Mastercard and Visa debit cards in Switzerland: everything you need to know about benefits, special features and fees.

Debit Mastercard vs Maestro card

Merchants pay a commission of around 0.5% of the sale for payments made using the Mastercard debit card. By contrast, between 0.23 and 0.30% of the respective payment amount is charged for each transaction using a Maestro card.

In brick-and-mortar retail, merchants clearly feel the effect of the higher fees associated with the new debit card compared to the Maestro card, particularly for transactions involving high amounts. For example, the commission for the Debit Mastercard on a sale totalling CHF 2’600 is about 50 times higher than that of the Maestro card.

Visa Debit vs V PAY/Maestro card

With the Visa debit card, the transaction fee for merchants is around 1%, which is also significantly higher than the fees for the V PAY/Maestro card.

Debit card vs credit card

For transactions paid for using credit cards (from Mastercard or Visa), the fees for merchants are between 1 and 3% of the sale. Merchants tend to pay lower fees for purchases in online shops paid for using the new Mastercard or Visa debit card, as Maestro and V Pay cards could not be used to pay for online purchases.

During settlement

In the case of older terminal models, problems may arise when the transaction is being processed if the new cards are not recognised correctly.

However, upgrading to a newer terminal can quickly become expensive, as integration can involve considerable costs.

To minimise the costs associated with integrating new card terminals, there is the established software solution Pepper from treibauf, which, as a universal cash register interface, simplifies the process of connecting new terminals to the respective cash register system and reduces the time needed to just a few minutes.

During processing

The new fee structures for Mastercard and Visa debit cards make it even more difficult for merchants to keep track of the different commissions and fees for the different EFT options.

What is needed here is a software that helps controlling and accounting departments to keep track of the payment methods used by customers and the fees that are incurred in the process.

For example, the Matchbox reconciliation software offered by treibauf does not just automate reconciliation of customer payments with the corresponding amounts paid by the payment processors into the accounts; by processing all important payment data into a clear reconciliation dashboard, users can also benefit from useful information and a greater degree of transparency – providing a key cornerstone for precise controlling and improved decision-making.