The application is digital, the signature electronic — payment happens at the cashier’s office on the ground floor. With a new queue ticket.
Where citizens pay by card, counting protocols, cash-in-transit runs, and register discrepancies disappear — and with them the second waiting line. What remains are the requirements of public administration: audit-proof, procurement-ready, data-protection compliant. We compare — free and independent — which terminals and providers deliver exactly that.
What makes the difference in your business
Cash has a price — it just doesn’t appear on any fee notice
Every cash receipt sets off a chain: counting under dual control, register close, handover protocol, cash-in-transit — and every discrepancy triggers a case that has to be documented and resolved. Every card payment dissolves that chain: the amount is booked, the receipt generated, the register balances by definition. That relieves not just the cashier’s office but every counter where change sits in a drawer today.
Audit-proof is not a feature — it’s a chain
For the audit office, what counts is the unbroken path from terminal receipt to payment reference number: automatic reconciliation at the daily close, exportable individual transactions, unambiguous matching of every payment to its case. And because purchasing in public administration means procurement, rates have to hold up on paper: transparent fees, clear terms, no asterisks — an offer that survives a public tender.
Payment data is citizen data
Anyone paying at the citizens’ office leaves data behind — and the administration remains responsible, even when a service provider processes it. What matters: the data processing agreement, traceable data flows, and the question of where transaction data resides and for how long. Serious providers answer that in writing before the first receipt is printed — and exactly those answers belong in your tender documents.
The best waiting line is the one that never forms
A separate cashier’s office means: a second trip, a second ticket, a second wait — and a counter that can’t close out cases. If payment happens by card right at the caseworker’s desk, the appointment ends where it began. Nobody gets sent to the ATM across the street because the sign on the door says “cash only.” Shorter paths inside the building mean shorter waits — without a single extra position on the staffing plan.
Contactless card payments usually work without a PIN up to €50. Many administrative fees are below that — so payment at the counter takes seconds, not minutes.
Tell us briefly how many counters and cashier’s offices your agency operates — or attach your latest terminal statement. You’ll receive a comparison with transparent rates you can drop straight into your tender documents. Free and independent.
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