Industry · Payment Processing
On 20 July 2026 the UAE inaugurated Jaywan, its first national card scheme, and banks began issuing the cards in phases. Neither its operator nor any provider we checked has published what a merchant pays to accept one. For now, the price a UAE business sees is what gateways charge for Visa and Mastercard. Online, the most common published rate is 2.9% plus AED 1 per payment, at Stripe, Shopify Payments, Paymob and Mamo. The published range runs from 2.25% plus AED 0.50 at Telr for a business processing AED 50,000 a month to 3% plus AED 1 and a AED 200 monthly fee at CCAvenue. Most providers add 5% VAT to the fee.
This guide sets out what a business pays to accept cards, Apple Pay and buy now, pay later in the UAE, from the price lists of the providers that publish one, as read on 13 October 2026. It also covers the debit interchange caps, the ban on card surcharges, VAT on fees, and what is known so far about Jaywan and the Aani instant-payment system. Amounts are in dirhams.
Interchange is the part of every card fee that goes to the customer's bank. Visa's published UAE interchange schedule, effective October 2024, caps it on a domestic consumer debit card (Classic, Gold, Rewards and Platinum) at 0.75% in store, up to a maximum of AED 37.50, and 1.00% online, up to AED 50. Premium debit and prepaid cards are 1.00%, capped at AED 50, and government, utilities, transport and petrol payments 0.50%, capped at AED 25. Credit cards are not capped: Visa's consumer credit interchange runs from 1.15% on a Classic card to 2.10% on an Infinite card, and up to 2.30% on its top-tier Ultra High Net Worth card.
Adyen, explaining the change to its UAE merchants, said the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) introduced the new debit and prepaid structure from 1 October 2024, that it would watch whether acquirers pass the savings on, and that acquirers must now quote debit, prepaid and credit card fees separately. We could not find the CBUAE's own notice, and the CBUAE's card scheme regulation gives it the power to regulate scheme fees without setting a number. Nothing we found caps the merchant discount rate, the all-in fee you pay. A claim on one UAE consultancy's site that the CBUAE caps credit card fees at 1.5% has no source and is contradicted by Visa's own schedule.
The practical point is the gap. A gateway that charges one rate for all domestic cards charges 2.9% plus AED 1 on a debit card whose interchange cannot exceed 1%. If most of your customers pay by debit card, ask for a quote that prices debit separately.
Several providers publish no UAE price. Checkout.com offers flat-rate or interchange++ pricing on quotation only, and PayTabs publishes Saudi rates only. Network International, which merged with Magnati in October 2025 though the two brands still trade separately, and Geidea publish no card rates; Network International's only public figure is a fixed-fee option of AED 229 plus VAT a month for every AED 10,000 processed, which works out at 2.29%.
Among smaller UAE providers we have not reviewed, Ziina charges 2.6% + AED 1, plus 1.5% for international or non-dirham cards, and Mamo charges 2.9% + AED 1, or 2.7% + AED 0.80 on a AED 99-a-month plan. Telr's price depends on volume: AED 249 a month with no percentage below AED 10,000, 2.45% + AED 1 and AED 199 a month up to AED 25,000, 2.35% + AED 0.50 and AED 99 a month up to AED 50,000, and 2.25% + AED 0.50 with no monthly fee from AED 50,000. Square and SumUp do not operate in the UAE, and Airwallex holds only in-principle approval for its UAE licences.
Paid online by a UAE card, an AED 100 sale costs AED 3.60 at Ziina, AED 3.75 at Tap, AED 3.90 at Stripe, Shopify Payments (Basic), Paymob and Mamo, and AED 4.00 at CCAvenue, before VAT. With 5% VAT added, Tap's fee becomes about AED 3.94 and CCAvenue's AED 4.20, before CCAvenue's monthly fee. At Telr, a merchant processing AED 50,000 or more a month pays AED 2.75 plus VAT.
The AED 1 fixed fee is what hurts small tickets. On an AED 20 payment, Stripe's 2.9% is 58 fils but the fixed fee takes it to AED 1.58, or 7.9% of the sale. On an AED 2,000 payment the same fee structure works out at 2.95%. A café selling AED 20 items should compare fixed fees first; a business selling AED 2,000 items should compare percentages.
The executive regulation of the UAE's consumer protection law, Cabinet Decision 66 of 2023, requires suppliers not to add any amount to the price of goods or services when a customer pays by credit card. Its English text names credit cards only and says nothing either way about debit cards, though the same article requires suppliers to state clearly whether debit cards are accepted. The CBUAE's Consumer Protection Standards separately require the banks and other licensed financial institutions that provide card terminals to monitor whether their merchants impose additional, unauthorised fees on customers paying by card or digital payment, so treat any card surcharge as a risk. The fee is a cost of doing business, recovered in your prices rather than at the till.
Jaywan is run by Al Etihad Payments, a CBUAE subsidiary, and uses technology licensed from India's NPCI. Its cards work at card terminals, online and in digital wallets, and a co-badged Jaywan and Mastercard credit card was announced the day after launch. Al Etihad Payments has published no interchange or merchant fee for Jaywan. Network International said merchants would pay no additional fees on Jaywan payments through its gateway, which reads as no extra charge on top of your normal rate rather than a lower one. Mamo lists Jaywan among the cards it accepts.
Aani is the instant payment platform operated by Al Etihad Payments. Customers can pay small merchants by scanning a QR code or accepting a request to pay, and Al Etihad Payments says it supports payments of up to AED 50,000. Al Etihad Payments says fees are set by the banks and payment providers offering it, and none of the providers we checked publishes a merchant price for Aani. If your bank offers it, ask what it charges compared with a debit card.
Two familiar options are missing. Stripe Terminal and Stripe's Tap to Pay are not available in the UAE, and Shopify Payments cannot be used for in-person payments there. Ziina's Tap to Pay, on an iPhone or Android phone, charges the same 2.6% + AED 1 as its online rate with no setup or monthly fee, and sells a QR code stand for AED 49. Acquirers such as Network International supply terminals and phone-based acceptance but quote individually.
Neither Tabby nor Tamara publishes its merchant commission. Tabby says it charges a variable commission plus a fixed fee per transaction, set out at application, and that both include payment gateway charges. Payout terms are public, and they cost money on small balances: our Tabby review found weekly payouts with a AED 6 payout fee, or AED 25 on payouts under AED 2,500, and our Tamara review found that a weekly payout under AED 2,500 costs AED 25. For how BNPL fees compare with cards elsewhere, see our guide to BNPL merchant fees.
Under the UAE's VAT rules, financial services supplied for an explicit fee, commission or discount are taxed at the standard 5% rate, and the Federal Tax Authority's financial services guide lists card-related fees, such as all debit card fees and fees received by card schemes, at the standard rate. Tap, CCAvenue, Telr and Network International all add 5% VAT to their fees, and Mamo quotes its prices excluding VAT. Stripe charges no VAT on its fees once you give it a UAE VAT number that it has verified. Ziina's own pages disagree on whether its published fees include VAT or have it added, so ask before you compare its rate with others.
For the same picture next door, see our guide to card payment fees in Saudi Arabia.
