Payment methods

ICEPAY supports a range of local and international payment methods, including bank payments, cards, wallets and bank transfers.

Which payment methods are available to you depends on your merchant configuration, integration, and agreement with ICEPAY.

Using a ready-made integration?

If you use an ICEPAY integration for an e-commerce platform, the payment methods supported by that integration are normally available from its configuration.

You do not need to integrate each payment method separately.

Keep in mind that not every ICEPAY payment method is necessarily supported by every platform integration.

Payment methods at a glance

Payment method	Type	Primary market	Currency
Visa & Mastercard	Cards	Worldwide	Multiple currencies
iDEAL | Wero	Bank payment	Netherlands	EUR
Bancontact	Bank payment	Belgium	EUR
EPS	Bank payment	Austria	EUR
Online Überweisen	Bank payment	Germany	EUR
Pay by Bank	Open banking	Multiple European countries	EUR
PayPal	Wallet	Worldwide	EUR by default
Direct debit	Bank collection	SEPA countries	Depends on setup
Wire transfer	Bank transfer	Worldwide	EUR by default

Availability can differ

The table describes the general availability of ICEPAY payment methods.

The payment methods available for your merchant may differ based on your account, country, contract, and integration.

Managing payment methods

Available payment methods can be managed for each merchant in the ICEPAY Portal.

Go to:

Merchants → select a merchant → Settings

From there, payment methods that are available for the merchant can be enabled or disabled.

Some payment methods require activation by ICEPAY before they can be used in a live environment.

Using a ready-made integration?

Your e-commerce integration may also have its own payment method settings.

A payment method generally needs to be available for your ICEPAY merchant before it can be used through the integration.

Cards

Visa & Mastercard

Visa and Mastercard allow customers to pay using supported credit and debit cards.

Availability

Available worldwide.

Currencies

Multiple currencies are supported. Currency conversion may be handled by Visa or Mastercard depending on the payment.

Refunds

Supported. Card refunds are returned to the card used for the original payment.

Settlement

Guaranteed after a successful payment confirmation.

Card payments are completed on the ICEPAY Payment Page.

Once a card payment reaches status: "completed", you can fulfil the order without requiring financialStatus to be cleared, because card settlement is guaranteed.

Cardholders can also dispute card payments through their card issuer. A dispute may result in a chargeback, which is handled separately from the normal payment lifecycle.

Co-branded cards

Supported cards can include locally co-branded cards. The payment experience shown to the customer can depend on their card and locale.

Card payments include a Payment Account Reference (PAR).

Credit card security settings

You can view your merchant’s card security settings in the ICEPAY Portal.

Go to Merchants → select your merchant → Payment Methods, then click the small tooltip icon next to Credit Card. The tooltip shows the configured Flow, 3DS Challenge Indicator, and AVS Requirement. Each setting has one option configured for your merchant.

Only the ICEPAY team can change these settings

You can view these settings in the Portal. Only the ICEPAY team can set or change them. Contact the ICEPAY team to discuss the right configuration for your business or request a change.

These settings use two types of security checks:

• 3D Secure (3DS) helps the card issuer verify that the customer is the cardholder. The customer may be asked to confirm the payment, for example in their banking app or with a one-time code.
• Address Verification Service (AVS) checks the billing address provided by the customer against the address held by the card issuer.

Flow

The flow determines which security check is used first and whether an alternative check is available as a fallback.

Option	What it means for your business
3DS	The default and most secure option. Uses 3D Secure to verify the cardholder. Recommended for EU merchants.
3DS with AVS fallback	Uses 3DS first, with AVS as a fallback for cards that do not support 3DS. Useful if many of your customers use these cards.
AVS with 3DS fallback	Uses AVS first, with 3DS as a fallback. Carries more risk than a flow that starts with 3DS. ICEPAY recommends trying 3DS first.
AVS	Uses AVS without a 3DS fallback. This option carries the highest risk. ICEPAY recommends adding a 3DS fallback.

3DS Challenge Indicator

A challenge flow asks the customer to complete an extra verification step with their card issuer, such as approving the payment in their banking app. This setting expresses a preference for that step when 3DS is used.

Option	What it means for your customer
No Preference	No preference is sent about whether the customer should complete an extra verification step. The card issuer decides whether one is needed.
Challenge preferred	Requests that the customer complete an extra verification step where possible.
No Challenge	Requests that the payment proceed without an extra verification step. The card issuer may still require one.

The card issuer decides whether a challenge is needed, so this preference does not guarantee that a challenge will or will not take place.

AVS Requirement

When AVS is used, this setting determines how closely the customer’s billing address must match the address held by the card issuer.

Option	What it means
Partial match	Requires at least a partial address match, such as a matching street address or postal code.
Match	Requires a full match of the address details checked by AVS.

Bank payment methods

iDEAL | Wero

iDEAL | Wero allows customers in the Netherlands to pay directly from their bank account through their own banking environment.

Market

Netherlands

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are returned through IBAN.

Settlement

Guaranteed after a successful payment confirmation.

A successful iDEAL | Wero payment guarantees that the funds will be transferred to ICEPAY.

This means the payment can normally be acted on once it reaches the appropriate successful payment state.

Bancontact

Bancontact allows customers in Belgium to pay directly using their supported bank or card.

Market

Belgium

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are always returned to the card used for the original payment.

Settlement

Guaranteed after a successful payment confirmation.

Bancontact payments are completed on the ICEPAY Payment Page.

EPS

EPS is an Austrian bank payment method that allows customers to pay from their own online banking environment.

Market

Austria

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are returned through IBAN.

Settlement

The customer authorising the transfer does not immediately guarantee that ICEPAY has received the funds.

The customer completes the payment through the EPS payment environment.

A customer can successfully authorise the payment while the funds are still on their way.

Wait for cleared funds when required

If your business cannot accept the risk of the transfer not arriving, wait until the payment’s financialStatus becomes cleared before fulfilling the order.

Online Überweisen

Online Überweisen allows customers in Germany to initiate a direct bank transfer from their banking environment.

Market

Germany

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are returned through IBAN.

Settlement

The customer authorising the transfer does not immediately guarantee that ICEPAY has received the funds.

Unlike payment methods with guaranteed settlement, the bank transfer can take several days to arrive.

A customer can successfully authorise the payment while the funds are still on their way.

Wait for cleared funds when required

If your business cannot accept the risk of the transfer not arriving, wait until the payment’s financialStatus becomes cleared before fulfilling the order.

In exceptional situations, the payment may expire while the bank transfer is still being processed.

For more information about these state changes, see the Payment lifecycle page.

Pay by Bank

Pay by Bank uses open banking to let customers pay directly from their bank account.

It is available in several European countries.

Markets

Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are returned through IBAN.

Settlement

Payment authorisation does not necessarily mean that ICEPAY has already received the funds.

The transfer can take additional time after the customer has authorised it.

Payment confirmation and settlement are different

With Pay by Bank, a customer may have successfully authorised the payment while the funds are still being transferred.

Check financialStatus when confirmation that the funds have arrived is important to your fulfilment process. In that case, wait until it becomes cleared before fulfilling the order.

Wallets

PayPal

PayPal allows customers to pay using their PayPal account without providing their payment details directly to the merchant.

Availability

Worldwide

Currency

Euro is supported by default. Additional currencies may require a different setup.

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are processed through PayPal.

Funds

ICEPAY does not collect the funds for PayPal payments.

Because ICEPAY is not the collecting PSP for PayPal, its financial status does not behave in the same way as payment methods where ICEPAY receives the funds.

PayPal and financial status

A PayPal payment can remain uncleared from ICEPAY’s perspective because the funds are handled by PayPal rather than collected by ICEPAY.

This does not by itself mean that the PayPal payment was unsuccessful.

PayPal requires configuration between the merchant’s PayPal account and ICEPAY before it can be used.

Direct debit

Direct debit allows funds to be collected from a customer’s bank account either once or repeatedly.

A valid mandate is required before a direct debit can be collected.

The mandate can be obtained:

• in writing; or
• digitally through a supported payment flow such as iDEAL | Wero or Bancontact.

Direct debit is available in countries participating in the SEPA payment schemes.

Refunds are returned through IBAN.

Direct debit is different from a checkout payment

Direct debit is based on a mandate to collect funds from the customer’s bank account.

It therefore does not follow exactly the same customer checkout flow as an iDEAL | Wero, card, or PayPal payment.

Wire transfer

Wire transfer allows a customer to manually transfer money from their bank account.

Availability

Worldwide

Currency

Euro is supported by default. Other currencies may be available depending on your setup.

Refunds

Supported. Refunds are returned through IBAN.

Settlement

Guaranteed once the funds have been matched to the payment.

Wire transfers can take longer than instant online payment methods because the customer initiates the bank transfer separately.

The payment details supplied to the customer are important for matching the incoming transfer to the correct payment.

Checkout and payment pages

The page a customer sees depends on how the payment is started and which payment method is used.

There are three common experiences:

Experience	When it is used
ICEPAY Checkout Page	The customer still needs to choose a payment method
ICEPAY Payment Page	ICEPAY hosts the payment experience for the selected method
External Payment Page	The customer is redirected to the payment method’s own environment

For example, cards and Bancontact are completed on the ICEPAY Payment Page, while methods such as iDEAL | Wero, EPS, Online Überweisen, and PayPal can redirect the customer to an external payment environment.

Using a ready-made integration?

The integration generally decides which ICEPAY checkout URL to use and handles the redirect automatically.

You normally do not need to configure this for each payment method yourself.

Choosing payment methods for your store

There is no single set of payment methods that is appropriate for every merchant.

When deciding which methods to enable, consider:

• where your customers are located;
• which currencies you accept;
• whether customers expect local bank payment methods;
• whether payment confirmation is immediate or funds may arrive later;
• how refunds are processed;
• whether the method is supported by your e-commerce integration.

A store focused on the Netherlands may, for example, require different payment methods from a store selling throughout Europe or worldwide.

What this means for you

If you use a ready-made integration

The integration handles most of the technical differences between payment methods.

You mainly need to decide which supported methods you want to offer and make sure they are enabled for both your ICEPAY merchant and your store.

Be aware that:

• supported payment methods can differ between integrations;
• some methods are intended for specific countries;
• some payment methods confirm instantly while others can take longer;
• refund behaviour can differ between payment methods;
• completed does not always mean that ICEPAY has already received the funds.

If you build a custom integration

Your integration should:

• retrieve the payment methods available to the merchant;
• use the correct payment method type when creating a payment;
• avoid assuming all merchants have the same methods enabled;
• support both ICEPAY Checkout and direct payment-method flows where appropriate;
• account for the different settlement behaviour of payment methods;
• use financialStatus when receipt of funds is important;
• handle redirects and webhooks independently of the selected payment method.

Continue reading

Refunds

Learn how full and partial refunds work across payment methods.

Disputes & Chargebacks

Learn how full and partial refunds work across payment methods.