Business accounts, iDEAL, card terminals — and the fee structures that quietly decide whether a small margin survives.
Reference material, not advice for your specific case. Last reviewed September 2026.
Payment providers rarely lie about their prices; they simply publish the flattering number. A '1.2% per transaction' headline can sit next to a monthly subscription, a per-payout fee, a currency mark-up and a chargeback charge. For a business selling a €14 bag of coffee, those extras are the difference between a healthy month and a pointless one.
Read every provider against the same four questions, in this order.
The four questions
—What does one transaction cost, in cents, for the payment methods your customers actually use? In the Netherlands that means iDEAL first, then cards, then Bancontact if you sell into Belgium.
—Is there a subscription, and is it necessary? A monthly fee is fair when it replaces work — automatic invoicing, VAT-ready exports, reconciliation. It is not fair when it only unlocks a dashboard.
—Where is the currency mark-up? Paying a producer in dollars through a provider that adds 1–2% on top of the mid-market rate is one of the most common hidden costs in coffee, cacao and textiles.
—How fast is payout, and does speed cost extra? Slow payouts are a cash-flow problem disguised as a free feature.
Providers worth comparing
None of these pay us to appear here. Fees move, so treat this as a map of what each one is for, and check current pricing on their own page before signing.
Dutch IBAN in minutes, clean API, multiple sub-accounts for VAT and savings, and a genuinely useful habit of letting you separate tax money from spending money.
Watch for
It is a subscription bank: the tier you need for a business account is a fixed monthly cost regardless of turnover.
Built around iDEAL, no monthly subscription in its standard form, per-transaction pricing that is easy to model, and a straightforward hosted checkout for shops that are not ready for full commerce software.
Watch for
Per-transaction pricing differs sharply by method; card and international methods cost noticeably more than iDEAL.
The strongest automation: invoices generated and sent automatically, subscriptions, tax handling, and payment links you can put in an email without a website.
Watch for
Currency conversion carries a mark-up, and its flexibility invites over-engineering. Do not build a subscription product because the tool has one.
Best of this group for paying suppliers abroad — multi-currency balances and near mid-market exchange rates, which matters when you buy green coffee or materials in dollars.
Watch for
Free plans cap free transfers and weekend conversions are marked up. Not a substitute for a Dutch acquirer if most of your sales are iDEAL.
A card reader you buy once with no monthly fee — the sensible choice for markets, pop-ups and a first counter.
Watch for
Per-transaction rate is higher than a contracted terminal; above a certain daily volume a proper acquiring contract is cheaper.
A quiet recommendation
For a first year: a Dutch business account for everyday money, an iDEAL-first provider for sales, and a multi-currency account only if you genuinely pay suppliers abroad. Three tools, no subscriptions you cannot justify in a sentence.
