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8 July 2026
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The research institute at the University of Regensburg was surprised. They did not expect German merchants – especially in the retail sector – to incur such high processing costs for some payment methods. According to their study, it costs an average of 10 euros if something goes wrong during the purchase and payment process. Such a payment error occurs, for example, when the agreed purchase price is not paid on time, fully, or at all. The merchant then has to manually postprocess the transaction. There are also opportunity costs, such as interim financing or storage costs. One in twenty prepayments by credit transfer and payments by invoice requires manual handling. Invoice payments also rank lowest in terms of processing costs if the merchant has to initiate dunning or collection procedures.
The astonishment of the study’s authors at the high processing costs is remarkable, as these were even higher than 15 euros in the 2019 comparative study.
In addition to the processing costs, there are also direct costs for the various payment methods. Unlike all other payment methods, prepayment is free for the merchant. When all costs are added up, invoice payment is the worst at 6.23% of sales, while prepayment is the best at 0.68%. In between are, for example, credit card, direct debit, and PayPal.
Different payment methods have different processing times. According to respondents, the average time it takes to fully process incoming payments ranges from 1.5 days to 10 days (payment by invoice). Compared to the previous study, these times have decreased for almost all payment methods, in some cases significantly. Only direct debits took twice as long to be credited to the account (eight days) as in 2019. The study does not provide an explanation for this.
The range of payment methods is vast, but there is one glaring omission: SEPA instant credit transfers. Although these account for around 21% of all transfers in the SEPA countries, they do not seem to exist in the retail sector. Yet executives in the German banking industry agree that almost all financial institutions are in principle able to offer instant payments, and more than two-thirds of end customers are aware that they can make such payments. However, four out of five do not currently see a clear need for it: It is considered “useless without use cases.” Yet use cases could be substantiated, particularly in the retail sector. Potential benefits include immediate payment receipts around the clock, less manual post-processing, and lower costs.
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