No. Transaction fees will not be charged on individual customers. Customers who encounter such a situation are advised to lodge a complaint with

1. the merchant acquirer. The merchant acquirer's company name or logo should be displayed along with the QR code at the merchant's point-of-sale (either physical or online stores); or
2. their respective e-wallet service provider (bank or non-bank issuer)

(Note: Acquirers are banks or non-bank financial service providers that onboard merchants to enable them to accept electronic payments for the sale of goods and services to their customers.)

No. Individual customers who make payments using DuitNow QR should not be paying any additional fees or charges. Products and services bought with QR payments should cost the same as paying with any other modes of payments including cash, credit cards, and debit cards.

Merchant Discount Rate, or MDR, is a common fee associated with the provision of electronic payment services.

MDR is charged on merchants, not customers. It is typically charged based on a percentage of price paid by customers to the merchant. A merchant would receive the payment made by their customers after deducting the MDR. This is similar to card-based payments that also incur MDR.

MDR is intended to cover costs that the merchant acquirers and PayNet incur to upkeep the payment systems and to maintain high service reliability and robust security standards for users.

These costs are therefore critical to ensure businesses and individuals continue to have confidence in using payment services on a daily basis.

For smaller businesses, a majority of DuitNow QR merchant acquirers announced that they will continue to waive MDR for smaller businesses. PayNet has set aside resources to reimburse acquirers that continue to offer this full waiver for micro and small merchants who uses DuitNow QR payments.

This depends on the merchant acquirer. Merchants are advised to check with their current merchant acquirer for confirmation.

As at 1 November 2023, the following merchants acquirers continue to offer full waiver of MDR on small businesses:

Please check with the respective merchant acquirers for more details. Merchants are also advised to check for press releases from DuitNow QR merchant acquirers from time to time.

Whilst this choice is entirely up to the respective merchants, there are studies that show transacting in cash cost more to merchants than via e-payments. They include labour costs for manual paperwork and reconciliation, the time taken to handle cash (despatch of cash to and from a bank as well as related cash-in-transit security), theft, pilferage, and also loss of revenue due to no small change. One such study may be accessed here - Economic Benefits of Going Cashless

Merchants in Malaysia continue to benefit from a range of payment options that can support their business needs. All these options will likely lead to merchants incurring some costs, including when accepting e-payments or cash. It is also important to note that compared to countries where QR payments are available, the applicable MDR in this country is among the lowest.