Accepting PagoBANCOMAT as a merchant

BANCOMAT S.p.A. does not sign merchants. It states that issuing and acquiring within its services are reserved for licensed entities, and the participants it admits include banks, financial intermediaries, payment institutions and electronic money institutions. A merchant therefore accepts PagoBANCOMAT through an Italian acquiring contract, with its bank or with a PSP, usually together with the international card brands on the same terminal.

The method is in-store only in the index. Online, BANCOMAT's own route is BANCOMAT Pay, a separate method with its own price. A PagoBANCOMAT rate therefore only ever applies to your physical stores.

The shopper side is Italy. BANCOMAT describes itself as the most widespread payment circuit in Italy and states that its cards can be used to withdraw and pay throughout the country. A disputed payment is a matter between the cardholder and their bank, which BANCOMAT states guarantees reimbursement of fraudulent payments.

The merchant side is Italian as well. In the index every provider that offers PagoBANCOMAT does so for merchants established in Italy, on an in-store acquiring contract. A retailer from elsewhere with stores in Italy takes PagoBANCOMAT through an Italian acquiring contract for those stores, next to whatever it uses at home.

On a 4 euro coffee the percentages hardly register. At Axerve the payment costs 0.04 euro and at Nexi, after the reduction, just under 0.04 euro. At Viva.com 1.09% would be 0.044 euro, so the minimum of 0.05 euro applies, as it does on every payment below about 4.59 euro. At UniCredit's printed rate the 0.10 euro per transaction comes on top of 0.11 euro, so the same coffee costs about 0.21 euro.

On 100,000 such payments a year, 400,000 euro in all, that is 4,000 euro at Axerve, about 4,108 euro at Nexi with the terminal, about 5,060 euro at Viva.com on the 4.99 euro plan and 20,800 euro at UniCredit's printed rate. The illustration is a bar, not a department store, and your quoted rate decides what you actually pay. The circuit's reduced interchange under 5 euro lowers that price only where your contract passes interchange through; a blended rate does not move with it.

Small payments are also the subject of a protocol signed at the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance on 15 June 2026 by ABI, APSP, Assofin and merchant associations. It invites providers to run promotions on payments up to 30 euro, with specific attention to payments up to 10 euro, for merchants with annual revenue up to 400,000 euro, and to offer at least one product for businesses with turnover up to at least 750,000 euro. The protocol runs for two years. Ask your acquirer in writing which of its offers applies to your stores.

Numia's information sheet prints a monthly minimum commission of 200 euro for the national circuit, BANCOMAT Pay included, and states that it applies per acquiring contract and is charged to the first active point of sale. UniCredit's sheet prints a minimum commission of 17 euro without a period in the same line. A minimum does not depend on the rate, and that is the point to check.

At an illustrative rate of 1.00%, a monthly minimum of 200 euro binds below 20,000 euro of monthly volume. A store that takes 8,000 euro a month pays 200 euro instead of 80 euro, so 1,440 euro a year above its rate. Where a provider applies a minimum per point of sale, ten such stores pay 14,400 euro a year for volume they did not process. Have it stated in writing whether a minimum applies per contract, per point of sale or per terminal, and over which period.

What you pay for PagoBANCOMAT is set in your agreement with your acquirer, not by the scheme. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and where your Italian stores take a material share of their payments on BANCOMAT cards, price the fixed elements next to the rate before you renew.

Relevant markets: Italy