The Processor Scoreboard

Adyen

A publicly listed Dutch payments company that processes for many of the world’s biggest brands, and publishes a price list. Do not let the price list fool you. In weAudit’s audits, Adyen has been the most expensive processor we have run into, and its closed platform leaves merchants with little control and less recourse.

Written by Robert Day, Founder and Managing Partner of weAudit.com, previously an executive at Fifth Third Processing Solutions, later Vantiv and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments, the world’s largest card processor. Published October 2026.

47out of 100

Regulatory and Legal15 / 25

Fee Practices8 / 25

Complaints and Resolution9 / 20

Transparency6 / 15

Sales Channel9 / 15

Caution before you sign with Adyen.

You cannot control your interchange cost. Interchange is 80 to 90 percent of what you pay to accept cards, and on business cards it depends on the transaction data sent with each sale. Adyen accepts Level 2 and Level 3 data, but supporting it is not the same as a data-enhanced gateway. Adyen does not fill in the missing data for you: your software has to send every required field, your account has to be approved for it, and if a field is missing or invalid, Adyen’s own documentation says it drops the data and the sale clears at the higher rate. And because Adyen does not let you bring your own gateway, you cannot switch to one that enhances the data automatically. In monthly audits of one large B2B Adyen account, business-card sales missing Level 2 and Level 3 data have downgraded to higher interchange, costing between $28,000 and $65,000 a month.
If there is a problem, you have to go to Amsterdam. Adyen’s US platform agreement is governed by Dutch law, and disputes go to the courts in Amsterdam. For a US business that is not a realistic remedy.
Some fees cannot be validated. In accounts weAudit has audited, the statements and reports did not carry enough detail to validate every fee, and one client was told Adyen does not disclose interchange. Adyen takes its fees from your settlement before the money reaches your bank account, so a fee you cannot trace is a fee you cannot dispute.

Who you are signing with, often without knowing it

Adyen is a payments company and acquirer listed on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange and regulated in the Netherlands. It sells directly to large brands, but many US merchants never sign with Adyen directly. They reach it through software they already use, such as booking systems, e-commerce platforms or industry software, that runs on Adyen behind the scenes.

Adyen’s own platform agreement explains how that works. The merchant accepts Adyen’s terms, but those terms do not specify pricing. The software platform sets the price, handles the merchant’s account and customer service, and Adyen collects the platform’s fees from the merchant’s funds before paying them out. In one software platform weAudit dealt with, the opening quote was a flat 3% plus 20 cents, and other gateways were not permitted.

Fee practices: a price list that tells you very little

Every fee, explained: see Adyen fees and pricing.

Charge	Adyen’s published US list price	What it does not tell you
Processing fee	$0.13 per transaction	What a platform reselling Adyen adds on top
Visa and Mastercard	Interchange + scheme fees + 0.60%	Whether your business-card data qualifies for the lower interchange
Minimum invoice	Depends on industry	Not published as a single number
Currency conversion	1.2% to 3% spread in its platform agreement	Added when funds are converted
Deposits	Held up to six months after an account ends, under its platform agreement	Cash you cannot use

Sources: Adyen’s published pricing, which it calls indicative; Adyen’s US platform agreement template; weAudit’s own audits and client records. No client is named.

A published 0.60% is already far above what a large merchant should pay on interchange-plus pricing. Add a platform’s markup on top, and a merchant who cannot leave the platform without rebuilding its checkout, and the price list becomes the least important number in the deal.

No gateway of choice: the closed room

Adyen markets its single platform, with gateway, risk and acquiring in one, as a strength. For a merchant it is a closed room. You cannot keep the gateway you use today, you cannot move the processing without replacing the checkout, and you cannot shop the pieces separately. That is the same lock-in we warn about with every bundled platform, at enterprise scale.

Complaints: why the reviews are so poor

Adyen’s Trustpilot average is very low, around 1.3 stars. Many of those reviews come from shoppers whose card statements showed Adyen’s name after buying from a seller on a large platform; when something went wrong, they found Adyen, but only the seller could help them. The merchant complaints that remain focus on funds held during risk reviews and support that is hard to reach, which is consistent with platform merchants being supported by the platform rather than by Adyen.

Regulatory and legal

We found no US regulatory actions or class actions against Adyen’s merchant business, and no published fines against it by the Dutch central bank. But the absence of US lawsuits means little when disputes have to be brought in Amsterdam under Dutch law. We score this category on what a US merchant can actually see and enforce.

If you are on Adyen, or being sold it

Find out who you actually contract with, Adyen directly or a software platform, and who sets your price.
Ask for every fee in writing, including the platform’s markup and the minimum invoice.
Check your business-card sales for downgrades. Ask whether your account is approved for Level 2 and Level 3 data, and whether your software sends every required field. Adyen will not enhance it for you.
Read the dispute clause and the notice periods for price and contract changes.
Get the statements audited before you renew, or before you sign.

Independence, right of response and corrections. weAudit takes no money from any processor, ISO or referral arrangement, and no company can pay to change its score. Adyen may submit a response or correction at any time, and we will review it and update this rating if the evidence warrants. Scores reflect the evidence available at publication. See the full Processor Scoreboard and the credit card processing fees comparison.

Common questions

What are Adyen’s fees?

Adyen’s published US list price is a $0.13 processing fee per transaction plus a payment method fee, which for Visa and Mastercard is interchange and scheme fees plus 0.60%, with a minimum monthly invoice by industry. Many merchants never pay that price directly: they reach Adyen through software platforms that set their own price on top.

Can I use my own payment gateway with Adyen?

No. Adyen is a single closed platform: its gateway, risk system and acquiring come together. You cannot keep a gateway you already use and send the transactions to Adyen. Adyen accepts Level 2 and Level 3 data but does not enhance it for you, so if your software does not send every required field, your business-card sales clear at higher interchange and you cannot switch to a gateway that would fix it.

Where do disputes with Adyen have to be resolved?

Adyen’s US platform agreement states it is governed by the laws of the Netherlands and that disputes go to the courts in Amsterdam. For a US business, that makes legal recourse slow, expensive and impractical.

Why can’t some Adyen fees be validated?

In accounts weAudit has audited, the statements and reports provided did not show enough detail to validate every fee, and one client was told Adyen does not disclose interchange. When a fee is withheld from your settlement and cannot be traced to a rate, you have no practical way to dispute it.

Why do shoppers give Adyen such poor reviews?

Adyen processes payments for large platforms and marketplaces, so its name can appear on a shopper’s card statement. When an order or refund goes wrong, shoppers find Adyen and leave a review, but only the seller can fix it. Many of the low ratings come from that confusion rather than from Adyen’s own merchants.

Is Adyen cheaper than other processors?

Not in weAudit’s experience. Adyen has been the most expensive processor we have audited, largely because merchants are locked into its platform, often through software that adds its own markup, and cannot negotiate the pieces separately.

Send us the statement. We will tell you what is in it.

Our first audit is free and takes about five minutes of your time. We check what your Adyen account really costs, including downgrades and fees that cannot be traced, and what you should be paying. If there is nothing to find, you will know that too.

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About this rating: scored on weAudit’s five categories, Regulatory and Legal (25), Fee Practices (25), Complaints and Resolution (20), Transparency (15) and Sales Channel (15). Evidence was gathered in October 2026 from Adyen’s published pricing and US platform agreement template, Dutch central bank enforcement records, Trustpilot, and weAudit’s own audits and client records, with no client named. Adyen is a trademark of Adyen N.V.