What is an acquirer?

To accept online payments, you need an agreement with an acquirer – also known as an acquiring agreement.
Essentially, an acquirer is a bank that handles the transfer of funds from your customer’s account to your own.
Before this can happen, the acquirer must approve your business to receive card payments. This approval is your acquiring agreement.

Before approval, the acquirer will require you to meet several conditions.
These vary between acquirers, but you can generally expect the following:

Requirements for your payment solution

• You must use a payment solution approved by the acquirer.
• Only your payment solution may access and process card data.

Requirements for your website

The following must appear on your website:

• Your business must be registered with a valid company registration number (CVR).
• Your business must be listed as the owner of the domain where the payment form is hosted (checkable via Punktum.dk).
• Terms and conditions and a privacy policy must be available, and customers must actively confirm they have read and understood them before payment.
  If you apply to Nets for a Dankort acquiring agreement, your terms must be in Danish.

Your terms and conditions must include:

• Business information (CVR, name, address).
• Right of withdrawal (min. 14 days) and warranty (min. 24 months).
• Information about returns, complaints, delivery options and timelines.
• Accepted payment methods and when funds are withdrawn (e.g., “Payment is charged upon dispatch”).
• Business name, address, CVR number, and contact details (email, phone).
• Product/service descriptions and images providing an accurate representation.
• Prices including the correct currency and whether VAT is included or excluded.
• Display logos of all accepted payment cards.
  If you only have a Dankort agreement, you may only display the Dankort logo.
• The page where customers enter card details must be SSL-secured (this is handled by ePay’s payment window).
• After payment, the customer must be shown a receipt.

Fees and costs

In an acquiring agreement, you typically pay:

1. A setup fee
2. A monthly subscription fee
3. A transaction fee

Some acquirers charge a one-time setup fee when creating the agreement.
The monthly fee is, as the name suggests, a recurring payment.
The transaction fee is charged per payment and is a percentage of the transaction amount (some also charge a fixed amount per transaction).

If you choose to pass the fee on to your customers, you must comply with the Danish Payment Services Act § 80 (5), which states you cannot charge customers more than what your acquirer charges you.
It is therefore important to know exactly what you pay for each card type.

As you might have guessed, pricing structures can be complex.
It’s well worth comparing multiple acquirers — checking settlement times and hidden fees — since it can make a big difference whether you receive your funds after two or fourteen days.

Need help?

At ePay, we work with several of the leading acquirers.
We can help you obtain an acquiring agreement and guide you through the application process.

Contact us, and we’ll help you get started.