Accepting Carnet as a merchant
Carnet is a Mexican card acceptance brand. Prosa, a Mexican company for electronic payment processing, lists it among its solutions and describes it as an acceptance brand that lets issuers of credit, debit and prepaid cards reach the electronic transaction network, from point-of-sale terminals to e-commerce platforms. Prosa states acceptance at more than 500,000 merchants. For a merchant in Europe, Carnet matters when you sell to shoppers in Mexico. Two facts shape the work: a Carnet card never carries a second scheme, and part of the cards in circulation are issued for one specific type of business.
Published prices for CarnetPer provider, country and channel, further down this pageGo to the pricesHow to accept Carnet as a merchant
You do not contract Carnet. Carnet works with acquirers: its acquirer page describes integration on ISO 8583 messaging and the RED MX standard, and the activation and release of BINs on the network. A merchant reaches Carnet through an acquirer or PSP that is connected to it, and in the index that is Adyen.
Adyen lists Carnet as a card payment method for Mexico, online and in person, with processing and settlement in Mexican pesos. A Carnet payment therefore arrives as a peso transaction, and your PSP agreement decides how and at what rate those pesos become euros on your payout.
Network
Carnet is a domestic network for debit, credit and prepaid cards
Carnet states that it offers full interoperability for debit, credit and prepaid cards across Mexico, in physical and in electronic commerce. Adyen describes it as a brand that gives issuing entities access to the whole electronic transaction network, through point-of-sale terminals, ATMs and e-commerce portals. Banco de México wrote in 2014 that the clearing house function for card payments in Mexico was performed by two processors, E-Global and PROSA.
For the merchant that makes Carnet an ordinary card payment on the outside: authorisation, capture, refund and settlement run through your acquirer as with any card. The differences sit in the card portfolio behind the brand and in which functions your route supports, and both are covered below.
Where Carnet is used, and where it is sold
Carnet is a Mexican brand and its own pages describe national coverage only. Adyen lists Mexico as the only country and the Mexican peso as the processing and settlement currency. Carnet's merchant page names contactless payment at the terminal, and Adyen lists chip, contact and contactless card technology.
Inside Mexico acceptance is not optional for card acquirers. Adyen states that Carnet issuers use BINs on the BIN list of the local payment network, that acquirers and their merchants must accept every BIN on that list, and that non-compliance can bring a fine of up to half a million pesos per month. For a European merchant selling cross-border the question is simpler: whether your PSP accepts Carnet BINs at all, and in which currency it prices them.
Pricing
The published price is a fixed fee plus interchange plus a margin
Adyen publishes 0.11 euro plus interchange plus 0.60% for Carnet for merchants established in the EU, Norway and Poland, and 0.11 pound plus interchange plus 0.60% in the United Kingdom. Carnet itself publishes no merchant price, because the merchant does not contract with Carnet.
Take an order of 80 euro. Adyen's fixed fee of 0.11 euro and 0.60% of 0.48 euro come to 0.59 euro, before interchange. On 1 million euro of Carnet volume a year at that average, 12,500 orders, that is 1,375 euro of fixed fees and 6,000 euro of percentage, so 7,375 euro a year before interchange. Adyen states that interchange is variable and passed through to the merchant, so the third component only shows on the invoice.
These are published list prices and the example is illustrative; your quoted rate decides what you actually pay. On this model the margin of 0.60% and the fixed fee are the parts that are negotiated, while interchange is set outside the agreement. Ask your PSP to show interchange per transaction on the invoice, so the two can be checked separately.
Cards
A Carnet card carries one scheme, and some cards work for one type of business
Adyen states that Carnet is a local scheme and that an issuer cannot issue a card with two schemes at the same time, so a Carnet card is never also a Visa or Mastercard card. There is no network choice to make on the card: the BIN decides that the payment runs on Carnet. Prosa lists debit, vouchers, prepaid and credit among Carnet cards, and Adyen states that cards issued for a specific type of business usually carry more restrictions.
That gives Carnet a category of declines that no retry and no risk rule changes. Adyen's example is a fuel or meal voucher card used for a recurring charge for a music subscription or a ride-hailing trip. As an illustration, take 10,000 Carnet attempts a month at 80 euro, of which 2% are cards of that kind. That is 200 attempts and 16,000 euro a month, 192,000 euro a year, that fail for a reason unrelated to fraud or funds.
Separate those declines by BIN and decline code before you judge the authorisation rate of your route. What remains is the part your PSP can work on. For the restricted cards the remedy is in the checkout: show a second method to the shopper at the moment the card is refused.
Contract
Pre-authorisation on Carnet depends on your merchant category and the card
Adyen states that pre-authorisation and overcapture on Carnet are possible, but depend on the merchant's MCC and the card type. Its example: a credit card at a hotel is allowed, a meal voucher at a hotel is not. The restriction also reaches recurring charges, as Adyen's voucher example in the previous section shows.
For a hotel, a car rental company or any merchant that captures after the sale, that makes the flow per card type a contract point. Have your PSP confirm in writing, for your MCC, which Carnet card types accept a pre-authorisation, whether an overcapture is allowed and up to which amount, whether recurring charges run, and what happens when a pre-authorisation is refused at check-in or at collection.
No 3DS and no instalments on the documented route
Adyen lists 3D Secure as not supported for Carnet. An online Carnet payment through that route therefore runs without the authentication step that moves fraud liability on a card payment to the issuer. Carnet lists fraud prevention platforms for acquirers, including Carnet E-Secure, so the answer can differ per route. Ask your PSP whether Carnet payments are authenticated on its route, and who carries a fraud chargeback when they are not.
Adyen also lists instalments as not supported by Carnet. A Carnet payment is one charge for the full amount. If your Mexican checkout offers payment in instalments, that offer runs on another card or method, and the pricing and conversion of that offer belong in a separate calculation.
Which payment providers support Carnet
In the index, Adyen is the provider that offers Carnet to merchants established in Europe. It publishes 0.11 euro plus interchange plus 0.60% and states the method's functions on its own Carnet page.
The questions to put to your provider are: the fixed fee and margin on top of interchange, interchange shown per transaction, the conversion of peso settlement to your payout currency, pre-authorisation and recurring per card type for your MCC, and how fraud on unauthenticated payments is handled.
Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index
Published prices for Carnet, per provider
One provider in the index offers Carnet to merchants established in Europe, and it publishes a price.
Each rate is shown as the provider prints it, and the provider's name links to the page it was read on. A published rate is a list rate: what a merchant actually pays is stated in the quoted rate and the contract.
The country where your business is established and from which you sell.
Includes the prices providers publish for merchants anywhere in the EU, marked EU-wide.
| Provider | Per transaction | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Adyen Merchants anywhere in the EU | €0.11 + Interchange+ + 0.60%Processing fee + Interchange plus plus | Online and in-store |
| Adyen Merchants in the United Kingdom | £0.11 + Interchange++ + 0.60%Processing fee + Interchange plus plus | Online and in-store |
| Adyen Merchants in Norway | €0.11 + Interchange+ + 0.60%Processing fee + Interchange plus plus | Online and in-store |
| Adyen Merchants in Poland | €0.11 + Interchange+ + 0.60%Processing fee + Interchange plus plus | Online and in-store |
Source: EcomStream, Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index, ecomstream.eu/payment-methods-transparency-index. Read at source between 28 September 2026 and 28 September 2026. A provider that believes a row is wrong can write to index@ecomstream.nl. Every reported correction is checked at the source.
Reviewing what Carnet costs you
What you pay for Carnet is set in your agreement with your PSP or acquirer, not by Carnet. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and where Mexican shoppers carry a material share of your volume, check the margin on top of interchange and the peso conversion before you renew.
Relevant markets: Mexico
Payment set-up check
Selling to shoppers in Mexico? Let's check what Carnet adds to your PSP costs.
Enter your webshop. The check sets your checkout against what shoppers in each of your markets expect, and names the gaps. If you want, it then calculates what those gaps cost you in euros.
Ramon Helwegen
