Geidea Review

Geidea is a Riyadh-based payments company that signs up merchants directly, supplies the card terminals and settles card sales into their bank accounts. It also sells a SoftPOS app (Geidea Mobile POS), an online payment gateway, payment links and its own point-of-sale software. This review covers the Saudi business, which is Geidea's home market; it also has sites for the UAE and Egypt. Geidea holds a Payment Institution licence from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), and in 2021 it was the only non-bank in the Kingdom with a SAMA acquiring licence. Its merchant terms publish a fee schedule. As of the 17 August 2025 terms, in-store mada payments cost 0.7% below SAR 100 and 0.8% above, capped at SAR 160. Credit cards cost 2.75% + SAR 1. Online, the gateway and payment links cost SAR 499 to set up and SAR 99 a month, with mada at 1% and credit cards at 2.5% + SAR 1. All of these fees are subject to 15% VAT. The contract is less friendly: a two-year term that renews automatically, early-termination fees of up to 24 months, minimum monthly sales per terminal, and the right to withhold funds after you leave.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Geidea’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Geidea is

Geidea is a Saudi payments company. It signs merchants up directly, supplies and services their card terminals, and settles card sales into their bank accounts. It also sells tap-on-phone acceptance, an online gateway, payment links, and POS and loyalty software. Geidea says the idea took shape in 2008, when Abdullah Al Othman founded it, and that it launched in 2011 as a loyalty programme business. It certified its first POS terminal in 2013. The company has sites for Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. This review is written from the Saudi market, which is Geidea's home and the only market where we read its merchant terms. UAE and Egyptian pricing and terms may differ.

Geidea's about page, read in November 2026, claims more than 530,000 merchants, more than 825,000 POS terminals and more than 360 billion in processed value, without naming a currency or date. These are the company's own figures and we have not seen them independently confirmed.

Licences and ownership

SAMA's register of licensed payment service providers lists "Geidea for Technology" as a Payment Institution, unified number 7001715221, with the licence expiring on 04/11/2030. The merchant terms name the contracting company as Geidea Co. For Technology. In March 2021 Geidea was reported as the only non-bank in the Kingdom to hold an acquiring licence from SAMA. Its own timeline adds a payment gateway licence in 2023 and an e-commerce licence in 2024. In September 2026 it announced certification to route e-commerce payments to Saudi Arabia's National Payments Gateway, and MPoC certification for its SoftPOS app. In the UAE, its site says Geidea Payment LLC is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. The terms say Geidea shares merchant information with its acquirers, "which are our entrusted partner banks", and pays merchants once it has received funds from a partner bank. So Geidea holds the merchant agreement and settles you itself, but card funds still pass through banks.

Abdullah Al Othman is listed as founder and executive chairman. In May 2018 the private equity firm Gulf Capital announced that it had acquired a strategic stake in Geidea, in a transaction it valued at more than SAR 1 billion; Geidea's own timeline dates the investment to 2019. The size of the stake has not been disclosed, so we describe Gulf Capital as an investor, not the owner. Gulf Capital's CEO, Karim El Solh, is Geidea's co-chairman. Geidea's about page also lists AO and RAI among its investors.

In-store pricing

Geidea publishes its fees in its merchant terms, a PDF linked from every page of its site. The version we read is dated 17 August 2025. It is not on a pricing page; geidea.net/ksa/en/pricing returns a 404. The card-present schedule is the same for terminals and SoftPOS:

• mada debit: 0.7% on transactions below SAR 100, 0.8% above, capped at SAR 160 per transaction.
• Credit cards (Visa, Mastercard and others): 2.75% + SAR 1 per transaction.
• Chargebacks the merchant does not successfully defend: SAR 120 each.
• Minimum sales: SAR 15,000 per terminal per month, or SAR 6,500 on SoftPOS. Falling short costs SAR 100 per terminal, or SAR 20 on SoftPOS.
• Lost terminal, damaged SIM, or a terminal not returned after the contract ends: SAR 1,500. Replacement after misuse during the contract: SAR 1,200. Broken screens are charged on assessment.
• Every item on the schedule is "subject to VAT 15%", so add 15% to each figure.

Freelancers have a separate schedule with an annual fee instead. SoftPOS costs SAR 899 a year. A terminal costs SAR 1,499 for the first contract year and SAR 1,799 a year after that. Both are paid on signing. The per-transaction rates are the same, but the first SAR 10,000 of payments carries no transaction charges; the terms do not say whether that allowance renews. Freelancer plans have no early-termination fee and no minimum sales. Clause 5.4 of the card-present terms refers to a monthly service fee for standard merchants, but the published schedule does not set one. Ask for that figure in writing.

As an illustration, consider a café processing SAR 50,000 a month on one terminal. Say SAR 30,000 comes in mada payments under SAR 100 and SAR 20,000 in 100 credit-card payments of SAR 200. The mada fee would be SAR 210 and the credit-card fees SAR 550 + SAR 100, a total of SAR 860. With 15% VAT that becomes SAR 989, or about 2% of sales. The mix matters a great deal: on this schedule a SAR 50 credit-card payment costs SAR 2.38 before VAT, nearly 5%, while the same payment by mada costs SAR 0.35.

Online pricing

The card-not-present schedule covers the payment gateway and payment links on the same terms. Each costs SAR 499 to set up and SAR 99 a month. Online mada costs 1% and credit cards 2.5% + SAR 1, all subject to 15% VAT, so the monthly fee is SAR 113.85 with VAT and setup SAR 573.85. The schedule lists no online chargeback fee. However, the merchant bears every chargeback amount and associated cost (clause 6.6), and must answer a dispute within three working days for Visa and Mastercard or one working day for mada (clause 6.3). Geidea's site says payment links accept more than 180 currencies; the terms do not price foreign-currency payments separately.

The mada cap: two sets of figures

SAMA's rulebook still carries mada business rules from November 2015 (for the "Naqd" purchase-with-cash-back service) whose fee table caps the point-of-sale merchant charge at 0.8%, up to SAR 40, subject to negotiation below that ceiling. A 2018 rule on mada e-commerce sets a maximum of 1.75% with no cap. Geidea's schedule matches neither. It charges 0.7% or 0.8% in store with a SAR 160 cap, and 1% online. We have not found a SAMA circular replacing the rulebook figures, so we do not say which applies. The difference only shows on payments above SAR 5,000, where the rulebook cap would be reached. Merchants who take large mada payments should ask Geidea in writing what it will charge.

Contract terms

Both sets of terms run for two years from signing and then renew automatically for one year at a time. To stop a renewal you must give written notice three months before the term ends (clauses 8.1 and 9.1). Either side may end the agreement for any reason on 30 days' written notice (clauses 8.3 and 9.3). Leaving early, however, costs SAR 100 per remaining month on card-present plans and SAR 99 on online plans, capped at 24 months, plus VAT. The card-present terms add, at clause 8.4.1, that this fee applies to exits before a cutoff nine months after installation. That is narrower than the fee table suggests, and worth confirming in writing. New merchants have a 10-business-day cooling-off period in which they can cancel without compensation and get unused fees back (clauses 8.5 and 9.6).

Other terms give Geidea more room than a merchant might expect:

• Fees can rise, or new fees be added, on 30 days' notice (clause 5.9), and the terms themselves can be amended on 30 days' notice (clause 10.1).
• Geidea can take back a terminal that processes nothing in its first 30 days, or that goes 60 consecutive days without a transaction (clauses 5.7 and 5.8).
• Online accounts that are inactive for one month, or below an agreed minimum, can be made dormant (clause 9.2(f)).
• The merchant gives Geidea the exclusive right to install mada terminals at the outlets covered by the agreement (Schedule One), and undertakes not to enter any similar agreement within the mada network (clause 3.25).
• Geidea's liability in any calendar year is capped at the fees it earned in the previous month, or the cost of reprocessing the transaction if lower, except for gross negligence or wilful misconduct.
• Disputes go to the Saudi courts under Saudi law. Financial claims about a mada transaction must be reported within 75 days of the transaction, and about a credit-card transaction within 7 days (clause 3.27).

Payouts, holds and chargebacks

Card-present sales are credited to the merchant's Geidea trading account at the end of each day. When you are paid depends on your bank (clause 5.1). If your account is with the same bank as Geidea's, you are paid the next business day after Geidea receives the funds from its partner bank. If it is with another bank in Riyadh, you are paid within one business day. If it is with another bank outside Riyadh, you are paid only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The terms allow up to seven working days for Geidea to collect credit-card funds from the banks (clause 5.2). Each transfer carries a SARIE interbank fee, and Geidea may let you set a minimum payout to reduce it. The online schedule is titled "Service Fees and Settlement Cycle" but gives no settlement timetable.

Geidea can suspend, delay or withhold payments if it suspects a breach, fraud or unusual trading (card-present clauses 4.8 and 7.2 to 7.7; online clauses 6.7, 6.8, 6.12 and 10.4). Clause 7.8 lets it hold back a percentage of settlements for up to 90 days as security against chargebacks; the percentage is not stated. After termination it may keep card-present funds for up to 120 days, or until the chargeback window closes if that is sooner (clause 8.4.4). Online merchants face a longer hold of up to 540 days from their last transaction (clause 9.5; the clause gives the figure as "five hundred forty (540)" without a unit, which we read as days). Chargebacks are recovered from settlements or debited from your bank account, including after the contract ends. Unpaid debts can be passed to a collection agency and reported to SIMAH, the Saudi credit bureau (clause 7.3).

Reputation and complaints

Geidea has a strong position in the industry. In 2021 it was the only non-bank with a SAMA acquiring licence, it is backed by Gulf Capital, and it describes itself as number one in Saudi Arabia, a claim we could not independently check. Independent merchant feedback is thin. We could not load a Trustpilot page for geidea.net, and its new Geidea merchant app on Google Play had only five ratings in November 2026, too few to mean much. Geidea's complaint form offers categories that include payout delay, missing payout, missing amount and collection fees. This shows what merchants raise but not how often. Our searches in English found no lawsuit, settlement or SAMA enforcement action naming Geidea.

Support

Support is by phone on 8003030038 inside Saudi Arabia (+966 11 297 8333 from abroad), by email, through the merchant app and web portal, and through an online complaint form. The site gives hours of 9am to 9pm "except Fridays" in one line and "Sunday-Thursday" in the next, so Saturday cover is unclear. Geidea's site says terminal installation is complimentary, but clause 2.6 of the terms puts installation and maintenance costs on the merchant, so confirm in writing. The terms say Geidea or its authorised agents carry out all maintenance.

Who should use Geidea

Geidea suits a Saudi merchant that wants a licensed acquirer to install and service terminals, add tap-on-phone and online payments, and run POS software, all under one contract with published prices. Its freelancer plans are simple: one annual fee, no exit fee, and the first SAR 10,000 of payments free of transaction charges. A standard merchant should go in with eyes open. You are signing a two-year contract that renews itself, with a minimum sales level per terminal, exit fees, and wide rights for Geidea to hold funds. Before signing, confirm whether a monthly service fee applies to your plan. Confirm which early-termination rule applies: the fee table's 24 months or clause 8.4.1's nine-month cutoff. Check the mada cap you will actually pay, and how quickly you will be paid if your bank account is outside Riyadh.