Wero for merchants: what it is, what it costs and when it reaches the till

The short answer

Wero is the payment solution of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a group of European banks and payment providers. Every Wero payment is an instant transfer from the customer's bank account to yours. German merchants have been able to accept it online since November 2025, through their payment provider. At the till, EPI says it will arrive gradually from 2027.

On cost, there is no standard price. Some providers publish online list prices. Nobody in Germany has yet named a merchant fee for Wero at the terminal.

What Wero is and who is behind it

EPI is backed by 18 banks and financial services firms, including Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, Nexi and Worldline. EPI says more than 50 institutions are members. The French payment provider HiPay joined as a principal member on 8 September 2026.

Wero launched in 2024 for payments between individuals in Belgium, France and Germany. Users send money with a phone number instead of an IBAN. Wero says the money arrives in under ten seconds. In Germany, the savings banks and cooperative banks went first. According to EPI in November 2025, Postbank, Deutsche Bank, ING and Revolut were due to follow.

Reach is growing fast. S-Payment reported ten million registered users in Germany and 60 million across Europe on 10 September 2026. Actual use is lower: the ibi Payment Report 2026 found that only 13 per cent of consumers surveyed had a Wero account.

Where Wero works today: the timeline

Date	Milestone	Source
2024	Person-to-person payments go live in BE, FR, DE	EPI
17.11.2025	German e-commerce launch, including Eventim, Decathlon, Lidl and Rossmann	EPI
08.09.2026	HiPay becomes a principal member; in-store rollout planned for France first	EPI
09.09.2026	BNP Paribas launches "Wero for Merchants" in five countries, Germany included	EPI
16.09.2026	First in-store use in Belgium: a QR code on the Payworld terminal	EPI
30.09.2026	Luxembourg: Payconiq switched off, Wero takes over	EPI
2026	Migration of iDEAL in the Netherlands begins	EPI
from 2027	Broader point-of-sale availability in Germany and France, step by step	EPI

EPI says more than 48,000 merchants in five countries had processed Wero payments by mid-September 2026. German e-commerce is still thin: in September 2026 the EHI found Wero in 3.0 per cent of the top 1,000 online shops.

The detail behind each step is in my news pieces on BNP Paribas, HiPay, Belgium and the in-store timetable, Luxembourg and the iDEAL migration.

Wero on card terminals: where things stand

The key line is in EPI's release of 16 September 2026. In Germany, Wero is only available in a few physical settings so far, such as EV charging. Broader availability at the till is planned step by step from 2027. EPI has shown contactless account-to-account payments only in test environments and stresses that these are not commercial launches.

Two examples show how Wero could reach the till. In Belgium, the customer scans a Wero QR code on a Payworld terminal. HiPay plans to roll Wero out through existing tills, card terminals and Tap to Pay, starting in France. No German network operator has announced a launch date.

What this means for you: do not buy a new terminal because of Wero. The contract matters more. Sign up for 48 or 60 months today and that device will still be on your counter in 2027. Get it in writing whether your provider will add Wero and whether a software update will be enough. More on this in my piece on notice periods in terminal contracts.

What does Wero cost a merchant?

The pricing logic differs from cards. Card payments have regulated components: Regulation (EU) 2015/751 caps interchange on consumer cards at 0.2 per cent for debit and 0.3 per cent for credit. Scheme fees and the provider's margin come on top, as set out in the building blocks of card fees.

Wero is not a card payment. The regulation does not apply, and there is no public component to benchmark an offer against. Your payment provider sets the price. Two examples of published online list prices, as of 3 October 2026:

Provider	Published price for Wero online
VR Payment (Wero for online shops)	0.85% plus €0.05 per payment, plus €0.04 under €15; no monthly fee for 12 months, then €24.90 a month
Mollie (Germany, "all other countries")	0.90% plus €0.25 per payment

These are list prices, not a recommendation. No merchant fee for Wero at the terminal has been published in Germany. Nor does EPI set out a fee model in any of its releases. I covered that gap in my comment on Wero's decision without a price.

One more point for your sums: an instant transfer has no card-scheme chargeback process. The money arrives at once, but you handle complaints and refunds yourself. How this works for cards and direct debit is explained in the piece on chargebacks.

How to accept Wero

You do not sign up with EPI directly. You go through a payment provider or acquirer. At the German launch, EPI named PAYONE, VR Payment, Unzer, Nexi, Worldline, Stripe, PPRO and Deutsche Bank, among others. Since September 2026, BNP Paribas has also offered acceptance to business clients in Germany.

1. Ask your payment provider whether Wero is available and what it charges per payment.
2. Check whether switching it on in your existing checkout is enough. A separate integration project rarely pays off at today's adoption levels.
3. After three to six months, compare conversion and cost against PayPal, cards and direct debit.

The technical routes for adding payment methods to a shop are covered in the overview of online payment integration.

Wero, girocard and credit cards compared

Feature	Wero	girocard	Visa / Mastercard
Technology	Instant account-to-account transfer	Debit card	Debit and credit cards
Run by	EPI, 18 banks and financial services firms	German banking industry	International card schemes
In-store in Germany	Isolated cases, broad rollout planned from 2027	1.397m terminals (H1 2026)	Yes
Capped interchange	No, not a card payment	0.2% (consumer debit)	0.2% debit, 0.3% credit
Published in-store merchant fee	No	Price lists of individual providers	Price lists of individual providers

For the price gap between girocard and international debit cards, see girocard, Debit Mastercard, Visa Debit. Wero also matters for Germany's planned card acceptance requirement, whose key points call for at least one European scheme. Details in the piece on the card payment requirement 2027.

Wero and the digital euro

Wero moves money held in bank accounts; the digital euro would be central bank money issued by the ECB. It could come in 2029 at the earliest and has not yet been adopted. In an interview with the European Payments Council, EPI chief executive Martina Weimert said EPI was willing to integrate the digital euro into the Wero wallet. Bundesbank board member Lutz Lienenkämper floated the same link publicly in August 2026. There is no timetable and no agreement.

For merchants, another difference matters more: under the drafts, the digital euro would come with an acceptance obligation and a fee cap; Wero has neither. What that means at the till is covered in the digital euro: what merchants should expect.

My advice to merchants

1. Online: switch Wero on if your provider includes it at no extra cost, and measure your own numbers.
2. In-store: do not buy hardware because of Wero.
3. Check every new terminal contract against 2027 and get the Wero question answered in writing.
4. Know your own girocard rate. It is the benchmark once a price for Wero at the till is published.