Applying for Payconiq (now Bancontact Pro)

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. So if you are looking to apply for Payconiq today, you apply for Bancontact Pro.

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

Passavo is not Bancontact and not Payconiq. We connect your Bancontact Pro account to your ticket shop and your till. Your contract, your rate, your sticker, the portal and your payouts are arranged with Bancontact Pro itself or with your bank. Where to find their official support is explained further down in this article.

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?

In short: applying for Payconiq in four steps

1. Choose the right solution. For your ticket shop and your counter till you need the solution in which your till system itself creates a QR code with the correct amount, via an API key. A sticker on its own is not enough for that — see the table below.
2. Apply for it via Bancontact's professional pages (bancontact.com/en/professional) or via your bank. Associations can do this too.
3. You get a merchant account with access to the Bancontact Pro portal, and an API key for the online connection.
4. Paste that key into Passavo under Settings → Payments and make a test payment of €0.01. Done.

Sticker, app or online: which solution do you apply for?

Bancontact Pro comes in a few forms. They all use the same app on your visitor's side, but they work differently on your side.

Solution	What it is	What Passavo does with it
Sticker solution	A fixed QR code on a sticker or sign, for example at your bar. The visitor scans and types in the amount themselves (or a fixed amount is printed on it).	Remains perfectly usable for one-off payments alongside Passavo. You do not need it at the counter till: the till shows its own QR with the correct amount.
Bancontact Pro app	An app on your own phone or tablet that shows a QR code.	Separate from Passavo. Handy if you work without a till.
Integrated or online solution (API key)	Your till system or webshop creates a QR code with the exact amount for each payment.	This is what you connect. Your ticket shop shows the QR at checkout, and your counter till shows it on the till screen. The payment ends up with the right order automatically.

So ask explicitly for the solution with an API key (for online payments or an integrated till). If you already have a sticker, you do not have to give it up: it keeps working for whatever you sell outside Passavo.

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.

Payconiq for associations

A non-profit (vzw) or unincorporated association with a company number can apply for Bancontact Pro just as easily as a shop. See Bancontact's professional section, which also covers associations. For an association the combination is often ideal: tickets online in your ticket shop, and on the evening itself the same QR on the screen at the counter till, without renting a payment terminal.

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 or a partner 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 here on a website that gives you a key straight away. 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 not something you can connect.
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/en/professional you will find the section for professionals, with the various solutions and a partner network that helps you further. Associations can go there too. Here again, ask for the online or integrated solution with an API key.

Where do you log in? The Bancontact Pro portal

Once you are signed up, you get access to the Bancontact Pro portal — the former Payconiq portal. There you see your payments and your payouts, and you manage your merchant details. You will find the login button at bancontact.com/en/professional.

You do not need that portal to sell with Passavo: you also see the payments from your ticket shop and your till with the orders in Passavo itself. And the other way round: Passavo has no access to your portal.

Where do you find the official support?

For anything to do with your Bancontact Pro account — your application, your contract and rate, a sticker, the portal, a payout that does not arrive — Bancontact Pro or your bank will help you, not us:

• Contact for professionals: bancontact.com/en/professional/contact
• Frequently asked questions for professionals: bancontact.com/en/faq?audience=professional
• Did your sign-up go via your bank? Then your bank is your first point of contact.

For anything to do with the connection to Passavo — pasting your key, the test payment, the QR in your ticket shop or on your till screen, a refund from an order — write to us. See Support.

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.

Passavo adds nothing on top: there is no cost per ticket and no percentage of your turnover, not on payments via Bancontact Pro either.

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

Online, in your ticket shop

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.

At the counter till

If the counter till is in your plan, it uses the same connection. At checkout choose Bancontact Pay: a QR code with the amount appears on the till screen, your visitor scans it with their banking app, and the till sees by itself that payment has been made. You need no terminal or sticker for it. This also works when Mollie or Stripe is the active provider for your ticket shop, as long as Bancontact Pro stays connected. See The counter till.

Bancontact in your webshop: the app or the card?

People searching for Bancontact for a webshop or paying online with Bancontact often mean one of two different things:

What your visitor does	What it is called	How you get it in Passavo
Scans a QR code with their banking app	Bancontact Pay	With Bancontact Pro, as in this article
Pays with their Bancontact card on a payment page	Bancontact (card)	Via Mollie or Stripe, without a separate application to your bank

If you want Bancontact together with card and iDEAL on one payment page, Mollie or Stripe is the simplest route.

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, or go via Bancontact's professional pages. 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 or from Bancontact Pro 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.

How do I apply for Payconiq? Via your bank or via Bancontact's professional pages, as Bancontact Pro. Ask for the online or integrated solution with an API key; you then paste that into Passavo. The four steps are at the top of this article.

How do I apply for a Payconiq sticker or QR code? The sticker is Bancontact Pro's sticker solution, and you apply for it with them or with your bank. You do not need it for selling via Passavo: your ticket shop and your counter till create a QR code with the correct amount for each payment themselves.

Where do I find Payconiq's support? With Bancontact Pro, via their contact page for professionals, or with your bank if your sign-up went through them. For the connection to Passavo, write to us.

Can my association apply for Payconiq? Yes. With a company number and a business account in the association's name, it can. Bancontact's professional section also covers associations.

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. At the counter till they can work side by side, though: a Mollie terminal for cards and Bancontact Pay for the QR on the screen.

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 or with Bancontact Pro. Ask about it when you sign up.