Transaction costs are the charges you pay per credit or debit on your business account. They are separate from your monthly subscription and, together with the fixed costs, determine your total cost structure. At GoDutch you pay one clear rate: €0.12 per SEPA transaction, incoming and outgoing, for every package. No hidden costs, no tiered pricing, no surcharge for urgent payments.
What are transaction fees on a business account?
Before you can compare providers, it helps to be clear about what a transaction actually is. At its core, it is any credit or debit on your business account. But not every transaction is the same, and not every provider passes everything on in the same way.
What counts as a transaction?
Regular SEPA transfers in euros within the Single Euro Payments Area.
SEPA Instant payments, which are in the recipient's account within seconds.
Direct debits, both outgoing and incoming, for recurring payments.
Receipts via iDEAL, important for retailers and e-commerce entrepreneurs.
Card transactions and card payments via your business Mastercard.
Batch payments with multiple payment instructions in one file.
Urgent transfers outside SEPA Instant.
Reversals of a rejected direct debit.
International payments in foreign currency.
Transaction costs versus subscription costs
Subscription fees and transaction fees are two different items that together determine your total costs. Entrepreneurs often only focus on the first and are surprised by the second.
Subscription fees: are fixed monthly costs, regardless of your volume. At traditional banks that usually ranges between €9.90 and €22.25 per month.
Transaction fees: variable costs per transaction and increase with your activity.
Customer due diligence: is a separate item at major banks, often differentiated by legal form (€0 to €20 per month).
Total costs: are the sum of these three. Anyone who does few transactions and pays high fixed costs burns money. A freelancer with 40 transactions per month on a €10 subscription pays well over twice as much as someone on a free account with a low transaction fee.
Does a business bank account without transaction fees really exist?
Short answer: an account completely without transaction fees does not exist in the Netherlands. Anyone claiming to offer "free transactions" is recouping those costs somewhere else. In the market we see three structures recurring:
High fixed costs with a limited number of free transactions: Knab offers 500 free transactions per year, but charges €7 per month for that. A self-employed person who is well below that 500 pays effectively €84 per year for something that would have cost €0 with a Free account.
Free at the start, paying after twelve months: ING and Rabobank offer starters a free initial period. After that, both the full subscription and the transaction fees still apply.
Costs shifted to other items: No transaction fees, but charges for customer due diligence, paper reports, additional account holders or international transactions.
So the fair question is not which account has no transaction fees, but which account has the lowest total costs for my usage? That is where GoDutch scores strongly. On the Free package you pay no monthly fees, and the transaction rate of €0.12 applies to every package, without tiers. Customer due diligence, setup costs and the virtual Mastercard are free of charge, and for foundations, homeowners' associations and other associations, 0% VAT applies to the subscription.
Transaction fees at GoDutch: one rate for all packages
The strength of GoDutch's pricing model lies in its simplicity. Whichever package you choose, the transaction fee remains €0.12 per SEPA transaction. What does differ is what you get back in fixed value: more virtual and physical Mastercards, more users, extra IBANs and increasing cashback on card spending.
Feature | Free | Starter | Pro | Unlimited |
Monthly subscription | €0 | €12 | €29 | €49 |
SEPA transaction (in + out) | €0.12 | €0.12 | €0.12 | €0.12 |
SEPA Instant | €0.12 | €0.12 | €0.12 | €0.12 |
Cashback | 0% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 1.0% |
Bulk transfers | — | — | ✔ | ✔ |
Free virtual Mastercards | 1 | 1 | 10 | unlimited |
Free physical Mastercards | — | 1 | 5 | unlimited |
Free additional users | 0 | 1 | 10 | unlimited |
Extra (virtual) IBANs | 0 | 5 | 10 | unlimited |
Prices excluding VAT. For foundations, owners' associations and other associations, 0% VAT applies to the subscription.
Which package suits whom?
Free suits freelancers and new entrepreneurs with limited volume. No fixed costs means you only pay when you actually make transactions.
Starter suits freelancers and general partnerships that need a physical Mastercard, an extra user (for example, an accountant) and 0.1% cashback.
Pro suits growing private limited companies and SMEs with a team. Ten virtual and five physical Mastercards, bulk transfers and 0.4% cashback on all card spending.
Unlimited suits scale-ups, holding companies and businesses with their own finance team. Unlimited cards, IBANs and users, 1.0% cashback, a personal account manager and API access.
Additional transaction fees for business accounts in specific situations
In addition to the transaction fee, GoDutch has a limited number of specific charges for exceptional actions. These charges fall under the fair-use policy and in practice rarely occur. Because transparency is important to us, the full overview is below, so that you know exactly what to expect.
ATM withdrawal within SEPA: €1 per withdrawal.
ATM withdrawal outside SEPA: 2% of the amount withdrawn.
Card payment outside the eurozone: 2% of the amount.
Declined outgoing direct debit due to insufficient balance: up to €0.40.
Misuse of the account: €180.
Judicial or administrative attachment: €100.
Copy of letter for a legal department: €54.
Account existence confirmation letter: €24.
Currency exchange: mid-market rate (cost price), with no markup.
International payments and currency charges
Anyone who does business internationally quickly notices that foreign transfers are a world apart at traditional banks. Where a domestic SEPA transfer costs €0.12, an international transfer at a major bank quickly rises to €12 plus a currency conversion markup of 1.2% or more.
At GoDutch, transfers within the EU simply use the SEPA rate of €0.12. Currency exchange is done at the mid-market rate without markup, you can send money to more than 160 countries in over 20 currencies, and the costs are shown in advance in the app before you send the transfer. SWIFT, ACH and Fedwire are supported from any package.
A concrete example makes the difference tangible. Imagine you send €5,000 to a supplier in the United Kingdom. At ABN AMRO, you pay €12 for the electronic foreign transfer, plus a 1.2% exchange-rate markup (€60 on an amount of €5,000) and possibly a non-IBAN fee of €7. Total cost: well over €79. At GoDutch, the SEPA rate of €0.12 applies and currency is exchanged at the mid-market rate. On one transaction that already saves you almost €80, and that multiplies with every subsequent transfer.
Comparing business current account transaction fees: GoDutch versus the market
To make a fair comparison of business accounts, you should not only look at the transaction fee but also at the fixed costs, customer due diligence costs and any tiered pricing. Below is the full picture for the main Dutch providers.
Market comparison
Provider | Fixed per month | Per SEPA transaction | Free transactions | Customer due diligence |
GoDutch Free | €0 | €0.12 in + out | none | free |
GoDutch Starter | €12 | €0.12 in + out | none | free |
GoDutch Pro | €29 | €0.12 in + out | none | free |
GoDutch Unlimited | €49 | €0.12 in + out | none | free |
ING Business Package | €9.90 | €0.13 per debit/credit posting | none | €0 to €20/month |
ABN AMRO Slim | €9.90 | €0.12 / €0.15 | none | €0 sole trader, €6.50 private limited company, €20 public limited company |
ABN AMRO Ambitious | €13.75 | €0.12 / €0.15 | none | same |
ABN AMRO Boundless | €22.25 | €0.12 / €0.15 | none | same |
Rabobank Business | €9.95 | variable | none | separate |
Knab Self-employed | €7.00 | €0.10 after 500/year | 500 per year | free |
bunq Core Business | €13.99 | €0.13 | none | free |
Revolut Business Basic | €10 | 0.20% / min €0.20 | 10 local per month | free |
Sources: public pricing pages of the respective providers. Reference date: first quarter of 2026. Rates and conditions are subject to change.
Where are the hidden costs at traditional banks?
Four items create cost differences that are not immediately visible in the package price:
Customer checks by legal form: ABN AMRO charges €6,50 per month for a bv and €20 for an nv or foreign legal form. On an annual basis, €78 to €240 on top of the subscription.
Paper reports and forms: a SEPA transfer via form costs €3 at ABN AMRO, a paper statement €3 plus €0.088 per transaction.
International transfers: €12 per electronic foreign transfer at ABN AMRO, for both sender and recipient. Plus a 1.2% exchange-rate markup and possibly a non-IBAN fee of €7.
The bundle trap: 500 free transactions sounds attractive, but anyone well below that ceiling still pays €7 to €10 per month for capacity that remains unused.
Fintech versus traditional bank: why the cost structure differs
Fintechs use a different model from traditional banks. Traditional banks carry high infrastructure and office costs and spread them across fixed subscriptions plus transaction fees. Fintechs operate at scale and fully digitally, with lower fixed costs.
GoDutch can therefore offer the Free package without monthly fees and still charge a transaction fee that is in line with the major banks. Service level is the second major difference: traditional banks have branches but limited digital availability, while GoDutch offers 24/7 support via chat, email and phone, without bots.
Transaction fees for business account by legal form
The impact of transaction fees varies by legal structure and type of business owner. A freelancer with 30 transactions per month has different priorities from a growing SME with 400 transactions. Useful to know when you want to open multiple business accounts.
ZZP and freelancer transaction fees
For self-employed professionals with a limited transaction volume, the Free package is generally the most cost-effective choice. No fixed monthly fees, €0.12 per SEPA transaction and direct accounting integration with Moneybird and e-Boekhouden. The details are on the page about the business account for ZZP and freelancers.
VOF transaction fees
For a general partnership, the Starter package is usually the obvious choice, because both partners then get their own login with their own rights. The transaction fee remains €0.12 regardless of who carries out the transaction. You can read more on our page about the business account for a VOF.
BV transaction fees
A growing BV will, based on average transaction volume, benefit from Pro or Unlimited. The cashback of 0.4% or 1.0% recovers a substantial part of the subscription cost on regular card spending. You can read about the specific benefits on the page about the business account for a BV.
Holding transaction fees
Holdings often manage multiple entities at once. Each entity gets its own account with the same transaction structure of €0.12, and switching between operating company and holding is done without logging in again. See the set-up on the page about the business account for a holding company.
Transaction fees for owners' associations, foundations and associations
For these legal structures, GoDutch makes a big difference: 0% VAT on the subscription, no customer due diligence costs, and you can add or change board members yourself without paper forms. View the details on the pages for a owners' association or a foundation or association.
How to keep your business account transaction costs low in practice
Even within a single provider, you can reduce your annual costs with a few targeted choices:
Use bulk payments: when you pay salaries or suppliers at the same time. They’re included in Pro and Unlimited.
Convert recurring transactions into direct debits: that saves manual work and gives insight into fixed payments.
Replace Tikkie-style payment requests with payment links: avoid separate charges of €0.25 per request at the major banks.
See cashback on your Mastercard as compensation: with Pro and Unlimited, a substantial part of your subscription comes back via cashback.
Close unnecessary accounts with your old bank: duplicate subscriptions sometimes go unnoticed for years.
Open a business account with GoDutch
You pay one clear rate of €0.12 per SEPA transaction on every plan, with no fixed costs on the Free plan, no charges for customer due diligence and no rush surcharge on SEPA Instant. Apply in three minutes and receive your Dutch IBAN and virtual Mastercard within three hours.
Combined with direct integration with your accounting package, 24/7 personal support and cashback on your card spending, you choose a business account that does exactly what you expect of it. Open a free business account with GoDutch today and see for yourself how much room it gives you in your annual budget.
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