What taking a payment really costs a small merchant

On a €100 ticket, a card payment taken with Tap to Pay costs you €2.10: €0.50 of FiatFlex commission and €1.60 of Stripe fees charged to your own Stripe account. On a €10 ticket, the same payment costs you €0.39, or 3.9% of the ticket. The schedule did not change between those two lines. The fixed part of €0.20 decided everything.

This article takes apart, item by item, what a payment really costs a merchant in France, then separates what you have to accept from what you decide: the channel, the stablecoin you ask for, the moment you convert.

We are launching in France: the figures below are for merchants in France, and Tap to Pay on iPhone is available there at launch.

The headline rate is not the cost

A percentage quoted on its own says nothing about a small ticket, because it leaves the fixed part that comes with it in the shade. Here, that fixed part comes from Stripe's fees: €0.20 per payment on Tap to Pay, €0.25 on a payment link. It does not move with the amount taken.

So the €0.20 on Tap to Pay weighs 2% on a €10 ticket and 0.2% on a €100 ticket. A ratio of one to ten on the same line of the same schedule, which no headline percentage shows.

The practical conclusion fits in one sentence: compare totals in euros on your real average basket, never percentages against each other. A merchant with an €8 average basket and a merchant with an €80 one are not reading the same schedule, even when it is the same schedule.

The two rails, item by item

Cards. Our commission is 0.50%. Stripe's fees are added to it and charged to the Stripe account opened in your name: 1.4% + €0.20 on Tap to Pay, 1.5% + €0.25 on a payment link, for a consumer card issued in the European Economic Area. On €100, that comes to €2.10 with Tap to Pay and €2.25 on a link. On €10 with Tap to Pay, €0.39. A card issued outside the EEA, or a commercial card, is charged more by Stripe: the rate that applies is shown in your Stripe dashboard.

Stablecoins. Receiving USDC or EURC on Solana costs nothing, whatever the amount. Conversion fees appear only when you convert into euros towards your bank account: 1% of FiatFlex commission, a flat bank fee of 0.30 USD per SEPA transfer, and 0.50% of spread on USDC only, since EURC converts at par. That bank fee is flat: it is charged once per transfer, whatever the amount moved. On €100 received in EURC, the conversion therefore comes to €1.26 in total.

On a small ticket, stablecoins save nothing either

A €10 ticket received in EURC and converted on its own carries €0.10 of commission and the flat bank fee of 0.30 USD in full, which puts it in the same order of magnitude as the €0.39 the same ticket costs tapped on a card. Stablecoins are not the answer to the small ticket, and claiming otherwise would be false.

The cause is identical on both sides: the flat bank fee of 0.30 USD plays the same role for a conversion that the €0.20 plays for a card. A fixed cost weighs all the more heavily the smaller the ticket, whatever the technology.

Grouping conversions changes the arithmetic

Here is the lever you genuinely control: the flat bank fee is charged per transfer, not per sale.

Ten sales of €10 received in EURC and converted one at a time carry the flat bank fee ten times over, on top of €1.00 of commission. The same ten sales converted in a single transfer make €100 converted and cost €1.26 in total, with that bank fee charged once.

Nothing changed in the sales themselves: only the moment of conversion moved, and that moment is yours. Holding a stablecoin balance costs nothing, so grouping asks no spending of you.

What a card dispute costs

The dispute is the item price lists put forward least often, and the one that hurts most on a small volume. Our rule is published: €20 per card dispute received, plus €20 if you contest it, that second €20 returned to you if you win. So €20 for a dispute left uncontested, €20 for a dispute contested and won, €40 for a dispute contested and lost.

Those are our dispute fees only. On a lost dispute Stripe also debits the disputed amount and its own dispute fee from your Stripe account, and keeps the processing fees already retained.

A refund follows a different logic: we return our commission on the refunded amount, but Stripe does not return its processing fees.

A payment received in stablecoins has neither disputes nor recalls: a transfer confirmed on Solana is final, and a refund means sending a new payment.

What verification asks of you

Opening an account costs nothing, but it goes through verification carried out by Stripe and by Bridge: your identity, your company details where there is a company, the usual regulatory checks, then a bank account in the SEPA area for your withdrawals. The list of documents expected is in the app.

This item is not paid in euros, it is paid in preparation: gathering the documents before you start saves you from coming back to it in stages.

FiatFlex is not a bank, not a payment institution and not an electronic money institution. The regulated parties in the chain are Stripe for cards and Bridge for stablecoins. The wallet we operate on your behalf is custody: FiatFlex holds those funds until you ask for a conversion or a withdrawal.

We publish no settlement time, here or anywhere else: our banking partner has confirmed none to us, and an unconfirmed timeframe is a promise, not information.

What costs nothing

• Accepting USDC or EURC: free, whatever the amount.
• Holding a stablecoin balance: free, for as long as you want.
• Withdrawing your card balance to your bank account: free for you. Your own bank may apply bank charges of its own on a transfer it receives.
• No subscription, no signup fee, no hardware to buy or rent.

What you have to accept, and what you decide

Three items are imposed on you: the fixed part of the card rail, the Stripe rate attached to the type of card your customer presents, and the arrival of a dispute, which you do not choose.

Four decisions, on the other hand, remain yours.

• The channel. Tap to Pay carries 1.4% + €0.20 of Stripe fees, a payment link 1.5% + €0.25. Face to face, tap rather than send a link.
• The stablecoin you ask for. EURC converts at par, USDC carries 0.50% of spread, so €0.50 more on €100 converted.
• The moment of conversion. Grouped, it spreads the flat bank fee across every sale; done sale by sale, it multiplies that fee.
• The rail. On €100, €1.26 in EURC against €2.10 with Tap to Pay. When your customer can pay in stablecoins, the gap is real.

On cards alone we are not the cheapest, and we would rather write it than leave it out: a provider quoting a single all-in percentage with no fixed part takes less than our €2.10 on a €100 ticket. Read its published tariff yourself on the day you decide, then compare totals in euros on your own average basket: the method is in how to compare card rates in France, and the line-by-line detail of ours in our pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a small ticket cost proportionally more?

Because of the fixed part. The €0.20 of Stripe fees on Tap to Pay is the same on a €10 ticket as on a €100 one: it weighs 2% in the first case and 0.2% in the second. The total therefore moves from 3.9% to 2.10%.

How much does a card dispute cost?

€20 per dispute received, plus €20 if you contest it, that second €20 returned to you if you win. A payment received in stablecoins has no disputes.

What can I actually act on?

On the channel, on the stablecoin you ask your customers for, on the moment you convert, and on the share of your takings you receive in stablecoins rather than on cards. The rest of the schedule is imposed.

Does opening an account cost anything?

No: no subscription, no signup fee, no hardware to buy. You need an account verified by Stripe and by Bridge, and a bank account in the SEPA area. Then all it takes is to download the app: the schedule applied is the one on the pricing section.