Maya Business Review

Maya Business is the merchant arm of Maya, the Philippine fintech that launched as PayMaya in 2015 and rebranded in 2022. The contracting company, Maya Philippines, Inc. (formerly PayMaya Philippines, Inc.), signs the merchant agreement itself and describes itself as licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to acquire merchants. The BSP lists it as a registered operator of payment systems. Maya sells card terminals, Tap to Phone on Android, online checkout, payment links, digital invoices and static QR codes, all quoted from one published rate card. As of November 2026, the published starting rates are 3.50% for Visa, Mastercard, JCB and Amex in-store, and 3.50% + ₱10 for the same cards online. QR Ph and Maya QR cost 1.0%, GCash 2%, ShopeePay 1.85% and WeChat Pay 1.75%. The Maya Terminal costs ₱949 a month. Terminal sales settle the next banking day, and Maya advertises T+1 settlement for Checkout. Larger merchants can negotiate custom packages. Maya's own figures put it past one million registered formal businesses in 2024. Its standard merchant agreement runs for a year and renews automatically, needs 60 days' written notice to end, carries a penalty for leaving in the first year, and lets Maya change the rate during the term and require a security deposit equal to 10% of projected monthly volume, which it can later raise. Maya Bank, Inc., a separate digital bank, provides the business deposit account that some settlements land in.

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

What Maya Business is

Maya Business is the merchant side of Maya, the Philippine fintech that launched as PayMaya in 2015 and rebranded as Maya in 2022, when its digital bank, Maya Bank, opened. (Maya's own website metadata gives a founding date of 2000, which appears to reflect an earlier e-money predecessor; we could not confirm that lineage from a primary source.) The company that signs merchants is Maya Philippines, Inc., which changed its name from PayMaya Philippines, Inc. as part of the rebrand. Maya told existing merchants that their contracts stayed valid and that their MDR and fees did not change.

The product range is wide. It includes countertop and pocket card terminals, Tap to Phone on Android phones, a hosted online checkout with Shopify and WooCommerce plugins, payment links, digital invoices and a static QR Ph code. All of these are managed in Maya Business Manager and the Maya Business app. The same app offers a business deposit account, bulk transfers, bills payment and credit lines. Maya says it passed one million registered formal businesses in 2024. It also says that, according to BancNet data, it received 44% of QR Ph person-to-merchant transaction volume that year. Both figures are Maya's own.

Why we list Maya Business as a platform / acquirer

Maya Philippines signs the merchant agreement in its own name. The agreement's recitals say the company is licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to issue e-money accounts and to acquire merchants for card, QR and WeChat Pay transactions. Maya sets the MDR, settles funds to the merchant, handles chargebacks and can hold funds and require a security deposit. Those are the acquirer's jobs, not a reseller's. The BSP's list of registered operators of payment systems, as of 28 August 2026, includes Maya Philippines, Inc. (formerly PayMaya Philippines, Inc.) under registration OPSCOR-2020-0025, with trade names including Maya Business Manager and Maya Checkout. The list marks operators with authority to engage in merchant acquisition with a double asterisk, and Maya Philippines' entry does not carry that mark, so the acquiring claim here rests on Maya's own merchant agreement. PLDT's 2025 annual report describes Maya Philippines as registered with the BSP as an electronic money issuer, remittance and transfer company, operator of payment systems and virtual asset service provider. That puts Maya in our platform / acquirer category rather than with payment facilitators, which board merchants under someone else's acquiring licence.

Pricing

Maya publishes a rate card for every channel, expressed as merchant discount rates (MDR). The pricing pages label these 'Rate starts at' or 'Rack Rate starts at'. Maya offers custom packages with volume and multi-product discounts to high-volume merchants, so a larger business should expect to negotiate. As of November 2026, the published starting rates are:

• Visa and Mastercard: 3.50% on the Maya Terminal; 3.50% + ₱10 per transaction through Checkout, payment links and digital invoices
• JCB and American Express: 3.50% on terminals; 3.50% + ₱10 per transaction online
• Bancnet debit: 3.50%, on terminals only
• QR Ph and Maya QR: 1.0% in every channel, including a static QR code
• GCash: 2%
• ShopeePay: 1.85%
• WeChat Pay: 1.75%
• Tap to Phone (Visa and Mastercard on an Android phone): 3%

Maya's pages contradict each other on the Maya Terminal Lite. The pricing page shows 3.50% for Visa and Mastercard on the Lite, the same as the full terminal, while the payments overview page shows 3.50% + ₱10 per transaction. Ask Maya which applies before you order one. The Maya Terminal itself costs ₱949 a month, according to the FAQ on its product page. We found no separate published monthly fee for the Lite, for Checkout or for the static QR code.

Maya publishes no separate rate for keyed card transactions or for international cards. Tap to Phone accepts international Visa and Mastercard at its 3% rate. Neither pricing page says whether the rates include VAT. The merchant agreement (§36) says fees are payable inclusive of all applicable Philippine taxes, and §10 says settlements are paid net of the MDR and 'the taxes, if any'. A merchant required to withhold tax can reclaim 2% of the MDR from Maya by supplying proof of the obligation and the withholding certificates (§36). Get the tax basis confirmed in writing. The agreement also defines the MDR as set before signing but 'subject to change by MAYA, at anytime, during the term of this Agreement'. Separately, §40 says provisions can be amended only with the other party's written consent, and §16 lets Maya change installment rates on prior written notice. A merchant who wants price certainty should ask for a fixed-rate clause.

Other costs sit in the agreement rather than on the pricing page. An optional third-party fraud-screening service adds a per-transaction fee to the MDR, at an amount agreed with Maya. Transfers of settlements to a bank account carry bank charges that the merchant pays. Maya's Apple Pay page says Apple charges no extra fee for Apple Pay. It does not say what MDR Maya applies, so assume the card rate.

In-store: terminals and Tap to Phone

The Maya Terminal takes chip, contactless and magstripe cards, QR payments and bank transfers, and prints receipts. It supports authorize-and-capture, which lets a merchant reserve funds and charge once an order is fulfilled. Maya's developer documentation names PAX and Sunmi as its terminal hardware. The terminals can connect to an existing electronic cash register (ECR) through an integration kit, which Maya releases after the merchant signs a non-disclosure agreement. Card sales have to be settled on the device within 144 hours of authorization, or they expire. The agreement lets merchants offer card installment plans, including 0% installments, with Maya's approval and at rates Maya sets.

Terminals remain Maya's property. The merchant is liable for damage or loss, including from theft, fire and acts of nature. A terminal unused for six uninterrupted months draws a penalty equal to its published subscription fee, so return a terminal you are not using rather than leaving it in a drawer.

Tap to Phone turns an NFC-enabled Android phone running Android 12 or later into a card reader inside the Maya Business app. It is limited to Maya Business Pro accounts. To upgrade, a business submits its BIR Form 2303, DTI registration and business permit, and Maya says verification may take at least three banking days. The feature takes Visa and Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay, at 3% per successful payment. Tap to Phone money settles only into a Maya Business Deposit account.

Online: Checkout, payment links and invoices

Maya Checkout is a hosted payment page for websites and apps. It supports cards, QR Ph, Maya, GCash, ShopeePay and WeChat Pay, plus authorize-and-capture. Maya's invoice-payments page cites full 3-D Secure support. Maya offers free plugins for Shopify and WooCommerce. Payment links can be sent through any messaging app, and digital invoices cover billing. Both are priced the same as Checkout. Developer documentation is published at developers.maya.ph.

Settlement and payouts

The merchant agreement lets Maya settle into a Maya account or into the merchant's account at a bank Maya recognises. Payment comes at times 'determined by MAYA according to the prevailing practice'. In practice, Maya's developer documentation says terminal proceeds are credited to the merchant's bank account the next banking day as one lump sum, with no settlements on weekends or holidays. The Checkout page advertises T+1 settlement. Tap to Phone settles after one banking day. Maya's documentation on business deposit settlement says schedules vary by partner and points merchants to their relationship manager. A merchant has 30 days to dispute a settlement amount before it is deemed accepted.

Contract, deposits and termination

The standard merchant agreement runs for one year from signing and renews automatically. Either side can end it by sending written notice 60 days before the termination date. A merchant may not end it in the first year without paying a penalty equal to the monthly POS lease and account maintenance cost for each Maya device. Maya can end the agreement at will on at least 60 days' notice. It can end it sooner, on notice, for breach, for acts it judges prejudicial to its interests, for fraud or excessive chargebacks, or for breach of a card network's fraud threshold. Either party can terminate immediately for fraud, material breach, a merger it does not survive, or insolvency. Maya can also close accounts that take no payments for six months or more. A merchant closing its business must give at least 60 days' written notice under §38, but §28 asks for 30 days' notice of a cessation of business; the agreement does not reconcile the two. Section 35 lets Maya collect liquidated damages 'of at least 25% for every material violation', without stating the base.

The agreement allows Maya to require a security deposit, bond or bank guarantee equal to 10% of projected monthly volume, 'upon MAYA’s assessment, discretion'. Maya can raise the deposit later, and failing to provide it is grounds for suspension or termination. Deposits earn no interest and are returned 30 days after termination, less amounts owed. Maya can also hold all funds in a merchant's name during a chargeback event, after a card network charges Maya over the merchant's chargebacks or rule violations, or while a claim against the merchant is under investigation, and can withhold funds in a declared calamity or state of emergency if it doubts the merchant can cover refunds. Disputes go exclusively to the courts of Makati City under Philippine law.

Refunds, disputes and chargebacks

Refunds must be requested in writing, can be paid only from an existing settlement balance, may carry fees set by Maya, and Maya may refuse them (§12). For WeChat Pay transactions the agreement gives merchants 90 calendar days from the sale to process refunds and requires records to be kept for five years (§25). When a cardholder disputes a sale, Maya refers it to the merchant, who has 15 business days to resolve it. After that the transaction is charged back automatically. E-commerce merchants must keep transaction records for 12 months and produce them within 15 business days of a request, or face an outright chargeback. Chargebacks are offset against future settlements, and the MDR on the charged-back sale is returned to Maya. If the balance falls short, the merchant must pay at once. If it has not paid within three banking days of a written demand, Maya can deduct the amount from money it or its affiliates, including Maya Bank, hold for the merchant. Unpaid chargebacks draw a one-time 5% penalty plus 3% interest a month on the amount due (§11, repeated in §18).

Ownership and regulation

Maya Innovations Holdings Pte. Ltd. (MIH), formerly Voyager Innovations Holdings, is the ultimate parent of Maya Philippines, Inc. and holds an investment in Maya Bank, according to PLDT's annual report on Form 20-F for 2025, filed in April 2026. PLDT holds its stake through its subsidiary PLDT Communications and Energy Ventures (PCEV). It lost control of the group in 2018 and accounts for it as an associate. PCEV's stake rose to 37.66% in April 2024 and was still 37.66% at 31 December 2025, according to that filing, which names KKR, Tencent, SIG, First Pacific Ventures and Jumel Holdings as the other existing shareholders. Press reports from 2025 and June 2026 put KKR's holding at about 30% and say PLDT and KKR were discussing an IPO or a sale of KKR's stake. We found no completed sale.

Both Maya Philippines and Maya Bank are regulated by the BSP. On the BSP's register of payment system operators, the business deposit and business loan products appear under Maya Bank, Inc., while Maya Business Manager and Maya Checkout appear under Maya Philippines, Inc. If you open the business deposit account, you are dealing with the bank for that part of the relationship. We found no BSP or National Privacy Commission enforcement action naming Maya Philippines or PayMaya as its subject.

Reputation and complaints

Maya's Trustpilot score is weak, though most of those reviews come from consumers using the wallet rather than merchants, and the sample is small. On Trustpilot, maya.ph had a TrustScore of 1.4 out of 5 from 67 reviews when we checked in November 2026. Ninety percent were one-star, and the profile is unclaimed. The recurring complaints are trouble reaching a live agent, transfers that show as successful but never arrive, repeated document rejections during verification, and tickets closed without a fix. The merchant apps score better. On Google Play, the Maya Business app was rated 4.5 from about 1,100 reviews with more than 100,000 downloads. On the Philippine App Store, the new Maya Business iOS app had 3.7 from 230 ratings. For context, Maya's consumer app had 4.6 from about 242,000 ratings on the same store. Maya replaced its older Maya Negosyo app for new users on 4 September 2026, so the iOS listing is new.

Maya's standing as an acquirer is strong. It is one of the largest in the country by its own account, and it signs large chains: its pages feature quotes from McDonald's Philippines, KFC and Bo's Coffee. The weaker point is support. Maya lists a business support email and an online help centre, but we found no published phone line or service hours for merchants.

Who Maya Business suits

Maya Business fits a Philippine business that wants one acquirer for cards and the full spread of local QR and wallet payments, in-store and online, with next-day settlement and the option of banking and credit in the same app. Supermarkets, restaurants, retailers and online shops with steady volume will get the most from it, especially if they can negotiate below the 3.50% rack rate. It suits less well a small or seasonal seller who wants to walk away without notice, a business that sells tickets or reservations paid in advance (the agreement restricts that model), or anyone who needs fast human support. Read the merchant agreement's security-deposit, rate-change and first-year termination clauses before signing, and get your MDR, its VAT basis and your settlement schedule confirmed in writing.