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Payments, explained

Notes from the Target team on acquiring, currencies, fraud and the rules that govern them. Written for merchants and the developers who build their checkouts: short, specific, with real numbers and no sales pitch. One or two new articles a month, the occasional product note in between.

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The article we send to every new merchant

Guides · 7 min read

24 Aug 2026Guides

How to choose a payment provider in 2026

Seven criteria to score before you sign: the pricing model behind the headline rate, approval rates by card country rather than a blended average, settlement currencies and timing, fraud tooling, integration effort, support and compliance — and what happens on the day you decide to leave. With a ten-line checklist to send to every shortlisted provider.

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Latest from the team

10 Sep 2026Guides

3-D Secure 2: a merchant's guide

Frictionless flow, challenge flow and the exemptions that let most customers pay without a pop-up. What SCA actually requires, why 3DS 2.2 approves more transactions than 2.1, and how the liability shift works.

24 Aug 2026Guides

How to choose a payment provider in 2026

Seven criteria to score before you sign, from the pricing model and approval rates by card country to what happens on the day you want to leave. Includes a ten-line checklist for every shortlisted provider.

6 Aug 2026Guides

What is interchange++ and when it saves you money

Blended pricing hides three fees in one number. We take a €60 EU debit payment apart line by line and show the volume at which interchange++ becomes the cheaper option — for most merchants somewhere above €50k a month.

22 Jul 2026Product

Smart routing explained

How Target picks an acquirer for each transaction in under 40 ms: issuer country, card type, currency, ticket size and the last hour's approval rates across 15+ connected banks. Plus the cascading retry that recovers soft declines.

8 Jul 2026Compliance

PSD3: what changes for merchants

The Commission's package splits PSD2 into a directive and a directly applicable regulation. We summarise the parts that touch merchants: SCA exemptions, IBAN-name checks, merchant-initiated transactions and the likely timeline.

17 Jun 2026Guides

Reducing chargebacks: 7 practical rules

Clear billing descriptors, alerts before the dispute is filed, 3-D Secure where it counts and a refund that is faster than a chargeback. Seven rules our risk team applies with every merchant, with the numbers behind each one.

2 Jun 2026Company

PCI DSS Level 1: recertified for 2026

Our sixth annual assessment: 12 requirements, 250+ controls, zero findings. What the auditors look at, how tokenisation keeps card data out of your systems, and what the certificate means for your own PCI scope.

19 May 2026Product

SEPA Instant payouts are live

Payouts to any euro IBAN now settle in under 10 seconds, around the clock, weekends included, up to €100,000 per transfer. Same €0.25 fee, same API call — set instant to true and the funds land before the webhook does.

22 Jul 2026Product

Smart routing explained

How Target picks an acquirer for each transaction in under 40 ms: issuer country, card type, currency, ticket size and the last hour's approval rates across 15+ connected banks. Plus the cascading retry that recovers soft declines.

19 May 2026Product

SEPA Instant payouts are live

Payouts to any euro IBAN now settle in under 10 seconds, around the clock, weekends included, up to €100,000 per transfer. Same €0.25 fee, same API call — set instant to true and the funds land before the webhook does.

10 Sep 2026Guides

3-D Secure 2: a merchant's guide

Frictionless flow, challenge flow and the exemptions that let most customers pay without a pop-up. What SCA actually requires, why 3DS 2.2 approves more transactions than 2.1, and how the liability shift works.

24 Aug 2026Guides

How to choose a payment provider in 2026

Seven criteria to score before you sign, from the pricing model and approval rates by card country to what happens on the day you want to leave. Includes a ten-line checklist for every shortlisted provider.

6 Aug 2026Guides

What is interchange++ and when it saves you money

Blended pricing hides three fees in one number. We take a €60 EU debit payment apart line by line and show the volume at which interchange++ becomes the cheaper option — for most merchants somewhere above €50k a month.

17 Jun 2026Guides

Reducing chargebacks: 7 practical rules

Clear billing descriptors, alerts before the dispute is filed, 3-D Secure where it counts and a refund that is faster than a chargeback. Seven rules our risk team applies with every merchant, with the numbers behind each one.

8 Jul 2026Compliance

PSD3: what changes for merchants

The Commission's package splits PSD2 into a directive and a directly applicable regulation. We summarise the parts that touch merchants: SCA exemptions, IBAN-name checks, merchant-initiated transactions and the likely timeline.

10 Sep 2026Guides

3-D Secure 2: a merchant's guide

Also filed under compliance: what strong customer authentication requires under PSD2, which exemptions your acquirer can claim, and where liability sits when a challenged payment is later disputed.

2 Jun 2026Company

PCI DSS Level 1: recertified for 2026

Our sixth annual assessment: 12 requirements, 250+ controls, zero findings. What the auditors look at, how tokenisation keeps card data out of your systems, and what the certificate means for your own PCI scope.

19 May 2026Product

SEPA Instant payouts are live

Also a company milestone: the first feature designed, built and launched end-to-end by the Riga engineering team — from the gateway connection to the toggle in the merchant dashboard.