Illustration representing a bank-owned POS device rented to a merchant

When any sole proprietorship or commercial business applies to become a merchant, banks install a POS device. Banks pay significant amounts to purchase each POS device.

Banks rent out the POS devices they purchase to merchants. However, they waive the rental fee they would otherwise charge merchants if the merchant meets certain conditions.

What are the conditions set for the merchant?

Banks usually do this by giving merchants a monthly turnover target.

For example, the bank informs the merchant that if they generate 10,000 TL in monthly turnover, it will not charge the 40 TL rental fee.

At the start of each month, the bank checks the target turnover and actual turnover for the previous month on a merchant and terminal basis, and charges a rental fee on a terminal basis to merchants that fail to reach the target turnover.

So, if a merchant has 5 terminals and 4 of them exceed their target while 1 fails to reach it, is the rental fee charged to the terminal that failed to reach its target?

Whether or not it is charged is the bank's decision. The process generally works as follows:

  1. The actual turnover of all terminals under the merchant is totaled.
  2. The target turnover of all terminals under the merchant is also totaled.
  3. If the total actual turnover of all terminals under the merchant is higher than the total target turnover, no rental fee is charged to any of the merchant's terminals, regardless of whether each terminal individually met its target.
  4. If the total actual turnover of all terminals under the merchant is lower than the total target turnover, the actual and target turnover of each terminal under the merchant are checked individually, and a rental fee is accrued for the terminals that failed to reach their target.
  5. The accrued amounts are collected from merchants through a collection system that runs daily. For merchants whose account balance is insufficient, the relevant accounts are checked daily and collection is attempted.

The rental fee is a significant profit item for the bank. For this reason, it is important that it is calculated carefully and collected on time.