Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania share the euro and the EU's card rules, so what a shop pays to take cards looks much the same across all three. The EU Interchange Fee Regulation caps the fee a merchant's provider passes to the card issuer at 0.2% of a consumer debit card payment and 0.3% of a consumer credit card payment; Eesti Pank notes the caps have applied since 9 December 2015. Surcharging those cards is banned throughout the EU. What differs is the price list on top, and one rule: Latvia makes most larger shops offer a non-cash way to pay.
Here is what the published rates show, read from the providers' own Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian pages on 1 November 2026. Terminal rents and monthly plans are generally quoted before VAT, and we say so where the provider does.
How card fees are built
A card payment carries three costs: interchange, which goes to the cardholder's bank; card-scheme fees to Visa or Mastercard; and the acceptance provider's own margin. LHV, which publishes the first two and has given a range for the third, lists interchange of 0.20% on EEA consumer debit cards and 0.30% on consumer credit cards, and up to 2.00% on business cards, which the caps do not cover. Scheme processing fees come on top: on EEA cards, LHV lists a fraction of a percent plus a fixed amount of roughly 3 to 11 euro cents per payment.
Some providers bundle all of this into one blended rate; others quote their margin and pass the rest through. That is why a bank's rate of under 1% and an app reader's 1.69% are not always comparable. Ask which costs a quoted rate includes.
We found no recent central-bank study of average merchant fees in any of the three countries. A 2017 Eesti Pank survey found the interchange caps had cut card costs mainly for larger merchants, and that many smaller ones had not seen the change. Cards are the everyday way to pay: Eesti Pank says about 60% of retail transactions in Estonia are made by card.
What card machines charge
- Swedbank publishes different prices in each country. In Estonia its phone app charges 0.99% + €0.02 and its smart terminal 1.45%, while rented terminals cost €13 to €45 a month before VAT, with a three-month minimum, and the commission on them is set by agreement; money arrives the next morning, Swedbank says. In Latvia the phone app is 0.99% + €0.02 and rented terminals start at 0.9% + €0.01, with rent from €15 a month before VAT. In Lithuania the phone app is 1.49% + €0.02 and rented readers start at 0.85% + €0.01, with rent from €14 a month before VAT.
- LHV, Estonia: terminal rent of €12.50 to €20 a month before VAT, or €25 for a short-term rental of up to six months. LHV's own commission is agreed by volume. A June 2025 post on its blog put it at 0.15% to 0.85%: 0.55% on €10,000 of card takings and 0.30% on €100,000, with interchange and scheme fees added on top.
- Citadele, Latvia: 0.90% + €0.02 for planned turnover of up to €10,000 per terminal, and 0.85% + €0.01 above that, with free rent on a stationary terminal from €5,000. Terminal rent starts at €12.99 a month before VAT, and its Android phone app charges 0.99% + €0.02 with no rent.
- Maksekeskus (MakeCommerce), Estonia: 0.95% + €0.02 on a terminal rented at €13 a month, or on its phone app with no rent. Merchants who signed a terminal contract before 7 May 2026 stay on the price list in force when they applied; the older list shows 1.5% + €0.05 with a €19 monthly minimum.
- SumUp (our grade: B+): 1.69% per in-person payment with no monthly fee in all three countries. Its Payments Plus plan costs €19 a month before VAT and cuts that to 0.89% on consumer debit and credit cards, with American Express, premium, business and foreign cards still at 1.69%. SumUp says the plan saves money from €2,800 a month in Estonia and Latvia and €3,100 in Lithuania. Readers are bought outright, from €44 before VAT in Estonia.
- myPOS (B), Estonia: from 1.45% + €0.05 per payment for businesses taking under €10,000 a month by card, with no fixed monthly cost and the money transferred instantly to a myPOS account; moving it on to a bank account costs €4 per SEPA transfer. Above €10,000 it quotes individually.
- Viva.com (B), Lithuania: 1.69% on domestic and EEA consumer cards, with a minimum of €0.03 per payment. Business and non-EEA cards cost 1.16% plus interchange and scheme fees, and American Express 2.75%. Viva.com also charges a monthly account plan: €4.99, €12.99 or €19.99, or a 'Zero' plan billed per terminal with a €4.99 monthly minimum.
- Revolut Business (B), whose EU bank, Revolut Bank UAB, is based in Vilnius: 0.8% + €0.02 on EEA consumer cards through its reader or terminal, 1.7% + €0.02 on American Express and 2.6% + €0.02 on other cards, under the Lithuanian Basic plan's terms in force from 22 September 2026. The plan costs €10 a month.
SEB publishes no card-acceptance rates on its Estonian card-terminal page.
What that means for a small shop
Take a shop with 200 card payments a month of €25 each: €5,000 of takings, all on consumer cards. On the published rates:
- Revolut at 0.8% + €0.02: €44, plus the €10 Basic plan, so €54, plus the cost of a reader.
- Citadele in Latvia at 0.90% + €0.02: €49, plus terminal rent from €12.99 before VAT.
- Swedbank in Latvia at its lowest rate of 0.9% + €0.01: €47, plus rent from €15 before VAT.
- Maksekeskus's phone app at 0.95% + €0.02: €51.50, with no rent.
- Swedbank's Estonian phone app at 0.99% + €0.02: €53.50, with no rent.
- SumUp Payments Plus at 0.89% plus €19 a month before VAT: €63.50, against €84.50 on pay-as-you-go at 1.69%.
- myPOS at 1.45% + €0.05: €82.50.
- Viva.com in Lithuania at 1.69%: €84.50, plus a monthly plan of at least €4.99.
At this size the banks and Revolut come to about €54 to €62 a month once rent or the plan fee is counted, roughly a quarter to a third less than the flat-rate apps at 1.45% to 1.69%; SumUp's Payments Plus plan closes most of that gap. The apps win on simplicity: no rent, no negotiation, and in SumUp's case no contract. The bank rates are starting points and depend on your volume, and the banks do not say on these pages whether interchange is included. LHV says its fee comes on top.
Bank payments and instant transfers
Online, the cheapest way to be paid in the Baltics is usually a bank payment: the shopper picks their bank at checkout and approves a transfer in their own internet bank. The providers price it far below cards:
- Paysera (B-): no Paysera commission on bank payments through Checkout Modern, which it says applies only in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Its older Checkout costs 0.90% with a €0.10 minimum and a €0.40 maximum, falling with volume.
- Montonio (B): €0.20 per bank payment on its €11.99-a-month Starter plan and €0.05 on its €14.99 Core and €39.99 Core Flex plans, before VAT.
- LHV: €0.05 per bank-link payment with no monthly fee, and free for new customers' first six months.
- Swedbank, Estonia: €0.10 per payment initiated from Swedbank or other banks' accounts.
- Maksekeskus: 0.9% + €0.05 on Baltic and Finnish bank payments.
- Revolut Business: Pay by Bank at 1% + €0.20, with the total capped at €5.
On a €40 order, a Montonio bank payment costs €0.05 to €0.20 and a Paysera Checkout Modern payment nothing, against €0.85 for a standard EEA card on Stripe. Kevin., a Lithuanian bank-payment start-up, was declared insolvent by a Vilnius court in September 2024, two months after the Bank of Lithuania barred it from taking new clients.
Underneath these products, the EU Instant Payments Regulation has changed the transfers themselves. Since 9 January 2025 every euro-area bank has had to receive instant euro transfers and may charge no more for them than for an ordinary transfer. Since 9 October 2025 banks have had to send them and offer a free check that the payee's name matches the account. Payment institutions and e-money institutions, which include several Baltic payment firms, have until 9 April 2027. The regulation governs the transfer between banks, not what a payment-initiation provider charges a shop.
Online card payments
- Montonio: 1.49% + €0.25 on EU consumer cards on the Starter plan and 1.29% + €0.20 on the Core plans. EU business cards cost 2.39% + €0.20 and non-EU consumer cards 2.99% + €0.20. Every card dispute costs €20.
- Paysera: 1.45% on EU-issued cards with a €0.15 minimum, falling to 1.25% from €25,001 a month. EU business cards cost 2.20% to 2.40%. Card income is held in full for three days and 5% for three months.
- Maksekeskus: 1.35% + €0.15 on cards, plus €10 a month.
- Stripe (A): 1.5% + €0.25 on standard EEA cards and 2.8% + €0.25 on premium EEA cards, with a €20 fee for each dispute received (and another €20, refunded if you win, to contest one), on its Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian price pages alike.
- Revolut Business: 1% + €0.20 on EEA consumer cards and 2.8% + €0.20 on other cards.
- Viva.com, Lithuania: 2.19% + €0.24 on domestic and EEA consumer cards.
- SumUp: 1.69% on payment links and other online payments.
The rules
No card surcharges, and in Latvia no payment-method fees at all
EU rules mean you may not charge customers extra for paying by a consumer credit or debit card, in a shop or online: article 62(4) of the second Payment Services Directive bans surcharges on the cards whose interchange is capped. Business cards are outside that EU-wide ban. Each country applies the rules in its own way.
- Latvia: the consumer rights centre, PTAC, said in January 2019 that article 77(3) of the Payment Services and Electronic Money Law forbids a seller to charge for the use of any particular payment instrument, which it reads as covering cards and internet-bank payments. Payment costs can be built into prices, not added as a fee.
- Lithuania: the Bank of Lithuania said in a press release published on 3 September 2026 that the merchant must pay for card acceptance and cannot pass it on as a card fee. A payment-initiation provider may charge the shopper, but only if the shopper is told in advance and can choose another way to pay at no extra cost.
- Estonia: the EU ban applies. We could not load the Estonian statute itself, so check with your provider if you plan any payment-method fee.
Latvia makes larger sellers take non-cash payments
From 1 April 2025, under amendments to Latvia's law on taxes and duties, businesses must let customers pay by a non-cash method at the point of sale or service. The Latvian government's summary of 2025 changes confirms the date but gives no threshold. Swedbank and SEB in Latvia and trade press put the threshold at annual turnover above €50,000; Swedbank says it is measured on the previous year's turnover at the legal address, a branch or a vending machine, and applies to purchases of any size. Cash may still be accepted alongside. A January 2025 SEB article dated the rule from 1 January, which the government's summary contradicts. We found no equivalent duty in Estonia or Lithuania.
For the rest of northern Europe, see our guides to card fees in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Poland.
What to check before you sign
- Whether the quoted rate includes interchange and scheme fees, or comes on top of them as LHV's does.
- The rate on business, premium and non-EU cards, which the EU caps do not cover.
- Terminal rent, the minimum rental period (three months at Swedbank Estonia) and any fee for returning a terminal early.
- Whether a promotional rate or free rent ends, as several of the banks' current offers do on 30 November or 31 December 2026.
- For an online shop, the price of bank payments against cards, and whether you can steer customers to bank payments.
- Dispute fees, and whether they are refunded if you win: €20 at Montonio and Stripe, €30 at Paysera.
- Holds on your money, such as Paysera's three-day hold on card income.
- In Latvia, whether your turnover means you must offer a non-cash payment option.
