Payments
Card fees explained: interchange, the EU caps and what you actually pay
What makes up the fee on each card payment, which caps apply in Iceland, and how to compare offers from card acquirers line by line.
In this guide
Most guests in an Icelandic restaurant pay by card, and every card payment carries a fee. The fee shows up as one number on your monthly statement, but it is built from three parts. When you know the three parts, you can read your statement, compare two offers fairly and ask your acquirer better questions.
This guide describes the rules as of October 2026.
The three parts of a card fee
Your acquirer (in Icelandic, færsluhirðir) is the company that takes the card payment on your behalf and pays the money into your bank account. The full fee that you pay the acquirer is called the merchant service charge.2 It has three parts:
| Part | Who gets it | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Interchange fee | The bank that issued the guest’s card | The card scheme, within the legal caps |
| Scheme fee | The card scheme, for example Visa or Mastercard | The card scheme |
| Acquirer margin | Your acquirer | Your contract with the acquirer |
The interchange fee is the only part with a legal cap. The scheme fee and the acquirer margin are commercial prices, so this is where offers differ and where you can negotiate.
The caps on interchange fees
Iceland made EU Regulation 2015/751 law with Act no. 31/2019. The act took effect on 1 September 2019.1 The regulation sets two caps for consumer cards:2
- Debit cards: at most 0,2 % of the payment.
- Credit cards: at most 0,3 % of the payment.
The regulation lets each country set a lower cap for domestic debit cards. The act asked the minister to decide within two years whether Iceland should do that.1 The ministry held a public consultation in 2021 and decided to keep the cap at 0,2 %.3
Cards outside the caps
The caps do not cover every card. These payments fall outside them:2
- Commercial cards. These are company cards that are charged directly to the company’s account.
- Three-party schemes. In these schemes the card company issues the card and also acquires the payment itself. American Express is the best-known example.
- Cards issued outside the EEA. The regulation applies when both the card issuer and the acquirer are inside the EEA. A card from a bank in the United States or the United Kingdom is outside this rule.
The last point matters in Iceland, because many guests are tourists with cards from outside the EEA. Ask your acquirer to show these cards as separate lines, so that you can see what they cost you.
What card payments cost restaurants in Iceland
Seðlabanki Íslands (the Central Bank of Iceland) collects data on payment costs every year. In its January 2025 report, it estimated that merchants paid about 17,2 billion kr. to acquirers for card payments in 2023.4
The same report gives an average fee for each payment in 2023:4
| Card type | Average fee per payment, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Debit card | about 60 kr. |
| Credit card | about 160 kr. |
These are averages across all kinds of shops, not prices that you can expect. The report explains that debit cards cost less because their interchange fee is lower.4
A worked example
A table of four pays 12.000 kr. for dinner with one card. Here is the most that the interchange part can be:
| Card | Interchange cap | Most interchange on 12.000 kr. |
|---|---|---|
| Icelandic consumer debit card | 0,2 % | 24 kr. |
| Icelandic consumer credit card | 0,3 % | 36 kr. |
| Company card or a card from outside the EEA | No cap under the regulation | Set by the card scheme |
The scheme fee and your acquirer’s margin come on top of these numbers. If your statement shows a much larger total for a debit payment, the difference is mostly scheme fees and margin. That difference is the part that you can negotiate.
Blended or itemised pricing
Acquirers sell their price in two ways.
- Blended pricing is one rate for all cards, for example one percentage for everything. It is easy to read, but you cannot see what each card costs you.
- Itemised pricing shows the interchange fee, the scheme fee and the margin for each type and brand of card. It is sometimes called “interchange plus plus”.
Under the regulation, your acquirer must offer itemised prices for each category and brand of card. You get blended pricing only if you ask for it in writing.2 Your contract must also show the merchant service charge, the interchange fee and the scheme fee for each category and brand, unless you ask for something else in writing.
After each payment, your acquirer must give you the amount, a reference and the fee, with the merchant service charge and the interchange fee shown separately. With your consent, the acquirer can group this information, and your contract can say that you get it at least once a month.2
Which cards you must accept
Under the “honour all cards” rule in the regulation, if you accept a consumer debit card of one brand, you accept all consumer debit cards of that brand. The same applies to consumer credit cards and prepaid cards. You can choose not to accept commercial cards or other categories that are not capped.2
If you do not accept some cards, you must tell guests clearly. Put the information at the entrance and at the place where guests pay, together with the cards that you do accept. For online sales, put it on your website before the guest orders.2 Neytendastofa supervises this rule in Iceland.1
The regulation also lets you steer guests toward the payment method that you prefer, and lets you tell guests what each method costs you.2
How to compare two offers
Ask each acquirer for the same information, and put the answers side by side.
- The itemised price for Icelandic consumer debit, Icelandic consumer credit, commercial cards and cards from outside the EEA.
- Any fixed fee for each payment, in krónur, in addition to the percentage.
- The monthly fees: terminal rent, account fee and minimum monthly charge.
- When the money arrives in your bank account, and whether faster payout costs more.
- The fee for a chargeback or a refund.
- The contract length and the notice period.
Then take one normal month from your own sales, with your real mix of debit, credit and foreign cards, and calculate the total for each offer. A low headline rate can cost more than a higher one when the fixed fees are large.
In Resto, you keep your agreement with your acquirer and agree the card fees directly with them. Resto works with terminals from several acquirers, so you can compare offers and change acquirer if a better offer comes. See payments in Resto.
Tap to Pay on a phone and PCI MPoC
Tap to Pay lets a phone take a contactless card with no separate terminal. PCI MPoC is the security standard from the PCI Security Standards Council for this kind of payment app on a normal phone.5
The standard is for the companies that build and run these solutions. Independent laboratories test each solution, and the council keeps a list of approved solutions. The council encourages merchants and their acquirers to choose a solution from that list.5 Ask your acquirer if the Tap to Pay solution that you use is on the PCI list. Read more about taking payments on a phone.