Payments Region Checker

Payments Region Checker classifies card payments by region from countries, ISO codes or BINs: EU/EEA/eurozone/SEPA membership, the SCA regime that applies, the cross-border type and interchange-cap notes.

Best for: Payments product and pricing teams, integration and solutions engineers, and anyone explaining UK vs EU card rules after Brexit.

How to check the region of a card payment

1. Add queries to Queries: a country (Bulgaria), a pair (GB > IE) or {"card": "535522", "merchant": "DE"}.
2. Click Start.
3. Read transactionClassification, scaRegime and interchangeNote for each query.

How it works

All reference lists live in the code and are dated: EU-27, EEA (EU + Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), euro area (21 members incl. Bulgaria from 1 Jan 2026), SEPA scheme countries (EPC list incl. UK, Switzerland, Crown Dependencies, Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia). BIN-to-country uses an open BIN list (CC BY 4.0). The tool assumes the issuer is in the card country and the acquirer is in the merchant country.

Output

input, cardCountry, merchantCountry, card, merchant, transactionClassification, scaRegime, interchangeNote

Pricing (pay-per-event)

• lookup-done: $0.0005 per result ($0.5 / 1,000). Platform usage is included; you pay only for results.
• Example: 10,000 lookups cost $5.00.

Example input

{
  "queries": [
    "Bulgaria",
    "GB > IE",
    "US / FR",
    {
      "card": "535522",
      "merchant": "DE"
    }
  ]
}

Example output

Values below are illustrative.

{
  "input": "GB > DE",
  "cardCountry": "GB",
  "merchantCountry": "DE",
  "card": {
    "eu": false,
    "eea": false,
    "eurozone": false,
    "sepa": true
  },
  "merchant": {
    "eu": true,
    "eea": true,
    "eurozone": true,
    "sepa": true
  },
  "transactionClassification": "UK-EEA cross-border (inter-regional since Brexit)",
  "scaRegime": "One-leg-out: SCA is 'best efforts' only",
  "interchangeNote": "UK-EEA CNP: no IFR cap since Brexit..."
}

Use it via API, schedules and integrations

Run it in Apify Console, or call it from your own code with the Apify API or the Python and JavaScript clients. Save an input as a task and add a schedule to run it regularly, and send results to Slack, email, webhooks, Zapier, Make or n8n with Apify integrations. AI agents can find and run it through the Apify MCP server.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("sterlingverify/payments-region-checker").call(run_input={"queries": ["GB > IE", {"card": "535522", "merchant": "DE"}]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use in Clay, Zapier, Make, n8n, Pipedream, Power Automate or Activepieces

All of them connect to Apify through their official Apify integrations, using your own Apify account: an API token from Apify Console > Settings > API & Integrations, or Apify sign-in for Power Automate. Runs bill to your Apify account at this Actor's pay-per-event price.

• Clay: save this Actor's input as an Apify task and copy it as JSON. In your Clay table, add the Run Apify Actor enrichment, choose it and paste the JSON into Input Data, mapping Clay columns into the fields. To pull a finished run into a new table, use the Import data from Apify Actor source.
• Zapier: use the Apify Run Actor action, or the Finished Actor run trigger followed by Fetch dataset items. Synchronous runs in Zapier stop after 30 seconds, so use the trigger for big batches.
• Make: add the Apify Run an Actor module with Run synchronously set to Yes, then Get Dataset Items with the run's dataset ID. For longer runs, use the Watch Actor Runs trigger.
• n8n: install the Apify node (@apify/n8n-nodes-apify, or search "Apify" on n8n Cloud) and use Run an Actor and get dataset.
• Pipedream: add the Apify app's Run Actor action, or Run Task Synchronously on one of this Actor's public example tasks (or your own saved task) to get the dataset items back in one step. For big batches, start from the New Finished Actor Run or New Finished Task Run trigger, then Get Dataset Items.
• Power Automate: add the Apify connector (a premium connector, currently in preview) and sign in with your Apify account. Use Run Actor with Enter custom value set to sterlingverify/payments-region-checker and paste the input as JSON, then Get dataset items with the run's default dataset ID. For big batches, start the flow from the Actor run finished trigger instead.
• Activepieces: add the Apify piece and use Run Actor, or Run Task on one of this Actor's public example tasks (or your own saved task), then Get Dataset Items. For scheduled or big batches, use the Watch Actor Runs or Watch Task Runs trigger.
• Google Drive / Sheets: add Apify's Upload results to GDrive integration to a scheduled task to drop each run's CSV or XLSX into your team's Drive, or chain the Google Sheets Import & Export actor to append rows to a sheet.
• Slack alerts: add Apify's Slack integration to a scheduled task to post each run's results to your team channel, or start a check from Slack with /apify call and your task ID.
• Any HTTP tool or script: send one request and get the results back as JSON. Runs must finish within 5 minutes.

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/sterlingverify~payments-region-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @input.json

FAQ

How up to date are the country lists?

The lists are dated in the code and reflect October 2026, including Bulgaria joining the euro area on 1 Jan 2026. Check official sources for later changes.

Is this regulatory advice?

No. It is informational only, not legal or regulatory advice.

Disclaimer

Sources: European Union (europa.eu), EFTA/EEA Agreement, European Central Bank, European Payments Council SEPA scheme countries list, EU PSD2 RTS (Reg. 2018/389), FCA UK SCA RTS, EU Interchange Fee Regulation (EU) 2015/751, UK Payment Systems Regulator. Lists as at October 2026; check them for recent changes. BIN data: binlist-data by Ian Nuttall, CC BY 4.0 (not an official register). Informational only, not legal or regulatory advice.

Related sterlingVerify tools

Part of the sterlingVerify UK payments, KYB and data toolkit on Apify Store:

• BIN Lookup: bulk BIN lookup for scheme, type, issuer and country
• IBAN Validator: offline bulk IBAN validation and parsing
• MCC Checker: check a merchant's MCC against its website or description
• Payments Integration Spec Pack: branded PDF payments integration spec with completeness report