Payment Processing · Buyer guide
A year after the Banco de la República switched on Bre-B, its instant payment system, a Colombian shop can take a payment from almost any bank or wallet by showing a QR code, and at some providers that costs nothing at all. A card sale is a different matter. At the providers that sign a small business up online, an in-person card payment costs about 2% to 3.3% of the sale plus 19% IVA on the commission, online sales cost more, and on top of the fee a 1.5% income-tax withholding still comes off most card sales before the money arrives.
This guide sets out what each provider publishes, read from its own Colombian pages on 17 October 2026, puts the rates on one basis, and explains the three things that set Colombia apart: the withholdings on card sales, Bre-B, and a consumer rule that forbids charging extra for paying by card.
Bre-B is the interoperable instant payment system run by the Banco de la República. After a trial period it began full operation on 6 October 2025 with 128 participating institutions. A customer pays from their bank or wallet using a key, such as a phone number or ID number, or by scanning a QR code, and the money moves between institutions in seconds. A merchant can also use a merchant code issued by its acquirer. A single payment can be up to 1,000 UVB, which is COP 12,110,000 in 2026, and each bank can set lower limits. According to the central bank's technical document of February 2026, Bre-B carried 370.4 million transactions, most of them transfers between people, worth COP 59 trillion between 6 October 2025 and 31 January 2026, an average of about COP 159,000 each.
The central bank does not set what a merchant pays. Its own FAQ says each financial institution sets the fees for its customers, and the circular that governs Bre-B, as compiled in August 2026, contains no fee rules at all. The widely reported "free for three years" is, as the central bank's payments director has described it, the central bank waiving its own infrastructure charge to the participating institutions, not a promise about merchant pricing. So the price depends entirely on who you take the payment through:
The tax treatment helps as well. The Ministry of Finance's draft decree of January 2026 states that payments through QR codes, wallets and low-value deposit transfers are not subject to income-tax withholding, which is why Bold can say its QR sales carry none. For a small business whose customers will scan a code, Bre-B is the cheapest way to be paid electronically in Colombia. The catch is that it depends on the customer: a tourist, a corporate card holder or anyone who would rather use credit still needs a card terminal.
We could not find an in-person card reader on Mercado Pago's Colombian site, where it sells only online checkout, payment links and subscriptions, unlike in Mexico. The site's review of Mercado Pago covers its Mexican business.
We found no legal cap on interchange in Colombia, the part of the fee that goes to the bank that issued the card. The networks set it, and acquirers report the rates under Decree 1692 of 2020. Visa's Colombian schedule, which carries no effective date, gives the smallest merchants the lowest rates: 0.70% on debit and 1% on credit for businesses Visa classes as micro-merchants, and 0.30% and 0.60% for nano-merchants, classed by their history of Visa payments. Card-not-present sales run from 1.30% on a Visa Electron debit card to 2.05% on a premium credit card. Mastercard also publishes the ranges acquirers report each quarter.
Set those against the 1.99% to 3.29% the providers above charge and the gap is the provider's margin, its costs and the network fees. It is also why a business with a real card volume should ask a bank or a larger aggregator for a quote rather than accept a sign-up rate: Bold quotes its own rate above COP 20 million a month, and Wompi's Gateway plan passes through the rate a merchant negotiates with Bancolombia.
Online, most providers charge one rate for every payment method, cards, PSE bank transfers, Nequi and Botón Bancolombia alike, plus a fixed fee per sale.
Take a café taking COP 8 million a month on cards in person, 400 sales of COP 20,000, all on Colombian Visa and Mastercard cards. On the published rates, including 19% IVA on the commission:
Bold's COP 300 fixed fee is worth 1.5 points of a COP 20,000 sale, which is most of the gap: per sale, the café pays about COP 474 at Wompi and COP 997 at Bold. Wompi's phone reader stops at COP 250,000 a sale and COP 10 million a day, so a business with larger tickets needs a terminal. The same café taking all of it by Bre-B QR at Nequi or on Bold's standard QR would pay nothing.
Now take a shop selling COP 20 million a month online, 200 orders of COP 100,000, again including IVA:
On a COP 100,000 order the fixed fees matter less than they do in a café, and the spread between cheapest and dearest is about COP 180,000 a month. A shop with smaller orders should rerun the sums: Mercado Pago's COP 800 is 0.8 points of a COP 100,000 sale but 4 points of a COP 20,000 one.
Colombian card sales are generally subject to income-tax withholding (retención en la fuente) at 1.5% of the sale before IVA, under a rule that dates from 2001 and now sits in article 1.3.2.1.8 of Decree 1625 of 2016. The acquirer deducts it when it settles the sale. Wompi's help centre, in an article dated 13 May 2026, describes exactly that, and adds that the amount can vary with the merchant's tax set-up; Bold says some individuals not registered for IVA can avoid it. Card sales can also carry a withholding of 15% of the IVA on the sale and a municipal ICA withholding: Rapyd quotes 0.414% for ICA and ePayco 0.2%, because the rate depends on the city and the activity.
None of this is a fee. The withholdings are advance payments of the merchant's own taxes, credited when it files. But they come out of every card sale before the money arrives, and a small business that owes less tax than was withheld has to claim the difference back. On the café's COP 8 million a month, the income-tax withholding alone is COP 120,000, which leaves it with less cash than the fee tables suggest.
In January 2026 the Ministry of Finance published a draft decree to remove the withholding on card payments from 1 March 2026, citing exactly the fact that QR, wallet and transfer payments carry none. Several outlets reported it as done. We found no signed decree, providers' live pages still apply the 1.5% in October 2026, and a congressman filed a bill in July to remove it by law, which would not be needed if the decree were in force. Until a decree number is published, plan on the withholding.
A US business can often add a surcharge for card payments, within the limits set out in the site's guide to card surcharge rules. A Colombian business cannot. Article 26 of the Consumer Statute, Law 1480 of 2011, requires the price shown to include all taxes and additional costs and says the consumer is only obliged to pay the price announced. The Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio answers the question directly on its consumer pages: asked whether a consumer can be charged more for paying by credit card, it says no, the price shown is the most that can be charged. Some articles online say a disclosed surcharge is allowed; the regulator's own page says otherwise.
What the SIC does allow is a discount tied to the payment method, provided the condition is explained clearly. A shop that wants customers to pay by Bre-B QR rather than card can offer them a better price for it.
EBANX's own documentation describes Colombian online payments as led by PSE bank transfers, Nequi and Bre-B, with cards complementing rather than dominating, so a foreign business that only takes cards misses much of the market. Stripe does not open accounts for Colombian businesses, but a Stripe merchant elsewhere can charge Colombian cards in pesos; it does not offer PSE. EBANX (B-) supports Colombian cards, PSE, Nequi, Efecty cash and Bre-B, and publishes no pricing. dLocal (B-) supports the same local methods; the last price list its dLocal Go service published, dated April 2023, gave USD 0.20 + 1.99% before local taxes for Colombian cards, cash and transfers, so ask for a current quote. Rapyd's 3.29% + COP 300 needs a Colombian entity.
A software or digital-goods seller can avoid most of this by selling through a merchant of record, which takes the payment, charges the customer Colombian VAT and pays the seller. Paddle (B) charges 19% Colombian VAT on consumer sales and accepts pesos. What that costs against running your own payments is set out in the site's guide to merchant of record fees.
Receiving dollars from clients abroad is a separate question. PayPal (A-) lists Colombia among the markets where it charges 5.40% plus a fixed fee to receive international payments; a business PayPal approves for its merchant rate pays less as volume rises, down to 4.40% above USD 100,000 a month. Add 3.50% to convert the money and COP 3,500 for each withdrawal to a Colombian bank.
Once you are trading, check what you pay against what you were quoted. The site's guide to reading a merchant processing statement is written for US statements, but the lines to check are the same. For how instant payment systems have changed what merchants pay elsewhere in Latin America, see the site's guides to Pix in Brazil and to card fees in Mexico.
