What does it cost to accept credit cards – especially for small tickets?

The short answer

According to the price lists published today, a credit card payment with a consumer card from the EEA costs you between 1.19 and 1.9 per cent of the amount, with some providers adding 8 to 10 cents per payment. For small tickets this fixed amount decides the cost, for large tickets the percentage – which is why there is no single right answer, only the one for your ticket size.

This article deals with the credit card only. How the full bill is made up of merchant discount rate, rental and ancillary items is covered in the article on the eight cost components; why corporate and foreign cards cost more again is covered in the article on corporate cards and non-EEA cards.

How high are credit card fees for merchants?

For consumer cards from the EEA, credit card fees for merchants in published price lists range from 1.19 to 1.9 per cent of turnover, in some cases plus 8 to 10 cents per payment. Corporate cards, cards from outside Europe and American Express cost more, because the statutory interchange cap does not apply to them.

What matters more for your fee is therefore the type of card the customer pulls out, not whether it says Visa or Mastercard:

Card type	Interchange capped?	Examples from published price lists
Consumer credit card from the EEA	yes, 0.3 % (Art. 4 Regulation (EU) 2015/751)	CCV 1.25 % (as of 14.10.2026), SumUp 1.39 %, PAYONE Classic 1.49 % + €0.08
Premium card (gold, platinum) from the EEA	yes, also 0.3 %	SumUp “Zahlungen Plus”: 1.39 % instead of 0.79 % for domestic cards
Corporate card (commercial card)	no	CCV 1.6 % (as of 14.10.2026); VR Payment 1.50 % on top of the merchant discount rate
Card from outside the EU	no	VR Payment 0.33 % on top, for Mastercard at the terminal a further 0.75 % cross-border fee
American Express	not covered (three-party scheme)	CCV 1.5 % up to €100,000 card turnover a year (as of 14.10.2026)

The VR Payment figures come from its card acceptance price information, valid from 15.02.2026, retrieved on 14.10.2026; the CCV figures from CCV’s page on payment methods. Why the uncapped cards are so much more expensive is explained in the article on corporate cards and non-EEA cards.

What a credit card payment costs by ticket size

I retrieved the public price pages on 25.09.2026 and calculated only what is charged per payment – without rental, set-up or device purchase. Rounded to whole cents:

Ticket	PAYONE Classic 1.49 % + €0.08	PAYONE All Time Flex 1.90 %	Stripe Terminal 1.4 % + €0.10	SumUp 1.39 %	Nexi promotion 1.19 %
€5	€0.15 (3.1 %)	€0.10	€0.17 (3.4 %)	€0.07	€0.06
€10	€0.23 (2.3 %)	€0.19	€0.24 (2.4 %)	€0.14	€0.12
€20	€0.38 (1.9 %)	€0.38	€0.38 (1.9 %)	€0.28	€0.24
€50	€0.83 (1.65 %)	€0.95	€0.80 (1.6 %)	€0.70	€0.60
€100	€1.57	€1.90	€1.50	€1.39	€1.19

What sits alongside changes the picture: PAYONE Classic costs from €12.90 rental per month and €50 set-up; All Time Flex has no monthly fee but a 24-month term and a one-off charge from €19. The Nexi offer at 1.19 per cent is a promotion, since extended to 31.10.2026 (checked on 1 October 2026), plus a terminal fee of €15 per month on a 48-month term. With SumUp and Stripe you buy the device. Anyone choosing a provider by the last column of the table has therefore not decided anything yet.

For small tickets the transaction is expensive, not the card

The reflex of many bakers and kiosk operators is: credit card only from ten euros. The calculation on the same contract argues against it. In PAYONE’s Classic tariff, girocard costs 0.26 per cent plus the same 8 cents:

Ticket	girocard 0.26 % + €0.08	Credit card 1.49 % + €0.08	Extra cost of credit card
€5	€0.09 (1.9 %)	€0.15 (3.1 %)	€0.06
€20	€0.13 (0.7 %)	€0.38 (1.9 %)	€0.25
€100	€0.34	€1.57	€1.23
€250	€0.73	€3.81	€3.08

On a five-euro ticket even girocard costs almost two per cent, because the per-transaction fee weighs on every transaction equally. The credit card adds only 6 cents. The credit card premium grows with the ticket size – it is a problem for the garage, the furniture store and the hotel, not for the baker.

Worked example: café versus garage

Model calculation with freely chosen assumptions and the PAYONE Classic rates above: both businesses have 150 credit card payments a month.

	Café, ticket €7	Garage, ticket €250
Credit card turnover per month	€1,050	€37,500
Extra cost versus girocard (1.23 percentage points)	€12.92	€461.25
per year	€154.98	€5,535.00

By refusing credit cards the café saves around €13 a month and in return risks guests who only carry a credit card – tourists, for instance, whose home bank has never heard of girocard. The garage, on the other hand, has a real cost issue. But it too is better off negotiating the percentage than turning customers away.

Why “premium” is often billed at a higher rate

Under Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2015/751, the statutory cap of 0.3 per cent on the interchange fee applies to consumer credit cards as a whole, including gold and platinum cards. Providers nevertheless bill them at a higher rate: in its “Zahlungen Plus” tariff (€19 per month) SumUp charges 0.79 per cent for domestic cards but 1.39 per cent for premium, international and Amex cards; Stripe online charges 1.5 per cent plus 25 cents for standard and 2.8 per cent plus 25 cents for premium cards from the EEA. The difference does not arise in the capped portion but in the scheme fee and the margin. Ask how your provider defines “premium” and how much of your turnover falls under it.

Which surcharges also appear on the credit card statement

The rate in the offer is rarely the rate on the statement. VR Payment is one of the few providers that publicly lists what is charged on top of the negotiated merchant discount rate; the rate itself is not in the document, it applies “as per the service application”. The credit-card-relevant items from the price information (valid from 15.02.2026, retrieved on 14.10.2026):

Item in the price list	Fee	When it applies
Per-transaction fee	€0.04 per payment	on every payment
Visa service fee	0.03 % of the transaction amount	on every Visa payment
Mastercard service fee	0.12 % of the transaction amount	on every Mastercard payment
Commercial cards	1.50 % of the transaction amount	Visa or Mastercard corporate card
Cards from non-EU countries	0.33 % of the transaction amount	customer card from outside the EU
Mastercard Interregional Cross-Border Fee	0.75 % of the transaction amount	Mastercard from outside Europe at the terminal
Mastercard Processing Integrity	0.25 %, at least €0.03	submission later than three working days, amount or currency differs from the authorisation, cancellation

Other providers bundle such items into the merchant discount rate or show them differently. The list shows where to look on your own statement; it is not a market average.

Worked example: three times 100 euros with Mastercard

Model calculation using the surcharges above and an assumed merchant discount rate of 1.20 per cent. The rate is freely chosen and not the terms of any particular contract; whether all surcharges apply side by side is governed by your contract.

	Consumer card from Germany	Corporate card from Germany	Consumer card from the USA
Merchant discount rate (assumption) 1.20 %	€1.20	€1.20	€1.20
Mastercard service fee 0.12 %	€0.12	€0.12	€0.12
Commercial card surcharge 1.50 %	–	€1.50	–
Non-EU 0.33 % + cross-border 0.75 %	–	–	€1.08
Per-transaction fee	€0.04	€0.04	€0.04
Total	€1.36	€2.86	€2.44

The same ticket therefore costs more than twice as much with the corporate card. And anyone who submits the end-of-day batch only after the weekend pays, in this model, a further 25 cents per 100 euros on Mastercard. With terminals that close the day automatically this is not an issue – check that the setting is switched on.

Surcharge, discount, refusal: what is permitted

Surcharge. § 270a BGB renders invalid any agreement under which the customer is to pay a fee for using a payment card – for consumers and for cards to which Chapter II of Regulation (EU) 2015/751 applies, i.e. Visa and Mastercard. A “credit card surcharge” at the shop till is therefore off the table.

Discount. Conversely, a reduction for a cheaper payment method is permitted, and § 675f(6) BGB expressly protects it: your payment service provider may not contractually prohibit you from offering “a reduction for the use of a specific payment instrument”.

Refusal. Article 10 of the Regulation prohibits rules that force you to accept all card types of a scheme. You may therefore accept girocard and refuse credit cards, but you must display this clearly and visibly at the shop entrance and at the till. Whether your acceptance agreement additionally regulates minimum amounts or similar is set out in your contract, not in the law – check there before a sign goes up at the till.

What I advise merchants

1. Work out the average ticket of your credit card payments, separately from the overall ticket. Three monthly statements are enough.
2. Below a €15 ticket, look at the per-transaction fee; above €100, at the credit card percentage.
3. Spread fixed costs across your card payments before comparing tariffs – a rental of €15 across 300 payments is 5 cents per payment.
4. Read promotional rates together with end date and term: what applies after the promotion counts for more over 48 months than the entry rate.
5. Ask for the definition of premium and for the share of your turnover that falls under it.
6. Search the statement for additional items: service fees, corporate card and non-EU surcharges often sit below the merchant discount rate, not inside it.
7. Let the end-of-day batch run automatically and daily, so that no submission is left for more than three working days.
8. Do not charge a surcharge. If you want to steer, do it with a discount for girocard.
9. Only refuse credit cards if the numbers support it – and then with the required notice.