Accepting digital payments in a Jamaican shop: Lynk, cards and what each costs

Most Jamaican shop sales are still cash, and for a small walk-in shop that is fine. But some customers now ask, "Do you take Lynk?" or "Can I tap?" A shop that says no loses those sales, and a shop that says yes takes on a few new jobs: a new account to open, a fee on each sale, and a new kind of money to count.

This guide compares the main options a Jamaican shop can use today. It is not a ranking. Each one suits a different shop, and fees and terms change, so treat every figure below as a starting point and confirm it with the provider before you commit. Where a figure could not be checked, the guide says so.

Cash

No fee, no setup, no delay. The cost is handling: counting, change, theft risk and a trip to the bank. Cash also leaves no record unless you make one. Even if you add digital options, most shops keep cash.

Lynk and JAM-DEX

Lynk is a digital wallet that customers fund from a bank card or at NCB ATMs. For businesses, the Jamaica Information Service reported that Lynk's LynkBiz platform works from any device with a browser: you show a QR code, the customer scans and pays, and you view your transactions. Lynk was the first provider for JAM-DEX, Jamaica's central bank digital currency, and sole traders with a personal account were welcome to use LynkBiz in the original launch, provided they could show proof of a bank account. Those details come from a 2023 report, so check the current requirements with Lynk. The fee for accepting Lynk payments was not published in a source this guide could verify, so ask Lynk what it charges and when funds reach your bank account.

DimePay

DimePay is a Caribbean payment company. Its website lists the ways customers can pay: Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, and local options including NCB Pay, Lynk, JAM-DEX and bank transfers. It supports payments at the counter with terminals, by payment link, and online. DimePay states that online payment processing has no setup or monthly fee, that transaction fees apply, and that optional software and hardware may be charged separately. It also sells its own point of sale. Because its pricing varies by product, ask for the current rate for your sales type and the settlement schedule to your bank.

Bank card terminals (NCB, Scotiabank and others)

The traditional route is a merchant account and a physical terminal from a bank. A comparison published by HandyPay, which is a competitor to the banks and says so, puts bank terminal fees typically in the 2.5% to 3.5% range, often lower per sale than online-first services, which makes it a strong fit for a busy retail counter. The trade-offs it lists are an application that can take weeks, business registration documents and sometimes a deposit, and terminal rental or purchase and monthly fees. Ask each bank for its exact rate, the monthly cost, and how many days settlement takes.

WiPay

WiPay is a Caribbean-founded payments company that serves several markets, including Jamaica, with online acceptance, payment links, QR codes and terminals. It was built for the region and supports local currency. Its fee schedule and payout timing could not be confirmed for this guide, so get them from WiPay directly.

HandyPay

HandyPay lets a business accept card payments without hardware, using payment links and QR codes from a phone or web app. Its published pricing is 4.9% + US$0.40 per transaction on the free plan with no monthly fee, and 4.2% + US$0.40 on a US$29 a month Pro plan. Payouts go to a local bank account on a daily schedule and typically arrive within 2 to 4 business days, though HandyPay's own terms say first payouts may take 7 to 14 days. Its processing is provided by Stripe, Inc. HandyPay describes itself as best suited to service businesses and online sellers, and concedes that a high-volume retail counter will usually do better with a bank terminal.

A percentage fee takes the same share of every sale. A flat fee per transaction takes a bigger share of a small one. Here is HandyPay's free-plan pricing of 4.9% + US$0.40 on three sizes of card sale, in US dollars because the fee is quoted that way.

On the same three sales, a plain 3% terminal fee would take 3% each time, which is US$0.15, US$1.50 and US$6.00, before any monthly fee. The lesson is not that one provider is bad. A shop that sells many low-value items such as snacks and top-ups feels flat fees most, and a shop with larger average sales feels them least. Work out your own average sale first. The average sale in your reports is a good number to use.

Do not forget the monthly costs of a terminal. For example, a 3% fee with J$3,000 a month in fixed costs is cheaper than a higher percentage only when you process enough card sales to spread the fixed cost. Ask for the full cost on a month of your typical sales, not just the headline rate.

• Walk-in counter, many small sales. Start with cash plus a QR wallet such as Lynk, then consider a bank terminal once card sales are steady.
• Busy counter with larger baskets. A bank terminal is often the cheapest per sale, if you can wait for the application.
• Orders by WhatsApp, deliveries or deposits. A payment link from a provider like DimePay, WiPay or HandyPay lets the customer pay without being at the counter.
• Customers who already use NCB. Ask whether your chosen provider accepts NCB Pay as well as cards.
• No cash handling appetite. Make sure you can still settle to a local bank account in J$ and know the payout time.

Whatever you pick, ask each provider the same five questions: what is the fee per sale, what are the fixed monthly costs, how long until the money reaches my bank, what documents do you need, and what happens in a dispute or refund.

Digital money does not sit in your drawer, so counting the drawer will not catch a mistake in it. The fix is to record the payment type on every sale, and at close, compare each type with an independent report. The cash-up routine still applies to cash. Digital totals get their own check.

Here is a day for a small shop. The opening float is J$5,000.

1. Count the cash

   Expected cash is the float plus cash sales, so J$5,000 + J$62,000 = J$67,000, less any cash paid out or refunded. Compare it with the real count.

2. Match each digital total

   Open the wallet app, run the terminal batch, and check the bank app. Each should equal the recorded total for that type: J$14,500, J$21,000 and J$6,000.

3. Chase any gap the same day

   A recorded J$1,500 that the app does not show is usually a sale rung up as the wrong type, a payment the customer never completed, or a failed transfer. Fixing it now takes minutes. Next week it takes detective work.

4. Record the fee as a cost

   If the terminal takes 3% and settles J$20,370 of the J$21,000, the sale was still J$21,000. The J$630 is a business expense, not a smaller sale. Keep it separate so your profit figures stay honest.

Settlement takes days for most card and link payments, so a day's card total will not appear in your bank balance that evening. Match the sales to the provider's report that day, and match the payout to your bank statement when it arrives.

Shopkeepa's point of sale lets you record the payment type on each sale: cash, card, bank transfer, a local wallet or other. Each sale then carries its payment type, so you can add up each type for the day and hold it against the Lynk app, the terminal report and the bank. Shopkeepa records payments. It does not process them, so you still use a provider such as those above to take the money.

Shopkeepa is in development and open to early access shops. See the point of sale for how a sale is recorded.