Applying for Bancontact Pro (the former Payconiq)

Bancontact Pay is the Belgian payment app with the QR code, which your visitor opens on their phone. What you apply for in order to accept that app is called Bancontact Pro. Until March 2026 they were both called Payconiq, which is why you still come across that old name in the technical connection and in the API.

Your visitor pays with it by scanning the QR code your ticket shop shows with their banking app or with the Bancontact Pay app.

One method, and one provider at a time. Bancontact Pro only gives you the Bancontact Pay app. Your ticket shop always uses one provider: if Bancontact Pro is active, your visitor can only pay online with that app — no card, no iDEAL, no ordinary Bancontact. If you do want those methods, you make Mollie or Stripe your active provider. See Which payment provider do you choose?

Who this is meant for

• Your organisation is in Belgium.
• Your visitors are Belgians who know the app — and there are many of them: almost every Belgian bank supports the scanning of such a QR code.
• You already have a banking relationship in which this can be arranged.
• You are happy with one payment method in your ticket shop.

If you are not in Belgium, this article is of no use to you.

What you need beforehand

• A Belgian business bank account, in the name of your organisation.
• Your company number (KBO).
• A contact person at your bank, or the will to struggle through their merchant pages.
• In Passavo: the Owner role.
• Time. This goes via your bank and not via a form you fill in in ten minutes. Allow a few working days to a few weeks, depending on your bank.

How signing up works

Unlike with Mollie and Stripe, you do not sign yourself up on a website here. You apply for it as a merchant, and that goes one of two ways.

Route 1 — Via your bank

This is the ordinary route, and usually the quickest.

1. Call or email your bank, or search in your business banking for Bancontact Pro, Payconiq or mobile payments for merchants.
2. Say what you want: to accept online payments on your own ticketing site, via an API connection. That last word matters — without it you get a sticker with a QR code for your counter, and that is of no use to you here.
3. Your bank arranges your sign-up and you get a merchant account.
4. Ask explicitly for a Merchant API key for the Online product. That is the long string of characters you will shortly paste into Passavo.

Route 2 — Directly with Bancontact

At bancontact.com there is a section for professionals, with a partner network that helps you further. Associations can go there too. Here again, ask for the online solution with an API key.

What it costs

You pay a cost per online payment, and often a fixed cost per year as well. If your sign-up goes via your bank or a partner, they agree their own rate with you. That is why there are no amounts here: ask for it in black and white before you sign, and compare it with what Bancontact states on its own site.

Two environments, and why that matters

You get a key for one of two environments:

Environment	What it is
ext (test environment)	For practising. No real money goes back and forth
prod (production)	Real money

A key belongs to one environment. A test key does not work in production and vice versa. With this provider that is by far the most commonly made mistake: you then get error messages that seem to refer to nothing at all.

Connecting in Passavo

1. Go to Settings → Payments. You see three blocks one below the other; the bottom one is Bancontact Pro's.
2. Paste your API key into the field. The characters stay hidden, as with a password — that is intentional.
3. On the right choose the correct environment: Test environment (ext) or Production (prod).
4. Click Save key. The block now says Connected — EXT or Connected — PROD; with a key for the test environment there is also the badge Test mode. If no other provider is active yet, Bancontact Pro immediately becomes the active provider for your ticket shop. If Mollie or Stripe is already active, it stays that way until you click Use this provider with Bancontact Pro.
5. Then click Test payment of €0.01. Passavo does not check the key when you save it; only that first payment shows whether it works. See Testing with a payment of 1 cent.

After saving, the block also shows a webhook URL. You do not have to do anything with it: Passavo passes that address to Bancontact itself with every payment, so that Bancontact can let us know that payment has been made.

What your visitor sees

After ordering, your ticket shop shows a QR code with the amount, and asks them to scan it with their banking app. Your visitor scans it with their banking app or the Bancontact Pay app and confirms. The page moves on to their tickets by itself as soon as the payment is in.

That also applies to anyone ordering on their phone: there too the QR code appears, and there is no button that opens the app directly. So someone ordering on their phone scans with a second device. If you expect many visitors to order on their phone, Mollie or Stripe is the better choice.

Commonly made mistakes

Applying for a sticker instead of an online connection. The QR sticker for your counter is a different product. For your ticket shop you need the online solution with an API key.

Putting an ext key into production, or the other way round. See above.

Thinking that this lets you accept cards as well. It does not. This is one method, for one app.

Thinking that saving is enough while Mollie or Stripe is active. Then that other provider keeps serving your ticket shop. If you want to use Bancontact Pro, click Use this provider with Bancontact Pro, and check that the badge Active for the ticket shop is there.

Sending the key on by ordinary email. Treat it like a password. Anyone who has it can start payments in your name.

What if …

What if my bank cannot handle it?

Ask for the merchant solutions or merchant services department rather than your ordinary branch. If that does not work, use Mollie: Bancontact is in there too, and you arrange that yourself in an afternoon.

What if my key has leaked?

Immediately request a new one from your bank and paste it into Passavo with Replace key. The old one becomes worthless as soon as they withdraw it.

What if I would rather just have ordinary Bancontact?

That is a different method from the app. You get ordinary Bancontact via Mollie or Stripe, without a separate application to your bank.

What if I have to issue a refund?

You simply start that from the order in Passavo, even if another provider has become active in the meantime — as long as Bancontact Pro stays connected. See Refunds and cancellations. Refunds via this provider are the least tested part of the connection: with your first refund, check that the amount really has gone out rather than assuming it.

Frequently asked questions

Is it called Payconiq, Bancontact Pay or Bancontact Pro now? All three, and that is not sloppiness. Since March 2026 your visitor's app has been called Bancontact Pay and what you apply for is called Bancontact Pro. Until then they were called Payconiq together, and that name is still in the API and in the technical connection because it was never renamed.

Can I combine this with Mollie? You can connect both, but your ticket shop uses one at a time. With Use this provider you designate which one. So your visitor sees either Mollie's methods or Bancontact Pro's QR code, never both.

Does this work in the Netherlands? No. The app is Belgian (and is used in Luxembourg). Dutch visitors pay with iDEAL, via Mollie or Stripe.

Does my visitor have to install the app? Not necessarily. Almost every Belgian banking app can scan such a QR code.

How quickly is the money in my account? That you agree with your bank. Ask about it when you sign up.