What is an acquiring fee?

An acquiring fee is the fee your restaurant or café pays the card acquirer every time a customer pays with a payment card. The card acquirer is the company that handles the transaction between the customer's bank and your business's account, for example a bank or a specialist payment company. The acquiring fee is typically either a fixed amount per payment or a percentage of the sale amount – or a combination of both.

This fee is part of the total cost of accepting card payments and should therefore be factored into your financial planning. Many restaurants and cafés find that the fee can easily add up, especially if they have many card transactions in a day.

An example from restaurant operations:

Imagine a customer paying a €60 bill with their Mastercard, and your acquiring agreement sets a fee of 1.3% per transaction (an illustrative figure). That means you pay €0.78 in acquiring fees for that one payment. It may not sound like much, but multiply it by 50 card transactions a day – and you pay over €10,000 a year in acquiring fees alone.

Why is it important?

For café and restaurant owners, it is essential to know and understand acquiring fees, as they affect your bottom line. It is often a hidden cost that can be overlooked, especially without access to transparent reports and analyses in your POS system. By paying attention to the fee and comparing prices and terms between card acquirers, you can optimise your payment solutions and minimise unnecessary costs.

So always include the choice of card acquirer in your considerations when choosing a POS solution, and make sure your POS system supports clear reporting of transaction fees.

How is the acquiring fee used in Flexybox?

In the Flexybox POS system, the acquiring fee is part of transaction reporting, so you can easily see what you pay for each card payment. The system can give you detailed insight into revenue by payment method, and whether there are differences between card types and payment providers. This makes it easier to follow your payments and decide whether you should switch card acquirer.

You can read more about related terms such as

card acquiring

POS terminals

Frequently asked questions

The fee is charged by the card acquirer that processes the card payment – for example your bank or payment company.

No, the fee varies depending on whether the customer uses a Visa, MasterCard, corporate card or foreign card. Foreign and corporate cards often have higher fees.

Yes, it is often possible to negotiate fees with your card acquirer – especially if you have a high turnover or many transactions.

With a POS system from Flexybox you can pull reports showing the breakdown of transactions and associated fees by payment type.