{"id":10767,"date":"2026-10-20T09:02:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T07:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/docs\/who-can-use-1pay\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T14:11:01","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:11:01","password":"","slug":"who-can-use-1pay","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs\/who-can-use-1pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Who can use 1pay.ch: countries, residence and legal form"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone can open a 1pay.ch account in a few minutes. Which payment methods you can activate, however, depends on two things: <strong>the country where your business is registered<\/strong> (or where you live, if you work as a private individual) and the outcome of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs\/account-verification\/\">account verification<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>At a glance<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Your business is based in\u2026<\/th>\n<th>What you can activate<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Switzerland<\/td>\n<td>Everything: <strong>Pay<\/strong> (TWINT, PostFinance Pay, cards, wallets and the other Swiss methods) and, if you need it, <strong>Pay Plus<\/strong> as well.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Denmark, Bulgaria<\/td>\n<td><strong>Pay Plus<\/strong>: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and the other international methods. <strong>No TWINT and no PostFinance Pay.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Another country<\/td>\n<td>Neither of the built-in providers. You can still use 1pay.ch pages, links and tools by connecting an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs\/external-providers\/\">external provider<\/a> under your own contract.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p>What counts is the country where the business is registered, not your nationality or the country where you take payments. A company based in Milan that sells in Ticino uses Pay Plus; a sole trader based in Lugano and run by an Italian citizen uses Pay.<\/p>\n<h2>I don&#8217;t live in Switzerland: can I accept TWINT?<\/h2>\n<p>No. On 1pay.ch TWINT, like PostFinance Pay, is reserved for businesses based in Switzerland. What counts is where you are registered, not where you work: even if you come to Switzerland often (for example as a street musician, market trader or for events and fairs), you cannot activate TWINT with a business registered abroad.<\/p>\n<p>If your business is registered in one of the Pay Plus countries, Swiss customers can still pay you by card, Apple Pay and Google Pay, including through a printable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs\/qr-pay-code\/\">QR code<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Do I need a registered company?<\/h2>\n<p>No. You can use 1pay.ch as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>a private individual or sole trader<\/strong>: proof of your business (commercial register extract, trade registration or tax registration) is optional. In Switzerland it becomes mandatory above CHF 100&#8217;000.- in annual turnover, the threshold above which registration in the commercial register is required anyway;<\/li>\n<li><strong>a simple partnership<\/strong>: same as a sole trader;<\/li>\n<li><strong>a GmbH\/S\u00e0rl, AG\/SA, cooperative or other company<\/strong>: a commercial register extract is required;<\/li>\n<li><strong>an association<\/strong>: the articles of association are required, the register extract is optional;<\/li>\n<li><strong>a foundation<\/strong>: the articles are required and, for Swiss foundations, a commercial register extract too;<\/li>\n<li><strong>a public body<\/strong> (municipality, school, cantonal office): an entry in a public directory is enough.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For each of these forms we also need the details and an ID document of the people who sign for or control the business. You&#8217;ll find the full list in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs\/account-verification\/\">Account verification: the documents you need<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What we cannot accept<\/h2>\n<p>Some activities are excluded regardless of the country, by law or under card scheme rules. Check the list before you sign up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs\/prohibited-activities\/\">Activities we cannot accept<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Have a special case?<\/h2>\n<p>Write to us before you open the account: we&#8217;ll tell you straight away whether and how you can take payments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone can open a 1pay.ch account in a few minutes. Which payment methods you can activate, however, depends on two things: the country where your business is registered (or where you live, if you work as a private individual) and the outcome of account verification. At a glance Your business is based in\u2026 What you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[200],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-10767","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-getting-started"],"acf":[],"year_month":"2026-11","word_count":484,"total_views":"1","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"1pay.ch","author_nicename":"1pay_admin","author_url":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/author\/1pay_admin\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Getting started","term_url":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/docs-category\/getting-started\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"knowledge_base_info":[],"knowledge_base_slug":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/10767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10767"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/10767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12863,"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/10767\/revisions\/12863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=10767"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1pay.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=10767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}