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Accepting Postfinance in Switzerland

PostFinance is one of Switzerland’s largest retail financial institutions and its card and e-payment products are widely held by Swiss consumers. For a merchant selling into Switzerland it belongs in the checkout alongside TWINT and cards, and like everything Swiss it needs to be priced on Swiss terms.

Published prices for PostFinance PayPer provider, country and channel, further down this pageGo to the prices

Domestic

How to accept PostFinance as a merchant

Acceptance runs through PostFinance itself or through a PSP connected to it. The customer authorises in their own banking environment or with their PostFinance card, and the payment confirms without a card scheme in the chain for the domestic products, which is why the cost profile differs from international card acceptance.

Switzerland is outside the EU and the EEA

This is the point that catches merchants extending a European setup northwards. EU interchange caps do not apply in Switzerland, the Instant Payments Regulation does not apply, and the European Commission’s binding commitments requiring Apple to open iPhone NFC access to third-party wallets cover the European Economic Area, which Switzerland is not part of. A Swiss rate inherited from a European agreement is inherited from a different regulatory regime.

Pricing

Why that usually means overpaying

Because card acceptance in Switzerland is not constrained by EU interchange caps, it is frequently more expensive than in neighbouring markets, and the gap between card and domestic account-based payment is correspondingly wider. If your Swiss volume was priced as an extension of a European contract rather than negotiated on Swiss numbers, the difference is likely to be material. Isolating Swiss volume and looking at its effective rate on its own is the only way to know.

Outside

Three more things that follow from being outside the EEA

The regulatory point above has consequences beyond interchange, and they are the ones that get missed because none of them sits on the acceptance rate.

Classification. A Swiss card presented to a European acquirer is a cross-border transaction with the assessments that go with it, where the same card presented to a Swiss acquirer is domestic. If your Swiss volume runs through a European contract you are paying a cross-border classification on domestic Swiss business, and that sits underneath the acceptance rate rather than inside it. Currency. Swiss volume is priced and settled in Swiss francs, so if your contract settles you in euros there is a conversion between the two with a margin attached, and it is a separate negotiation from the acceptance rate that in most cases nobody has had. Ask what reference the conversion is struck against and what margin sits on top of it.

Reporting. None of the above is visible while Swiss volume is reported inside a European total. So the first thing to ask for is not a rate, it is a view: one month of Swiss volume shown separately, with acceptance, cross-border component and conversion margin as three figures rather than one.

Which payment provider supports PostFinance in Switzerland?

Datatrans, Saferpay, Worldline and Unzer all document PostFinance, and PostFinance also contracts directly. The useful questions are what a PostFinance transaction costs against your effective Swiss card rate, whether the domestic methods are reported separately, and whether anyone has ever negotiated your Swiss pricing as Swiss pricing.

Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index

Published prices for PostFinance Pay, per provider

9 providers in the index offer PostFinance Pay to merchants established in Europe, and 3 of them publish a price.

Each rate is shown as the provider prints it; the provider's name links to its price page on this site where there is one, with the source of every rate.

ProviderPer transactionChannel
Banco Sabadell Merchants in SpainPAYCOMET: No price publishedOnline
Crédit Agricole (CAWL) Merchants in FranceNo price publishedOnline
HiPay Merchants in BelgiumNo price publishedOnline
HiPay Merchants anywhere in the EUNo price publishedOnline
HiPay Merchants in FranceNo price publishedOnline
HiPay Merchants in ItalyNo price publishedOnline
HiPay Merchants in NorwayNo price publishedOnline
HiPay Merchants in PortugalNo price publishedOnline
Novalnet Merchants in GermanyPostFinance Card: €0.24 transaction fee + 3.55%; PostFinance E-Finance: €0.24 transaction fee + 3.55%; Novalnet account package without minimum term: €99 set-up fee + €25 monthly fee, no minimum termPercentage plus fixed amount, plus subscriptionOnline
PAYONE Merchants in GermanyNo price publishedOnline
Payrexx Merchants in SwitzerlandFree (CHF 0 per month), Standard (CHF 19, 17 or 15 per month on a 1, 2 or 3-year term), Premium (CHF 49, 44 or 39 per month on a 1, 2 or 3-year term). Free: 1.90% + CHF 0.20; Standard: 1.90% + CHF 0.20; Premium: 1.50% + CHF 0.20Percentage plus fixed amount, plus subscription, tieredOnline
Unzer Merchants in AustriaNo price publishedOnline
Unzer Merchants in GermanyNo price publishedOnline
Unzer Merchants in LuxembourgNo price publishedOnline
wallee Merchants in SwitzerlandPostFinance Card and PostFinance Pay: Basic plan CHF 19.95 per month: CHF 0.20 + 1.30%; Business plan CHF 69.90 per month: CHF 0.12 + 1.30%; Enterprise on request; the fixed fee is wallee's, the percentage is the processor's fee and may differ by industry, risk and volumeProcessing fee + Percentage, plus subscription, tieredOnline
Worldline Merchants in AustriaNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in BelgiumNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in SwitzerlandNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in CzechiaNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in GermanyNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in DenmarkNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in SpainNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in FinlandNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in FranceNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in GreeceNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in CroatiaNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in HungaryNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in ItalyNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in LuxembourgNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in the NetherlandsNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in PolandNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in SwedenNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in SloveniaNo price publishedOnline
Worldline Merchants in SlovakiaNo price publishedOnline
Choose your own countries and channel for PostFinance Pay in the indexOpen the Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index

Source: EcomStream, Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index, ecomstream.eu/payment-methods-transparency-index. Read at source between 17 September 2026 and 12 October 2026. A provider that believes a row is wrong can write to index@ecomstream.nl. Every reported correction is checked at the source.

Two levers

Isolate the Swiss line, then pull two levers

The section above says isolating Swiss volume is the only way to know. Once it is isolated there are exactly two levers, and both are worth arithmetic.

The first is mix. Take 1.5 million euros of Swiss revenue at 70 per cent cards and 30 per cent domestic account-based methods. At an illustrative 1.9 per cent on Swiss cards and 0.8 per cent on domestic methods, that costs 19,950 plus 3,600, so 23,550 euros. Move twenty points of the mix from cards to domestic methods and 300,000 euros reprices from 1.9 to 0.8 per cent, which is 3,300 euros a year for a change in what the checkout shows first and how clearly.

The second is the rate itself. A Swiss rate inherited from a European agreement was set against European interchange, which does not apply here, so it was never priced against the market it is being used in. What a Swiss-negotiated rate looks like depends on your volume and your mix, and no public source will tell you, which is exactly why the isolated line has to come first. Both levers are modest on a small Swiss book and neither is available at all while the volume is invisible. The order is: isolate, then mix, then rate.

Reviewing what this costs you

What you pay is set in your agreement, not by the scheme. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, or move straight to cutting your PSP costs, because a cheap method priced badly still costs more than it should.

Relevant markets: Switzerland

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Check your site
Payment set-up check

Check your checkout against every market you sell in

This check reads your webshop, finds the countries you sell in and names where your payment set-up falls short of what shoppers there expect, and where it carries costs you can avoid.

Free. Afterwards you can have the report emailed to you and add the full scan free of charge: 6 to 22 pages on your checkout per market, with screenshots of every finding and of the payment step on desktop and phone, and a worksheet in euros.