Tap Payments Review

Tap Payments is a payment gateway and payment facilitator for businesses in the Gulf and wider Middle East. It started in Kuwait, says it was founded in 2014 by Ali Abulhasan (other sources give 2012 or 2013), and is now licensed by the central bank or its equivalent in all six GCC states and in Egypt. Merchants sign a contract with Tap's local company and accept local debit schemes (KNET in Kuwait, mada in Saudi Arabia, Benefit in Bahrain), Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay and regional wallets and buy-now-pay-later options through one integration, plus payment links, invoicing and card terminals in Kuwait. Tap publishes maximum prices in its country terms and conditions. As of October 2026 the Kuwait terms list KNET at 1% + 100 fils and local Visa and Mastercard at 2.75% + 100 fils, with up to 25 KD a month or a setup fee of up to 500 KD. The Saudi terms list mada at 1% and local cards at 2.5%, each plus a 1 SAR service fee. The UAE terms list local cards at 2.75% + 1 AED, with payouts five days after the transaction. Contracts run for a year and renew automatically, with 30 days' notice to leave. Tap says it serves more than 100,000 businesses, including large regional brands, but its Trustpilot profile scores 1.7 from 155 reviews (44% one-star, 42% five-star), with complaints about closed accounts and funds held for long periods.

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

What Tap Payments is

Tap Payments is a payment gateway and payment facilitator for businesses in the Gulf, Egypt and the wider Middle East. Its own site says it was founded by Ali Abulhasan in 2014 and started in Kuwait; Abulhasan is co-founder and chief executive. Other sources disagree: Forbes Middle East's 2023 and 2024 lists gave 2013 (its 2025 list gives 2014), and the directory Tracxn gives 2012, so treat the founding year as uncertain. Tap does not name a headquarters on its own site, and Forbes Middle East has listed it as headquartered in Kuwait (2024) and in Saudi Arabia (2025), so we do not state one. Tap lists offices in Cairo, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, London, Manama, Muscat and Riyadh. As of October 2026 Tap says it has more than 200 staff and serves more than 100,000 businesses. It gave the same 100,000 figure, across nine markets, when it announced its Kuwait licence in March 2024. Tap names clients including flydubai, Wego, LuLu Hypermarkets, Talabat, Careem, Trendyol and Tim Hortons. Tap has not published funding rounds or a shareholder list, so we make no claim about who owns it.

Licences, and why we list it as a payment facilitator

Tap holds its own licence, or in Oman a central-bank permission, in every GCC market. Its regulatory licences page lists an E-Payment Service Provider licence from the Central Bank of Kuwait (announced March 2024), a Major Payment Institution licence from the Saudi Central Bank (its Saudi company is registered as Tap Financial), a Retail Payment Services licence from the Central Bank of the UAE held by Tap Payment Services L.L.C. in Dubai (announced April 2025), a Payment Service Provider licence from the Qatar Central Bank (announced May 2024), a Payment Service Provider licence under Specialized Ancillary Services from the Central Bank of Bahrain, and Ancillary Service Provider permission from the Central Bank of Oman. In Egypt the Central Bank of Egypt licenses it as a Payment Facilitator and Payment Service Provider (announced May 2025). SAMA first licensed Tap as a payment service provider in June 2020, after it came through SAMA's regulatory sandbox. These licences are taken from Tap's own licences page and announcements, and press coverage for Saudi Arabia; we did not find Tap in the regulators' own online registers.

The merchant signs its agreement with Tap's local company, and the terms describe Tap's service as the facilitation of payment processing, with card acceptance running through Tap's acquirers and the card schemes. Tap sets the price, controls the payout schedule and can hold funds. That is the payment facilitator model. Tap is not a merchant of record, because the merchant stays the seller, and it is more than a gateway, because it contracts with and pays out to the merchant.

What it costs

Tap publishes prices for three of its markets. The Kuwait, Saudi and UAE versions of its terms and conditions end with a fee table; the Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Egypt and Jordan versions have none. These are maximums: the tables say 'up to' for fixed fees, and Tap says pricing may be customised based on volume through its sales team. All fees exclude VAT. As of October 2026:

• Kuwait, online (Acceptance and Billing packages): KNET 1% + 100 fils; local Visa/Mastercard 2.75% + 100 fils; regional and global Visa/Mastercard 3.75% + 100 fils; up to 25 KD a month or a setup fee of up to 500 KD.
• Kuwait, in-store (Terminal package): KNET 1.75% + 100 fils; Visa/Mastercard 2.75% + 100 fils; American Express 3.75% + 100 fils; up to 30 KD a month.
• Saudi Arabia, online: mada 1%; local Visa/Mastercard 2.5%; regional and global Visa/Mastercard 3.75%; plus a 1 SAR service fee per transaction; up to 600 SAR a month or a setup fee of up to 5,000 SAR.
• UAE: local cards 2.75% + 1 AED; regional cards 3.50% + 1 AED; global cards 3.75% + 1 AED; USD charges 4.5% + USD 0.30; other foreign currencies, settled in USD, 4.5% + USD 0.30 plus a 2% to 5% FX premium. 5% VAT is charged on the fees. The UAE table lists no monthly or setup fee.
• Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Egypt: no published price table; rates are quoted per account.

As an illustration, a Kuwaiti shop taking 500 KNET payments of 20 KD a month would pay 1% of 10,000 KD (100 KD) plus 500 x 100 fils (50 KD), or 150 KD, about 1.5% of sales, before any monthly fee. The fixed 100 fils matters on small baskets: on a 5 KD KNET payment it brings the cost to 3%. In Saudi Arabia the 1 SAR service fee has the same effect, so a 20 SAR mada payment costs 1.2 SAR, or 6%. The Saudi and UAE terms also apply a 2% to 5% FX premium when a transaction's currency differs from your payout currency.

How it works

Merchants connect through a hosted checkout, Tap's card and checkout SDKs, a single REST API, or plugins for platforms including Shopify (two apps: one for Shopify's native checkout, one for Tap's own checkout page carrying local methods), Adobe Commerce and Zoho. Payment methods depend on the country and include KNET, mada, Benefit, OmanNet, NAPS, Fawry and Meeza, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, STC Pay, PayPal, and Tabby and Tamara buy-now-pay-later. Tap keeps 3D Secure inside the checkout, supports tokenized repeat payments, authorise-then-capture, subscriptions and marketplace split payouts, and says its infrastructure is PCI DSS Level 1. Small sellers without a website can send payment links and invoices by WhatsApp, SMS or Instagram from the dashboard or the goCollect app. In Kuwait Tap also offers KNET-supplied POS terminals.

Payouts and fund holds

Tap's Kuwait site says KNET payouts can reach local bank accounts as quickly as the next business day, depending on setup and bank. The UAE terms set AED payouts at T+5, paid daily, and USD payouts at T+5, paid weekly on Tuesdays only. Tap does not publish payout timing for its other markets. The terms give Tap broad room to hold money. It can change or suspend the payout schedule when disputes, refunds or reversals are pending or excessive, when it suspects suspicious activity, or under a legal order. It can delay payouts while it reviews your transactions, decline to pay out transactions it suspects are invalid, and deduct chargebacks, fines and fees from your balance, later payments or any reserve. On termination the UAE terms let it retain an agreed balance for up to two years to cover later chargebacks. Those terms also give you seven working days to supply evidence on a disputed transaction, and let Tap terminate if chargebacks exceed 1% of sales in a month and do not come down the following month.

Contract and termination terms

The Kuwait, Saudi and UAE terms all make the agreement valid for one year from signature, renewing automatically each year unless either side gives 30 days' written notice. Either side may also end it at any time on 30 days' written notice. The published terms set no early-termination fee, but they allow one where it is agreed in the signed contract, so check yours before you sign. New merchants can withdraw within at least ten working days without penalty and get back prepaid fees not tied to a service already delivered. Tap must give 30 days' notice of changes to its terms, and you may leave during that period at no cost. But another clause treats five days' silence (ten days in the UAE terms) as acceptance of an amendment, and the UAE version of that clause excludes changes of a financial nature from the 30-day notice, so read any change notice promptly. Tap can terminate immediately for non-payment not fixed within five business days, for fraud or unlawful activity found by Tap, its acquirers or the card schemes, if your account is inactive for three months, or on a regulator's instruction. Each contract is governed by the law of the merchant's country, disputes go to that country's courts, and the Arabic version prevails over the English.

Reputation and complaints

Tap has industry recognition, including listing in Forbes Middle East's Fintech 50 for 2025. Merchant reviews are few and mostly negative. As of October 2026 its claimed Trustpilot profile shows a TrustScore of 1.7 from 155 reviews, although the star distribution is split: 42% five-star and 44% one-star. Trustpilot weights recent reviews more heavily, which helps explain the gap, and only six reviews were posted in the past year. Recent one-star reviews, from December 2024 to August 2026, describe accounts closed or disabled soon after onboarding, funds held for long periods (at least three reviewers cite 540-day holds), slow or no replies on disputed transactions, and repeated document requests during onboarding. Trustpilot shows Tap has replied to 80% of negative reviews, typically taking more than a month. Its goCollect invoicing app has 3.8 stars from 399 reviews on Google Play (50,000+ downloads). On Apple's App Store it scores between 2.7 and 3.4 in the Kuwait, Saudi and UAE stores, from 12 to 44 ratings each, and was last updated in October 2024. Our searches found no lawsuit or regulatory enforcement action naming Tap Payments.

Who should use Tap Payments

Tap suits an online business selling in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or the UAE, or across several GCC markets, that needs national debit schemes such as KNET and mada alongside cards, wallets and buy-now-pay-later through one licensed provider. Larger merchants should use the published ceilings as the starting point for negotiating. Before signing, get your negotiated rates, any monthly or setup fee, any termination fee and the payout schedule in writing. Ask what reserve or hold Tap will apply. A business that cannot afford funds being held during a review, or wants a month-to-month contract, should weigh those terms carefully.