Accepting the Reka-Card as a merchant
The Reka-Card is issued by Schweizer Reisekasse (Reka) Genossenschaft, a Swiss cooperative. Behind the card sits a Reka-Geld account with three separate balances: Reka-Pay for holidays and leisure, Reka-Lunch for catering and Reka-Rail for public transport. The balance is in Swiss francs, one to one, and employers, associations and Coop supermarkets sell it to shoppers at a discount of between 3 and 20 per cent. The card works at enabled terminals in Switzerland and in Swiss webshops and apps. For a merchant the point is that one card carries three commissions, and which balance pays decides what you pay.
Published prices for Reka-CardPer provider, country and channel, further down this pageGo to the pricesHow to accept the Reka-Card as a merchant
Acceptance takes two contracts. The first is with Reka itself: you apply through the online form on reka.ch, and the only condition is that your business operates in an approved sector, which Reka names as tourism, mobility, catering and leisure. The second is with the party that processes the card. Reka's terms allow the card only where the merchant has a valid contract with a service centre or payment provider domiciled in Switzerland, and remote payments only through approved software of a PCI-certified PSP.
In store, Reka activates the card free of charge on your existing terminal, and states that this takes at most ten working days. Online, Worldline describes three steps for Saferpay: apply to Reka, receive the contract from Reka, then activate the method in the Saferpay back office. Payrexx applies for the Reka-Card automatically for new merchants in eligible categories and the merchant can switch it on after Reka's review.
Rails
A closed balance, issued and settled by one party
The Reka-Card draws on a prefunded account. Reka's cardholder terms state that the account cannot go overdrawn and that Reka-Geld can be spent only up to the available balance, so a payment fails on insufficient balance rather than on an issuer's risk decision. At the terminal the cardholder enters a PIN, except on contactless payments up to the limit for which Reka requires none; online the payment is authorised with the card's security features.
Reka is both the issuer and the party that pays the merchant. Its acceptance terms commit it to pay submitted transactions within five working days of receipt, less the agreed commissions and fees. The price of acceptance is therefore Reka's own commission per form, plus whatever your processor charges, rather than interchange and scheme fees passed through by an acquirer.
The part of a balance above CHF 3,000 per holder on personalised Reka-Geld accounts is covered by a bank guarantee from UBS Switzerland AG, issued under Article 5(3)(f) of the Swiss Banking Ordinance. That protects the cardholder's balance. It says nothing about your receivable, which rests on Reka's payment commitment in the acceptance terms.
Where the Reka-Card is used, and where it is sold
The Reka-Card is a Swiss product. Reka's cardholder terms allow its use in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the balance exists only in Swiss francs, and Payrexx offers it only to merchants in Switzerland. Reka admits tourism, mobility, catering and leisure, and Worldline names hotels, restaurants, cafés, fitness centres, leisure parks, museums, car hire and rail among the places where the card is used.
Reka-Geld is sold at a discount. Reka states that over 4,200 employers, associations and Coop supermarkets offer Reka-Geld at a discount of between 3 and 20 per cent. Reka-Geld can be spent only at accepting merchants, and Worldline states that accepting merchants become visible to cardholders in the Reka web app and on reka.ch automatically.
Pricing
Reka publishes a commission per form, and Payrexx prints one per form as well
Reka publishes its commission on the acceptance-point page: 3% for Reka-Pay, cheques and card alike, 2.5% for Reka-Rail and 1.5% for Reka-Lunch. Registration is free, and the acceptance terms forbid passing the commission on to the customer paying with Reka-Geld, so a surcharge is not an option.
Payrexx prints a rate per form. On its Free and Standard plans Reka-Pay is 3.40% plus CHF 0.30, Reka-Lunch 1.90% plus CHF 0.30 and Reka-Rail 2.90% plus CHF 0.30; on Premium each is 0.20 percentage points and CHF 0.10 lower. The plans cost CHF 0, CHF 19 to 15 and CHF 49 to 39 a month, depending on term. Each Payrexx line sits exactly 0.40 percentage points plus CHF 0.30 above Reka's commission for that form on Standard. PostFinance, wallee and Worldline publish no Reka rate.
As an illustration, a Reka-Pay order of CHF 80 costs CHF 2.40 at Reka's 3%, CHF 3.02 at Payrexx Standard and CHF 2.76 at Payrexx Premium. On CHF 500,000 of Reka-Pay turnover a year, that is CHF 15,000, CHF 18,875 and CHF 17,250. These are published list prices and the comparison is illustrative; your quoted rate decides what you actually pay. Ask your PSP in writing whether its Reka rate replaces Reka's commission or comes on top of it, because that answer moves the total by thousands of francs.
Priority
Which balance pays sets the commission
A cardholder can hold money in more than one form. When the terminal supports it, the cardholder chooses the form on the display. When the card is used contactless there is no menu, and Reka debits the balances in a fixed order: Reka-Rail and Reka-Lunch first, where the merchant is approved for them, and Reka-Pay last. Reka's merchant terms and its cardholder terms both put Reka-Pay last.
That makes the forms you are approved for a price decision. Take a restaurant with CHF 400,000 of Reka turnover a year. If 60% of it is paid from Reka-Lunch balances at 1.5% and 40% from Reka-Pay at 3%, the commission is CHF 3,600 plus CHF 4,800, so CHF 8,400. The same turnover at the Reka-Pay rate alone costs CHF 12,000, a difference of CHF 3,600 a year. The figures are illustrative and use Reka's published commission. A catering business that is not approved for Reka-Lunch cannot take those balances at all, and a hotel restaurant contracted only for Reka-Pay pays the highest rate on every Reka meal.
Contract
Accepting the card commits you to the paper as well
Reka's acceptance terms state that accepting the Reka-Card does not release the merchant from the duty to accept physical Reka-Geld. Reka-Pay and Reka-Rail must be taken in digital and physical form; only Reka-Lunch is card-only. Physical Reka-Checks are sent to Reka by post with a receipt, dispatches up to CHF 1,000 go by registered mail, and cheques and Reka-Rail in the same envelope come back as two separate payouts. Reka refunds the registered postage annually at CHF 5 per item from six dispatches a year.
The link runs the other way too. Ending your last Reka-Geld agreement ends card acceptance automatically. Agree in writing which forms each site is approved for, which terminals carry them, and how cheques are counted, sent and reconciled, so that the paper does not become an unpriced back-office cost next to the card.
Two days to submit, five days to be paid, refunds to the same card
Reka's terms require the merchant to submit card transactions within two days of authorisation; late transactions may go unpaid or carry higher fees. Reka then pays within five working days of receipt. A terminal that is not closed daily, or a webshop batch that fails over a weekend, is a direct risk to the takings, not only a reconciliation issue.
Refunds go back as a credit to the same card, issued promptly when goods are returned or a service is not delivered, and complaints are settled between merchant and cardholder. Payrexx lists refunds as supported but not partial refunds, pre-authorisation or tokenisation, and Reka cannot be selected on a payment page opened in an iFrame. A hotel that holds a deposit on a card cannot do that with Reka on that route, and PostFinance Checkout lists multiple refunds. Check these functions route by route before you choose.
Which payment providers support the Reka-Card
In the index, Payrexx, PostFinance, wallee and Worldline offer the Reka-Card to merchants established in Switzerland. Whichever you choose, the acceptance contract with Reka comes first, and the provider processes on top of it.
The questions to put to each are the same: whether the Reka rate replaces or adds to Reka's commission, which forms are switched on, whether contactless is enabled on every terminal, how partial refunds and deposits are handled, and when the money reaches your account.
Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index
Published prices for Reka-Card, per provider
4 providers in the index offer Reka-Card to merchants established in Europe, and one of them 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. Shoppers pay with Reka-Card in: Switzerland.
| Provider | Per transaction | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Payrexx Merchants in Switzerland | Free (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). Reka-Pay: Free 3.40% + CHF 0.30, Standard 3.40% + CHF 0.30, Premium 3.20% + CHF 0.20; Reka-Lunch: Free 1.90% + CHF 0.30, Standard 1.90% + CHF 0.30, Premium 1.70% + CHF 0.20; Reka-Rail: Free 2.90% + CHF 0.30, Standard 2.90% + CHF 0.30, Premium 2.70% + CHF 0.20Percentage plus fixed amount, plus subscription, tiered | Online |
| PostFinance Merchants in Switzerland | No price published | Online |
| wallee Merchants in Switzerland | No price published | Online |
| Worldline Merchants in Switzerland | No price published | Online |
Source: EcomStream, Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index, ecomstream.eu/payment-methods-transparency-index. Read at source between 7 October 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.
Reviewing what the Reka-Card costs you
What you pay for the Reka-Card is set in your agreement with Reka and with your PSP, not by a scheme. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and where Reka-Geld is a material share of your Swiss takings, check which forms you are approved for before you renew.
Relevant markets: Switzerland
Payment set-up check
Taking Reka-Geld in Switzerland? Let's check which balance pays and what it costs you.
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
