Bancontact payments

Available from Version: 20230816

Bancontact is the most popular online payment method in Belgium.

Customers use a Bancontact card or mobile app linked to a Belgian bank account to make online payments that are secure, guaranteed, and confirmed immediately.

It allows consumers to pay with a no-chargeback risk debit card.

The consumer can choose one of the following options:

  • enter the card details (3D-Secure)
  • authenticate using a mobile app (QR code, or app-to-app “URL intent”)

Bancontact general properties

Available country code BE
Currency EUR
Minimum transaction amount 0.01 EUR
Maximum transaction amount

1,500 EUR for mobile payments (URL intent and QR code)

No known limit for the standard flow
Session timeout 1 hour
Refund
  • Full
  • Partial
  • Multiple Partial
Refund validity 180 days
Chargeback No
Integration category Asynchronous

The following features are not supported:

Feature Description
Surcharging It is not possible to add a surcharge to the transaction.
Credit It is not possible to create credit transactions.
Subscriptions It is not possible to set up subscriptions.
Reservations

The amount is automatically captured by default. It is not possible to create a payment request with type=payment.

If the type is set to payment, it is automatically changed to paymentAndCapture.
Acquirer based reconciliation files

The resulting payment data from calling the payments API method does not contain information in the AcquirerReconciliationIdentifier field.

For information about the payments method, see payments.

How it works

The processing of payments for goods using Bancontact Payments consists of one step, during which the capture of the payment takes place.

Capturing a Payment

The following diagram illustrates the steps involved in capture payment that are relevant to you as a merchant.



  1. The consumer selects Bancontact as their preferred payment method.
  2. The consumer is redirected to a payment page where they are presented with an option to enter their PAN or scan a QR code.
  3. The consumer enters their PAN, and they are redirected to their issuing bank for a 3DS authentication.
  4. The merchant receives the payment confirmation of the payment.
  5. The merchant can ship the order/deliver the goods to the consumer.

To find out how to integrate with Bancontact using our merchant API, see Integrating using the Merchant API and more specifically, the createPaymentRequest method.

See the mandatory and configurable parameters by selecting Bancontact in the drop down list on the Create Payment Request page

Processing a Refund

Refunds take place after the capture of funds. There are several refund scenarios.

  • Full refund, which returns the funds for the entire transaction
  • Partial refund, which returns the funds for some of the order lines

The flow is as follows:

See the mandatory and configurable parameters by selecting Bancontact in the drop down list on the Create Refund Request page


Branding Guidelines

For branding information, please visit the Bancontact branding guidelines.


Test the integration

You can test the Bancontact integration with us by using the AltaPay Sandbox. In order to do this, please check ePayment test integration page.