminal, and the merchant pays twice for the wrong one: once at setup, then every day re-keying amounts. What technically separates ZVT, O.P.I. and cloud integration, why TA 7.2 is not the same thing, and from what number of tickets the integration pays for itself.
“Till integration pays off not through ticket size but through ticket count — which is why the bakery needs it more urgently than the trades business.”
Payment network operator, acquirer and payment service provider explained simply: who does what in a card payment, who needs a BaFin licence, what “commercial payment network operator” means and with whom the merchant actually signs the card terminal contract.
“In a card payment the merchant does not have one contractual partner but four, and the lack of transparency in card fees arises precisely in the joints between them.”
Countertop, mobile, SmartPOS, PIN pad, unattended: the hardware is the same at almost every payment network operator. What distinguishes the form factors, what to watch for in certification and platform, and when Tap to Pay on a smartphone is enough.
“The terminal is never the differentiator, everyone fits the same four manufacturers; what decides it are the terms, the service and the connection to the till system.”