Bancontact
More info
- Owner
- Bancontact Payconiq Company
- Type
- Domestic debit card scheme
- Website
- bancontact.com
Belgium's domestic debit card scheme, printed on nearly every Belgian bank card and accepted at most Belgian tills.
It descends from two rival cash-machine networks of the late 1970s, Bancontact and Mister Cash, which merged in 1989. The result was a domestic card network whose payments never need to touch Visa or Mastercard, which is why Belgian shops could long get away with accepting Bancontact and nothing else.
Cards are normally co-badged with an international scheme that takes over the moment the card travels abroad. In 2018 the business merged with the Payconiq mobile app to form Bancontact Payconiq Company, adding QR-code payments in the app. For foreign e-merchants, Bancontact is mostly one more line in the payment menu that turns out to be mandatory for selling in Belgium.