Payment Processing · Buyer guide
No law in Uruguay caps what a shop pays to take a card. What Uruguay has instead is a 2018 agreement between the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the banks and the main card companies, which set maximum fees for those who signed it, and a rule that makes every acquirer report its fees to the central bank (BCU), which publishes them sector by sector. In the BCU's latest figures, for July 2026, no acquirer that reported debit rates charged a food shop, clothes shop or restaurant more than 1.15% on a debit card issued in Uruguay. The payment apps publish their prices, and they are higher: 2.25% plus IVA on debit at a Mercado Pago or Handy card reader.
There are two ways in. Acquirers such as First Data Uruguay, Getnet, OCA, TotalNet and Cabal sign a contract with the business directly. Since 1 September 2022, when the BCU completed what it calls multiadquirencia, one contract with one acquirer covers every Visa and Mastercard debit, credit and e-money card, where a shop used to need a contract per brand. Payment facilitators such as Mercado Pago and Handy sign you up online and handle the acquirer relationship for you. Below is what each charges, read on 13 November 2026. IVA, the value-added tax added to most fees, is 22%.
We found no published merchant price list from any of these acquirers, so the best public guide is the BCU's table of fees in force, which each acquirer must report under Law 19.732 and Decree 45/2019. It gives the highest, lowest and average rate by sector, separately for cards issued in Uruguay and abroad, and for credit cards in one payment and in instalments. The table does not say whether IVA is included. For cards issued in Uruguay, in July 2026:
Those are ranges, not quotes. Law 19.731 requires the contract between acquirer and shop to state the fee, the longest the acquirer may take to pay and how sales are settled, so ask for all three in writing. The same law says an acquirer cannot make a shop accept credit cards in instalments: a business may take credit cards in one payment only.
The agreement signed on 6 September 2018 set maximum fees on cards issued in Uruguay and a schedule to lower them as card use grew. Debit and e-money started at 1.5% in general and 1.3% for small businesses, with the general maximum falling to 1.3%, then 1.15%, 1% and 0.8%, each step after a further 30% real increase in the amount paid by those cards compared with 2017. Credit started at 4% in general and 3.5% for small businesses, with steps down to 2.25%. The signatories also agreed to cut the longest wait for payment on debit and e-money sales to one day and to drop every administrative charge other than the fee itself. It is a voluntary agreement that binds only those who signed it: the BROU, the private banks' association, Visanet, First Data, OCA, Pronto!, American Express and Cabal. The highest debit rates in the July 2026 figures match the agreement's 1.15% step.
Handy notes that the terms in a business's own sign-up form or commercial offer can differ from its published table. Neither Handy nor Mercado Pago appears in the BCU's table of acquirer fees.
Take a shop that sells UYU 400,000 a month by card. On debit, Mercado Pago's QR costs UYU 5,612 including IVA, and a Mercado Pago Point Smart or Handy reader UYU 10,980, plus terminal rent and any monthly charge at Handy. An acquirer at the 1.15% maximum charges UYU 4,600, before any IVA the contract adds.
On credit cards in one payment the card readers cost more still. The same UYU 400,000 costs UYU 14,591 on Mercado Pago's QR if you wait 21 days, UYU 23,668 at Handy's Basic plan (25 days), UYU 25,571 on a Point Smart (21 days) and UYU 29,231 for instant payout on a Point Smart or same-day payout on Handy's Ya plan. An acquirer charging 3.55% to 3.75% takes UYU 14,200 to UYU 15,000 before IVA.
For a business abroad selling into Uruguay, dLocal (B-) listed 4.99% on Uruguayan cards and US$0.40 + 0.99% on cash payments for its self-serve dLocal Go product, plus 22% local tax on the fee, in a price list posted in 2024 that is still online; we could not load a current dLocal Go pricing page to confirm it. Card funds can be withdrawn after 7 days, subject to dLocal's risk assessment. Stripe (A) does not list Uruguay among the countries where a business can open an account.
Uruguay uses IVA cuts, rather than fee caps, to push people towards cards. Three apply in November 2026, the third from 15 November. Each is refunded to the business as a tax credit rather than taken from the price it receives, but each changes what your customer pays and how you account for it.
Under the Financial Inclusion Law (Law 19.210), a final consumer who pays by debit card, electronic money or a similar instrument gets two percentage points off the IVA, according to the tax authority's (DGI) guide, updated in April 2026. Credit cards are not on that list. A business on the general IVA regime issues a final-consumer receipt for the full amount; the card voucher shows the reduction and the legend "Reducción IVA Ley No 19.210"; and the business gets a tax credit equal to the reduction, which the card company reports to it within the first five days of the following month. Small businesses on IVA Mínimo or Monotributo are paid the full amount; for them the reduction is 1.64% of the sale (1.82% at the reduced IVA rate), and the tax credit goes to the card company instead.
Restaurants, bars, cafés, hotel food service, catering, events, car hire without a driver and agents letting tourist property get a nine-point cut in IVA when the customer pays with a credit card, debit card or electronic money held by an individual, resident or not. Decree 235/026 of 1 October 2026 extended it to 30 April 2027. The business invoices as normal, on a separate final-consumer receipt, and takes a tax credit, though any of that credit left unused at the end of the financial year cannot be carried forward; for IVA Mínimo businesses the customer's discount is 7.38% of the bill.
From 15 November 2026 to 30 April 2027, under Decree 271/026, the same restaurant, catering, events and car-hire services carry no IVA at all for non-resident individuals who pay with a debit or credit card issued abroad, or by transfer from abroad, as long as an acquirer or collection company resident in Uruguay is involved.
For Uruguay's neighbours, see our guides to card fees in Argentina and Brazil, and for the price of getting paid faster, our comparison of instant payout fees.
