International Card Payment Fees vs Cross-Border QR in Vietnam

International card payment fees are among the most visible costs for restaurants, hotels, and retailers in Vietnam that serve foreign visitors. These fees are often several times higher than the cost of domestic cards or QR payments. They now affect margins at a real scale: according to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam welcomed more than 17.7 million international visitors in the first nine months of 2026, up 14.5% year-on-year. This guide breaks down each component of the fee, compares it with cross-border QR payment, and helps you decide which payment mix fits your business.

What International Card Payment Fees Are and Who Pays Them

A card payment from a foreign visitor passes through four parties:

The issuing bank that gave the customer the card.
The card network, such as Visa or Mastercard.
The acquiring bank, which holds the card acceptance contract with your business.
The merchant, which is you.

The merchant pays the acquiring bank a fee known as the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). The MDR is a percentage of each transaction’s value. It is the largest part of the international card payment fees a merchant carries.

A payment counts as international when the customer’s card comes from a bank in a different country from the merchant. This holds even if you charge the customer in your own currency.

The Three Components of the Merchant Discount Rate

The MDR appears as one number, but it combines three charges. The standard formula is interchange fee plus scheme fee plus acquirer markup.

The interchange fee goes from the acquiring bank to the issuing bank. It is usually the largest component.
The scheme fee goes to the card network for the use of its network.
The acquirer markup covers the acquiring bank’s terminal operations, processing, and risk management.

Merchants rarely negotiate interchange or scheme fees. The room to negotiate sits mainly in the acquirer markup, and it grows with transaction volume.

Why Cross-Border Card Transactions Cost More

Foreign-issued cards add charges that domestic cards do not carry. Card networks apply extra assessment fees when a transaction crosses borders. Acquirers usually pass these fees on to merchants. Visa’s version is the International Service Assessment (ISA). Checkout.com describes the ISA as a scheme fee charged in addition to interchange and processing fees, and notes that merchants bear the full cost of it.

Global payment processors price this difference openly. For example, a 2026 overview of Stripe’s pricing shows a 1.5% surcharge on international cards for US merchants, on top of the domestic rate. Processors in Vietnam set their own pricing. The principle is the same: a foreign-issued card costs more to accept than a local one.

Cardholders Pay Their Own Fees Too

Cardholders face separate charges from their issuing bank when they pay in a foreign currency. In Vietnam, some local banks charge around 1.1%:

Techcombank lists foreign transaction fees starting from 1.1%.
VIB keeps a 1.1% foreign transaction fee on its Signature card.

Visitors paying by card in Vietnam may face similar charges from their home bank. This fee does not reduce the merchant’s revenue. It does shape the customer’s experience and their choice of payment method.

How Vietnamese Regulation Treats Card Fees

Card operations in Vietnam are governed by Circular 18/2024/TT-NHNN, as amended by Circular 45/2025/TT-NHNN, which took effect on 5 January 2026.

Fees charged to cardholders: Article 5 of Circular 18/2024/TT-NHNN states that only the card issuer may charge the cardholder, and only according to its published fee schedule.
Fees charged to merchants: the acquiring bank agrees to the fee level with each merchant.

In practice, many acquiring contracts forbid surcharging. ACB’s POS terms, for example, require merchants not to collect any extra fee from cardholders and not to raise prices for card payments. Merchants in Vietnam therefore absorb international card payment fees into their cost base.

Typical International Card Payment Fees in Vietnam in 2026

Each acquiring bank sets its exact rates by contract. Two public sources show the general level.

Napas figures: at an industry seminar on 25 September 2026, Napas stated that cards issued outside Vietnam cost merchants between 2.4% and 3% of the transaction value to accept.

VietABank’s published POS fee schedule:

foreign-issued international cards: 3.4%
Vietnam-issued international cards, excluding Amex: 1.90%
domestic debit cards: 1.0%
QR code payments: 0.88%

All rates include 10% VAT.

Two takeaways follow from these numbers:

Foreign-issued cards always sit at the top of the fee range because they carry international interchange and currency handling costs.
For the same foreign visitor, a merchant may pay three to four times more than for a domestic card or a domestic QR payment.

Factors That Raise or Lower Your Card Fees

High-risk industries, international transactions, premium cards, and low-volume merchants tend to face a higher MDR. In the Vietnamese market, five factors matter most:

Card origin. Foreign-issued cards cost more than international cards issued by Vietnamese banks.
Card tier. Platinum, Signature, and Infinite cards usually carry higher interchange than standard cards.
Channel. Online card-not-present transactions often cost more than in-store payments because fraud risk is higher.
Volume and industry. Higher volume gives merchants a stronger basis to negotiate the acquirer markup.
VAT treatment. Check whether a quoted rate includes VAT before you compare banks.

Costs Beyond the Merchant Discount Rate

A full cost comparison for card acceptance should also include four items:

Equipment: POS terminal rental or purchase, plus maintenance.
Disputes and chargebacks: customers can dispute payments through their issuing bank. Merchants need time and documents to respond to each case.
Settlement timing: the gap between the card payment and funds reaching your account, as agreed with your bank.
Staff training: card handling procedures and how to deal with failed transactions.

How Cross-Border QR Payment Works

Cross-border QR payment lets foreign visitors scan a Vietnamese merchant’s QR code with the banking or e-wallet app they already use at home. In Vietnam, Napas operates this service under the name VietQRGlobal. Napas selected VietQRGlobal as the official name so that visitors can easily recognize where QR payments are accepted.

The flow has four steps:

The customer opens their usual payment app and scans the merchant’s QR code.
The app shows the amount in the customer’s home currency.
The customer confirms the payment.
The acquiring bank in Vietnam credits the merchant in Vietnamese dong.

According to Napas, transactions settle directly between the two local currencies through the participants’ settlement infrastructure. This lowers currency conversion costs for users.

Markets Connected to VietQRGlobal as of October 2026

Napas has completed connections with six countries: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, China, Singapore, and South Korea. Connections with Taiwan and India are in progress. Two details matter for merchants:

China: Napas launched its UnionPay connection in December 2025, added Alipay in April 2026, and added Weixin Pay in August 2026.
South Korea: the payment direction for Korean visitors paying in Vietnam is complete.

This coverage matters because China and South Korea are Vietnam’s two largest source markets, together accounting for nearly 40% of international arrivals in the first nine months of 2026. Usage is also growing quickly. In the first eight months of 2026, transactions by visitors from Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia in Vietnam grew eightfold in number and sixfold in value year on year.

QR Acceptance Fees for Cross-Border Payments

Napas expects the acceptance cost for VietQRGlobal to be around 1.5% of the transaction value. That is about 37.5% to 50% lower than for foreign-issued international cards. The rate for each merchant is set by the acquiring bank in its contract and may vary by industry, volume, and setup.

Comparing International Card Payment Fees and Cross-Border QR Side by Side

Worked Cost Example for a Restaurant Serving Foreign Visitors

Assume a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City takes VND 300 million per month from foreign customers.

This example is illustrative and uses Napas’s reference rates. In practice, not every customer comes from a QR-connected market, so the actual savings depend on each merchant’s customer mix. Review your card transaction reports for the last three to six months to estimate how much of that volume could move to QR.

When Merchants Should Combine Card and Cross-Border QR Acceptance

The two methods do not fully replace each other. Each one serves a different group of customers well. The most effective approach is to map your customer mix first, then match payment methods to it.

Businesses That Benefit Most From Adding Cross-Border QR

Cross-border QR suits small, frequent transactions from Asian visitors. The clearest fits are:

Restaurants, cafés, and F&B chains in tourist areas.
Retail stores: local specialties, souvenirs, cosmetics, and fashion.
Spas, experience providers, and short tours.
Hotels and homestays with many guests from China, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.

For these businesses, QR lowers acceptance costs and removes the need for an extra POS terminal at every counter.

Situations Where International Cards Remain Essential

International cards remain important in four situations:

Visitors from markets not yet connected to QR: Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan at the time of writing.
Deposits and pre-authorizations, such as hotel check-ins.
High-value bills, where customers want card rewards or protections.
Online sales to customers across many countries.

A practical setup keeps cards as the broad-coverage option and adds cross-border QR for connected markets. Staff can then suggest the right method based on the customer’s home country.

Records, Tax, and Compliance When Accepting Payments From Foreign Visitors

2026 brought a major change in how Vietnam taxes household and individual businesses. Under Resolution 198/2025/QH15, the presumptive (lump-sum) tax method ended on 1 January 2026, and household businesses moved to self-declaration. In addition, Decree 68/2026/ND-CP and Circular 18/2026/TT-BTC require household and individual businesses to notify the tax authority of the bank accounts and e-wallets they use for business.

In this context, merchants should keep three points in mind when choosing how to accept payments from foreign visitors:

Use payment methods backed by an acceptance contract with a bank. Do not use a personal transfer QR code to collect sales revenue. A personal code cannot separate business income from personal transfers, which makes reconciliation and tax filing harder.
Keep transaction reports for every period. Both card acceptance and bank-based cross-border QR produce transaction reports, which support revenue reconciliation.
Consult a tax adviser on the obligations that apply to your revenue level and business type.

FinFan’s Perspective on Rolling Out Cross-Border QR With Partner Banks

From our work with merchants in retail, F&B, and hospitality, FinFan sees that the main barrier is not technology. It is a process: merchants are unsure which bank to sign with, what documents to prepare, and which markets the service covers.

FinFan provides the platform that connects foreign e-wallets and banking apps with banks in Vietnam and supports merchants through registration. Merchants sign their acceptance contract directly with the partner bank. The bank accepts the payment and handles currency conversion, while Napas provides VietQRGlobal. This division of roles makes it clear who is responsible for each step of the money flow.

Before adding cross-border QR, FinFan recommends that merchants answer three questions:

What share of your current international card revenue comes from visitors from China, South Korea, Singapore, and the connected Southeast Asian markets?
What QR acceptance fee does your bank contract specify, and does it include VAT? 3 Does your counter need a static QR code, or does your sales system need a dynamic QR code for each order?

The answers give you a concrete figure for the cost you can optimize, rather than a general estimate.

Conclusion

International card payment fees are a per-transaction cost that merchants in Vietnam must absorb. For foreign-issued cards, the typical range runs from 2.4% to more than 3% of the transaction value. Cross-border QR payment through VietQRGlobal offers an alternative with a reference fee of around 1.5%, and no POS terminal is required. It now covers six markets, including Vietnam’s two largest sources of visitors.

International cards remain necessary for visitors from Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan. The most effective approach is to combine both methods based on your actual customer mix. You should also collect payments through bank-contracted channels so that your money flow stays transparent and ready for tax filing.

Do you run a restaurant, retail store, hotel, or travel service and want to assess adding cross-border QR payments? The FinFan team can walk you through the registration process, the markets currently supported, and how to deploy QR codes at your point of sale with our partner banks.

Website: https://finfan.io
Email: support@finfan.vn
Phone: +84 2866.853.317

Disclaimer

Partner banks in Vietnam and Napas provide cross-border QR payment services. FinFan provides the connection platform and registration support for merchants.

FinFan is the commercial brand of Nhat Phuong Joint Stock Company (Best Way Corporation), licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam for foreign currency acceptance and payment under License No. 973/GP-HCM. FinFan provides the technology platform; partner banks in Vietnam handle collection and foreign currency conversion. FinFan is not a bank and does not provide deposit services.

This content is general information and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Please consult a tax adviser about your specific situation. Fees in this article are public reference figures as of October 2026; actual fees are set by the contract between each merchant and its bank.

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