Accepting in3 as a merchant

in3 is a Dutch buy now pay later provider that splits a purchase into three interest-free instalments over 60 days: one third at checkout, one third within 30 days and one third within 60 days. It is well established in the Netherlands on higher basket values, and it is about to be reshaped by two separate events, one commercial and one regulatory.

Economics

What the fee is actually for

in3 takes the credit decision and the receivable and pays you, while your customer settles in three parts. You are buying credit risk transfer, working capital and a collections function, not payment processing. That is why the fee sits above card and bank transfer acceptance, and why comparing it to an iDEAL fee produces a conclusion that looks alarming and means nothing. Compare it against your bad debt rate, your days sales outstanding and the incremental revenue it generates.

Basket value decides whether it earns its cost

Instalment methods earn their fee disproportionately at higher order values, where the alternative is genuinely no purchase rather than the same purchase on a cheaper method. On low baskets the substitution rate rises and the economics deteriorate quickly, because a customer who would have paid by iDEAL is now costing you credit economics on revenue you already had. Setting a deliberate minimum order value for instalment presentation is the cheapest control available and most merchants have never set one.

TrueLayer

in3 is joining TrueLayer

On 29 May 2026 in3 announced that it is joining TrueLayer, Europe's largest Pay by Bank network, which operates across 21 countries. in3 continues to operate from the Netherlands while its technology and products are integrated into the TrueLayer platform over time, and TrueLayer has said it intends to integrate in3's buy now pay later infrastructure directly into its Pay by Bank platform. in3 has told its merchants that nothing changes operationally for now. What is worth watching is the direction: instalment credit and real-time bank payment converging into one checkout, from a provider whose reach is European rather than Dutch.

From 20 November 2026 this is regulated consumer credit

This is the change that matters most and it applies to every buy now pay later method in your checkout, not only in3. Directive (EU) 2023/2225, the second Consumer Credit Directive, repeals the 2008 directive with effect from 20 November 2026. Member states were required to transpose it by 20 November 2025. The Dutch implementation abolishes the existing exemption for credit repayable within three months at insignificant cost, which is precisely the exemption three-instalment products have relied on. From that date these services fall within the scope of the Wet op het financieel toezicht, bringing an AFM licence requirement, mandatory creditworthiness assessment, BKR registration, stricter information and advertising rules, and an explicit prohibition on offering buy now pay later to minors.

What that means for your checkout rather than for your provider

Your provider carries the licensing obligation, but you carry the consequences. Mandatory affordability checking means a share of customers who are approved today will be declined after 20 November 2026, and a decline at the payment step is an abandoned order unless something else is present to catch it. Stricter advertising rules reach your product pages and your checkout messaging, not only your provider's marketing. If instalment messaging appears on your product pages, that is your copy and your compliance exposure. The sensible sequence is to ask your provider what changes on that date, and to make sure a cheaper immediate method is presented well enough to absorb the customers who no longer qualify.

Threshold

Where to put the threshold, in euros

The section above calls a minimum order value the cheapest control available. Here is what it is worth, because a control without a number attached tends to stay unset.

Take 6 million euros of Dutch revenue with 20 per cent running through in3, so 1.2 million euros. Suppose in3 costs 3.2 per cent all-in against 0.35 per cent for iDEAL. On that volume the method carries 38,400 euros against the 4,200 the same orders would have cost on iDEAL, so 34,200 euros of extra fee.

Now cut it by basket. Suppose orders below 150 euros are 40 per cent of in3 orders by count but only 20 per cent by value, so 240,000 euros. Substitution is at its worst in that band, because a 120-euro purchase rarely needs financing. If 85 per cent of it is substitution, 204,000 euros is paying about 5,800 euros extra for revenue you already had. Set a 150-euro floor for presenting in3 and most of that returns to iDEAL. Above the floor the arithmetic reverses: the same 2.85 point difference buys genuine incremental orders, and at a 40 per cent gross margin one incremental order of 400 euros returns 160 euros of gross profit, which covers the extra fee on more than forty substituted orders of 120 euros. Setting the threshold is a configuration change. Not setting it is a standing subsidy to your own existing customers.

Two contracts

One order, two contracts, and most systems only know about one

When a customer chooses three instalments, two agreements come into existence in the same moment. A purchase contract with you, and a credit agreement with in3. Your order management system almost certainly records one object.

That is tolerable while nothing goes wrong and expensive as soon as something does, because the two can be unwound independently of each other. A customer can return the goods while the instalment schedule keeps running. A customer can settle in full with in3 while a dispute with you is still open. And once these are regulated credit agreements, the rules that attach to ending the credit are not the rules that attach to returning the item.

Three questions settle it, and they are your provider’s to answer in writing before 20 November 2026 rather than after it. What happens to the instalment schedule at the moment you register a return, and how quickly does that reach the customer. Who invoices the customer if the credit ends but the goods stay where they are. And which of the two of you is the customer told to contact in each case, because a customer who gets that wrong twice does not order again. None of this is difficult. It is owned by nobody, which is why it surfaces as a complaint rather than as a project.

Which payment provider supports in3?

Mollie, Pay.nl, Worldline and Buckaroo all document in3, as do most gateways serving the Dutch market. The useful questions are the fee as a percentage of order value, the acceptance rate on your customer profile, when you are paid, how returns interact with an open instalment schedule, what share of orders moved off iDEAL after it was enabled, and what your provider expects to change on 20 November 2026.

Reviewing what this costs you

What you pay is set in your PSP contract, not by the scheme. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, or put your own volume through the PSP Upside Calculator, because this is the method where the distance between a negotiated rate and a standard one is widest.

Relevant markets: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany