The VAT the VAT-exempt still pay

When a buyer pays monthly, someone has to start the charge every month, check whether it went through, try again if it did not, and tell the buyer when their card expires. Of the three obvious payment gateways in Hungary, only Stripe does this by itself. Barion and SimplePay store the card, and your own system starts every renewal. SimplePay also adds 27% VAT to its fees even when the merchant is VAT-exempt — and the merchant cannot reclaim it.

This piece looks only at recurring payment, without a webshop: a website, a pay button, then automatic access and an invoice. The figures come from the providers' own pricing and documentation, as they stood on 28 September 2026. I build my subscription systems on Stripe, so I have a view here — the table only states what each provider says about itself.

The three gateways side by side

Barion's Fix pricing comes with two conditions: an average monthly basket of at least HUF 10,000, and business plus foreign consumer cards making up no more than 2% of turnover. Barion checks this monthly; if it is not met, it can switch you to IC++, and according to the fee schedule you cannot go back to Fix afterwards, even if the conditions are met later.

SimplePay states this in its own FAQ: the VAT it charges does not depend on the partner's exemption. With a foreign provider such as Stripe, reverse charge may come into play; that is a question for your accountant.

An example: HUF 5,000 a month

For a HUF 5,000 monthly membership on a standard European card, Stripe takes HUF 195, 3.9%: HUF 75 percentage fee, HUF 85 fixed fee, HUF 35 for the subscription engine. At a HUF 2,000 fee the same comes to HUF 129, 6.5%, because the fixed part weighs more there. At Barion a HUF 5,000 basket does not reach the HUF 10,000 average for Fix pricing, so IC++ applies: 1.09% plus 0.2% for recurring payment, about HUF 65, plus the card schemes' costs. SimplePay's fee is an individual quote, with no public figure.

What you have to build

Stripe

Access handling — who paid, who cancelled —, the Hungarian invoice, because Stripe does not issue one (a separate piece covers it), and the legal texts. Retries, reminder emails and the buyer's page are a matter of settings.

Barion

A server that starts the card registration, stores the recurring payment identifiers, starts the charge every month, sorts final failures from retriable ones, sends emails, and asks for a new registration when the bank wants authentication again. Barion has to approve recurring payment first.

SimplePay

User accounts, because card storage can only be offered to registered buyers; the card registration with the consent statements; a scheduler; retries within the rules — not on the same day, for 31 days at most —; a new registration after 24 charges; and deleting the stored card on the buyer's side.

Which one when

• A website and a pay button, a monthly fee, little development: Stripe. It is the only one with retries, reminders and the buyer's page ready-made.
• Barion can come out cheaper if the average basket is above HUF 10,000 and someone builds and looks after the system that starts the charges.
• SimplePay is the obvious choice for whoever already has a webshop with user accounts; for subscriptions it comes with the most constraints of the three.

The first payment and the renewal

The first payment falls under the strong customer authentication rules: the bank may ask for verification (3-D Secure). A renewal is a merchant-initiated charge that does not need the buyer present — the bank can still ask for verification. Stripe then emails the buyer a confirmation link; at Barion and SimplePay you have to build that flow.

Barion knows two renewal types. With one, a renewal cannot exceed the first payment, and the fraud risk stays with the card-issuing bank; with the other it can be any amount, but the risk is the merchant's. A free first month or a price increase therefore calls for the second type, or a new verification.

Apple Pay and Google Pay

Stripe renews with both. According to Barion's 2024 documentation, a subscription paid with Apple Pay cannot be renewed; SimplePay's direct Google Pay integration does not store cards.

What the gateway asks of the website

Stripe asks for a public site with the business name, the service, the contact details, and the refund and cancellation rules. Barion asks for the payment-method logos on the home page and the payment page, a fraud-screening script that has to be listed in the cookie notice, and terms accepted before purchase. SimplePay asks for its own logo linked to the payment information, and an explicitly accepted data-transfer statement; it tests the site itself before go-live.

Stripe's restricted list includes schemes that promise quick riches (22 September 2026). For a channel selling investment signals, it is worth clarifying beforehand whether it fits.

Questions on this topic

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