Guide · Singapore
Guides for Singapore merchants
25 questions merchants actually ask — the ones before signing with anyone, and the ones that come up afterwards — answered at length. Written by a licensed Singapore acquirer, which means we say where we fit and where we do not, and name what we will not publish rather than filling the gap with something invented.
Choosing a provider
The best payment gateway in Singapore is the wrong question
No verified ranking of Singapore payment providers exists, so every "best gateway" list is somebody’s opinion. The frame that decides it: five briefs, five questions, and where we are the wrong answer.
How to choose a payment acquirer in Singapore
There is no verified ranking of Singapore acquirers, so "who is the best" is the wrong question. What to compare instead, how to read a Payment Services Act licence, and which providers merchants usually shortlist.
Acquirer, gateway, PSP: what the words actually mean
A merchant-facing glossary of the payments stack: what an acquirer does, what a gateway does, what PSP, ISO and payment facilitator actually mean, and who is who in a Singapore card sale.
Who can enable Alipay+ and WeChat Pay for a Singapore merchant
The provider landscape for Chinese wallet acceptance in Singapore: the four shapes of company that can enable it, what to verify for yourself, and the questions that separate them.
How to check a payment provider is actually licensed
The MAS Financial Institutions Directory is public, free and settles in two minutes whether a payment company is licensed and for what. Here is how to read it, and the second question it cannot answer.
Switching payment provider without breaking a weekend
What actually has to happen to move acquirer: what carries over and what does not, the order to do it in, the two things that go wrong, and the reasons that are worth switching for.
Getting set up
Getting a merchant account in Singapore: documents, timeline and what gets checked
What a licensed Singapore provider asks for, what underwriting is actually looking at, how long approval takes, and the short list of things that slow an application down.
Which payment methods should a Singapore merchant accept?
Cards, wallets and QR in Singapore: which methods are worth enabling, which depend on who your customers are, and what each one costs you in operational terms rather than basis points.
How to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay in Singapore
What a Singapore merchant actually has to do to take WeChat Pay, Alipay+ and UnionPay: who you contract with, what the QR flow looks like at the counter, what you get paid, and how to check a provider before you sign.
Dynamic PayNow, static PayNow and SGQR: what a merchant needs to know
Three different things get called "the QR" in Singapore. What static PayNow costs you at the counter, what Dynamic PayNow fixes, what SGQR actually is, and which one a merchant should want.
Choosing a card terminal
What to look for in a payment terminal for a Singapore counter: the entry methods, the operational questions that decide whether you will be happy in a year, and what to test on a demo.
Taking payment when you have no website
Selling on Instagram, WhatsApp or over the phone and need to get paid properly. What the options are, what changes about your risk, and what to stop doing.
What it costs, and when you get paid
How payment processing fees are actually built
What actually goes into the fee on a Singapore merchant statement — interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer’s margin — which parts are negotiable, and how to read a statement you already have.
Settlement and reconciliation
How money actually gets from a sale into a Singapore bank account: batches, settlement cycles, what a statement should let you do, and why the number of accounts matters more than the rate.
GST and card payments in Singapore
"Is there GST on card processing fees?" is three different questions. What each one is, and who answers it.
Card surcharges and minimum spend
Can a Singapore shop add a card surcharge or set a $10 minimum? Four parties have a say, and only one is you.
Foreign cards, multi-currency and DCC
What actually happens when a foreign card pays in your shop, what dynamic currency conversion is, and the four questions to ask before anyone offers it to you.
Disputes, fraud and compliance
Chargebacks and disputes
What a chargeback is, how the cycle works, what evidence actually wins one, and which trades carry the most exposure — plus what to ask any provider before you need to know the answer.
Refunds and voids: three things that are not the same
Void, refund and chargeback are three different things with three different costs. What each one is, how they behave differently across cards, wallets and Dynamic PayNow, and what to check before you sign.
Payment fraud: what a merchant actually controls
The fake payment screenshot, the card-not-present loss, and the internal one nobody names — what each looks like at a Singapore counter and which of them a merchant can actually design out.
PCI DSS: what a Singapore merchant actually has to do
PCI DSS is the card schemes’ rulebook for handling cardholder data. What a Singapore shop, restaurant or online store actually carries under it depends mostly on one question: does card data touch your systems?
Running the counter
Running payments across several outlets
One merchant account or several, why the number that matters is per outlet rather than blended, how reconciliation changes with the third shop, and what to settle before opening the next one.
Taking payment away from the counter
What changes when the counter is a trestle table: connectivity, battery, receipts, and how a temporary pitch settles into the same merchant account as the shop.
Taking payment from visitors to Singapore
What a visitor to Singapore actually reaches for at a counter, why Alipay+ is not the same thing as Alipay, what signage changes, and the one visitor question this site deliberately does not answer.
Peak season readiness at the counter
What breaks at the till in December and over Chinese New Year, and the checks worth running three weeks before rather than on the day.