mada is Saudi Arabia's national payment network, run under the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). Almost every Saudi bank debit card is a mada card, often co-badged with Visa or Mastercard. It works in shops, online and through Apple Pay. For a merchant, accepting mada online means using a Saudi payment gateway that supports it.
What is mada?
mada (مدى) is the domestic payment network of Saudi Arabia. It connects the Kingdom's banks, point-of-sale terminals, ATMs and online payment gateways, and it operates under the oversight of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).
When a Saudi bank issues a debit card, it is almost always a mada card. That is why mada carries the majority of card payments made in the Kingdom, in shops and increasingly online.
mada vs Visa and Mastercard: what is the difference?
Visa and Mastercard are international card schemes. mada is a domestic one. Many Saudi cards carry both logos, a mada logo and a Visa or Mastercard logo, which is called co-badging. Inside Saudi Arabia the transaction normally runs over mada; abroad, or on a site that does not support mada, it falls back to the international scheme.
The difference matters to merchants because the domestic route is usually cheaper to process and more reliable to authorise. A card that fails as an international transaction on a foreign gateway will often go through first time as a mada transaction.
Can I use a mada card online and with Apple Pay?
Yes. mada cards work online on any store whose payment gateway supports mada, and they can be added to Apple Pay, which is now one of the most common ways Saudi shoppers pay on mobile. Contactless in-store payments use mada's tap technology, known as mada Atheer.
What mada cards cannot always do is pay on international sites that only accept Visa and Mastercard, unless the card is co-badged. That is the gap merchants selling into Saudi Arabia need to close.
Is mada safe?
mada online payments use 3-D Secure, the same extra authentication step Visa and Mastercard use, usually a one-time password from the bank or approval in the banking app. Card details are handled by the payment gateway, not stored by the store.
For shoppers, the usual advice applies: pay only on sites served over HTTPS, check the store's name and commercial registration, and never share the one-time password with anyone who calls asking for it.
Can I use a Mastercard or Visa directly through a local wallet?
Mostly yes. Apple Pay accepts both mada and international cards issued by Saudi banks. STC Pay and bank wallets can be funded from a card and then used to pay merchants that accept them. Whether a specific wallet accepts a specific foreign card depends on the wallet's own rules, so check inside the wallet app.
What a merchant needs to accept mada online
- A payment gateway licensed or partnered to process mada, for example Moyasar, HyperPay, PayTabs, Tap or Checkout.com.
- A Saudi commercial registration and a settlement bank account, which gateways require for onboarding.
- mada shown as its own option at checkout, not hidden behind a generic card form, because shoppers look for the logo.
- Apple Pay enabled on the same gateway, so mada cards stored in Apple Wallet work in one tap.
- ZATCA-compliant e-invoices issued by the store for each order. The gateway takes the payment; it does not produce the invoice.
If you run Shopify, Shopify Payments is not available in Saudi Arabia. mada has to come through a third-party gateway app, which is part of any Saudi store setup we do.
