Card networks: what should a small business know?

When a customer pays by card, the transaction can travel through different networks — and that decides how much you as the merchant pay in fees. For Nordic businesses this is especially relevant because of local debit schemes.

What is the difference?

Local debit schemes handle a large share of domestic card transactions (in Norway, BankAxept covered 49% in 2024 per Norges Bank). Visa and Mastercard are the international networks that handle contactless, e-commerce and payments abroad. Many low-cost mobile terminals process domestic debit cards as Visa or Mastercard rather than over the local debit scheme.

Does it matter for you?

For most cafés and smaller shops it matters little in practice — customers pay contactlessly with card, Apple Pay or Google Pay anyway, and the predictability of a flat rate is worth a lot. But if you run a counter with very high card volume, a bank terminal on the local debit scheme can mean a lower fee per payment. In that case, run the total before you choose.