In short: a payment terminal in Belgium usually costs between €25 and €50 per month to rent, or between €299 and €850 to buy outright depending on the device, plus a fee on every transaction (with an Axepta BNP Paribas payment terminal, you pay between €0.035 and 1.09%).

The honest answer is that no provider can quote you a single number without knowing two things: how much you turn over on card and what your average basket is. A €4 coffee and a €400 repair job cost very different amounts to process. This article explains every line that can appear on the bill, so you can compare offers properly instead of comparing headlines.

The two prices you’re actually paying

Every payment terminal offer, from every provider, is built from two components. Providers compete by making one look small and quietly loading the other.

1. The cost of the machine. Rent it monthly, or buy it once.
   
2. The cost of each payment. A percentage of the transaction, a fixed amount per transaction, or both.

A “free” terminal is almost always paid for through the second one. A very low transaction rate is often paid for through the first. Neither is a trick, but you can only tell which is cheaper for you by running your own numbers, which we’ll do below.

What the hardware costs

Renting

Most Belgian merchants rent. Expect roughly €25–€50 per month, depending on the model: a simple countertop device sits at the bottom, an all-in-one Android terminal with a big screen and a built-in till at the top.

Renting usually includes replacement if the device fails, software and security updates, and support. It also means no capital outlay in month one, which matters if you’re starting out.

At Axepta BNP Paribas, you can rent a payment terminal from €24 a month (S1E2 on the Flex plan) to €45.90 a month (The terminal duo on the Classic plan).

Buying

Buying a terminal from Axepta BNP Paribas costs between €299 (S1E2) and €575 (The terminal duo). It’s cheaper over three or four years if you keep it, but you carry the risk yourself: if it breaks after the warranty expires, or a card scheme such as Visa or Mastercard mandates a security update the hardware can’t handle, replacement is on you. Most providers sell a maintenance contract alongside it for exactly that reason.

Short-term rental

Overlooked, but real: if you only take cards at a summer market, a festival or a seasonal pop-up, some providers rent by the week or month. You pay more per day and far less per year.

The phone in your pocket

If your card volume is modest, the cheapest terminal is no terminal. Tap to pay turns a smartphone into a card reader using the NFC chip that’s already in it — no rental, no hardware, no charging base. It caps out at a busy counter, but for a market stall or a tradesperson it removes the hardware cost entirely.

Start accepting payments with your smartphone.

What each transaction costs

This is the line that ends up mattering most, because it scales with your turnover.

You’ll see it quoted in one of two ways:

Blended rate: one percentage for everything, e.g. 1.49%. Simple to read, easy to budget, and what most small merchants are offered.

Interchange++: the cost is broken into its three real parts:

• the interchange fee (goes to your customer’s bank),
  
• the scheme fee (goes to Visa/Mastercard/Bancontact),
  
• and your provider’s margin.

More transparent, more complex, and generally better value at higher volumes.

Not every card costs the same

Card	Relative cost	Why
Bancontact (Belgian debit)	Lowest	Domestic scheme, capped interchange
Visa / Mastercard debit, consumer, EU	Low	Interchange capped at 0.1%, with a maximum of €0.05
Visa / Mastercard credit, consumer, EU	Slightly higher	Interchange capped at 0.3%
Business / corporate cards	Higher	Not covered by the caps
Cards issued outside the EU	Higher	Not covered by the caps
American Express	Highest	Separate scheme, its own pricing

Note: only the interchange fee is capped. The scheme fee and your provider’s margin are not covered by the caps. Relative cost per transaction, not an exact price. Your own rate depends on your contract.

If most of your customers pay with Bancontact (which in Belgium, most do), your real blended cost is probably lower than a headline rate suggests. If you’re in a tourist area taking a lot of non-EU cards, it’s higher.

Fixed fee per transaction

Some providers add a few cents on top of the percentage. Irrelevant on a €200 invoice. Significant on a €3 coffee. If your average basket is small, this is the number to interrogate.

Do Apple Pay and Google Pay cost extra?

No. A phone wallet presents a normal card. You’re charged for the card behind it, at the same rate.

The costs nobody puts in the headline

This is where offers genuinely diverge. Ask about each one before you sign:

• Installation or activation fee. Some providers charge a one-off setup fee, higher if a technician comes on site rather than sending a plug-and-play device.
  
• Delivery (and express delivery, if you need it fast).
  
• Maintenance or insurance, usually on purchased terminals.
  
• A SIM or connectivity fee if the terminal uses mobile data rather than your Wi-Fi.
  
• Minimum monthly fee. Below a certain turnover you pay a floor amount regardless.
  
• PCI compliance fee: some providers bill separately for security compliance.
  
• Statement, admin or “service” charges. Small, monthly, easy to miss.
  
• Chargeback fee per disputed transaction.
  
• Paper rolls. Genuinely trivial per roll; genuinely not trivial across a busy year.
  
• Early termination. The big one: see below.

Contract length is a price

A cheap monthly rate on a five-year contract is not cheap. It’s a five-year commitment with a low sticker.

Three things to check before signing:

1. How long is the initial term? One, two, three and five years are all common in this market. (12 months at Axepta BNP Paribas)
   
2. What does it cost to leave early? Some contracts charge the remaining months in full.
   
3. Does it auto-renew, and what’s the notice period?
   
   A contract that quietly renews for another year unless you give three months’ notice is a real cost. Axepta BNP Paribas, for example, requires 1 month’s notice for acquiring and 3 months for terminals. The contract rolls over indefinitely after 12 months, with the same notice periods.

If you’re new to card payments and can’t predict your volume, a short or rolling contract is worth paying slightly more for. You’re buying the option to change your mind.

Work out your own number

The cheapest-looking quote is often not the cheapest. Here is how to find out which is which.

Let’s work out an example:

Two providers quote the same café.

One leads with 1.2%, the other with 1.5%, but the 1.2% offer also charges €0.10 on every payment.

The café takes around 1,500 payments a month, most of them about €8.

	The 1.2% offer + €0.10 per payment	The 1.5% offer no per-payment fee
Monthly card turnover	€ 12,000	€ 12,000
Number of payments	1,500	1,500
Transaction rate	1.2 %	1.5 %
Cost of the rate	€ 144	€ 180
Fee per payment	€ 150 1,500 × €0.10	€ 0
Terminal rental	€ 25	€ 25
Other monthly fees	€ 0	€ 0
Real monthly cost	€ 319	€ 205
What you actually pay	2.66 %	1.71 %

Small baskets are what does it. At €8 a payment, ten cents is another 1.25% on top of the rate. The same offer on a garage doing €80 tickets would barely register. That is why you cannot compare headline rates, and why the last line of the table is the only number worth comparing between quotes.

Download our rate calculator spreadsheet if you want to work out your own number.

What “free card reader” really means

Several providers advertise a free or near-free payment terminal. It’s a legitimate model: the hardware is subsidised and recovered through a higher transaction rate. It’s genuinely the cheapest option if your card turnover is low, and genuinely the most expensive if it’s high.

Rough rule: the more you turn over, the more the transaction percentage dominates, and the less the hardware price matters. Below a few thousand euros a month, take the free reader. Above it, do the arithmetic.

What Axepta BNP Paribas charges

With Axepta BNP Paribas Soft you pay €0.20 per Bancontact transaction whatever the amount, €0.20 on Visa and Mastercard up to €25, and 1.49% above that, on a minimum monthly invoice of €5. The headline may look worse sometimes against, for example, SumUp’s plan without a subscription (no monthly fee, 1.69% per transaction), but in practice it rarely is: a €50 Bancontact payment costs you €0.20 with us (and about €0.85 with SumUp). Bancontact carries most card payments in Belgium, so the flat fee wins on any basket above roughly €12, and the €5 minimum stops applying once you take 25 payments a month.

Discover our pricing.

Frequently asked questions