Popular payment methods in Europe, country by country

The most popular payment methods in Europe differ by country: iDEAL, now becoming Wero, in the Netherlands; Bancontact in Belgium; PayPal and purchase on invoice in Germany; the Cartes Bancaires card scheme in France; BLIK in Poland; MB Way and Multibanco in Portugal; Swish and Klarna in Sweden. International cards work everywhere, but in several of these countries they are the second or third choice of shoppers, and a checkout that offers only cards loses part of every market at the last step.

This guide lists, per country, the method shoppers expect, what it is, and what it means for your checkout and your payment provider. It is written for a shop that sells, or wants to sell, in more than one European country. Germany has the most detailed public data, from the EHI Retail Institute; for the other countries we name the methods that payment providers themselves list as essential, without shares where no reliable public figure exists.

Country by country

Two methods cross borders: PayPal, accepted almost everywhere and the leader in Germany, and Klarna, which offers invoice and instalments in Germany, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and beyond. Apple Pay and Google Pay run on the cards stored in them and help on mobile in every market.

Germany in numbers

Germany is the one large market with an annual study of how online shoppers pay, by the EHI Retail Institute. Its 2026 edition, covering 2025, gives the shares of online turnover at the shops it surveyed.

The figure above shows the four main methods. Direct debit lost almost three points in a year, while PayPal, invoice and cards all grew. PayPal and invoice together take more than half. A card-only checkout in Germany asks most shoppers to pay in a way they do not usually choose. What else a shop meets in Germany is in selling online in Germany.

The Netherlands: from iDEAL to Wero

iDEAL has been the default online payment in the Netherlands for two decades. It is now moving into Wero, the wallet of the European Payments Initiative, a company owned by European banks and payment firms. In the first phase, from 29 January to 31 March 2026, checkouts switched to a combined iDEAL and Wero logo while existing contracts stayed valid. The full migration of shops and customers starts in the fourth quarter of 2026 and is planned to be complete by the end of 2027.

For a shop this means little work if your payment provider handles it: ask your provider when it moves your checkout to Wero, and make sure the logo and wording in your shop follow. Wero is also used for payments between people in Belgium, France and Germany, which may make it a cross-border option in the years ahead.

What local methods cost a shop

Fees depend on your payment provider and your volume, so compare quotes rather than list prices. A few structural points hold everywhere:

• Cardscarry an interchange fee capped in the EU at 0.2 percent of the transaction for consumer debit cards and 0.3 percent for consumer credit cards, plus scheme fees and the provider's margin.
• Bank-based methodssuch as iDEAL, Bancontact, BLIK or MB Way are usually priced per transaction, often a fixed amount, which makes them cheap on large baskets.
• Invoice and pay latercost the shop more, because the provider takes the credit risk and pays you upfront; shoppers in Germany, Austria and the Nordics expect them anyway.
• Walletssuch as PayPal charge a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction, typically more than cards.

What a webshop costs to run, payments included, is in ecommerce website cost.

Choosing a payment provider for Europe

One provider that covers all the local methods you need keeps your checkout simple and your reconciliation in one place. Ask each candidate:

European providers such as Mollie and Adyen, and global ones such as Stripe, cover most of the methods above; their country lists change, so check them for your markets. A shop on Shopify uses Shopify Payments where available, with local methods through apps or third-party providers; how European shop platforms compare is in Shopify alternatives made in Europe.

Showing payment methods in the shop

Shoppers look for their method before they start the checkout. Show the logos of the methods each country expects in the footer and on the product page, in the order that country prefers: Bancontact first for Belgian visitors, iDEAL or Wero for Dutch ones, PayPal and invoice for German ones. A multilingual shop can switch the order by language or country. In Belgium, Bancontact belongs on the site next to two languages and a few other local rules; see selling online in Belgium.

Card payments and strong customer authentication

Card payments in the EU fall under the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which has required strong customer authentication for most online card payments since 2021: the customer confirms the payment with two of three factors, usually in the banking app, through 3-D Secure. A checkout that handles this badly loses buyers at the confirmation step. Payment providers apply exemptions for low amounts and trusted merchants; ask yours how it uses them, and test the flow on a phone, because that is where most customers confirm.

Pay later under new rules

Buy now, pay later services such as Klarna's instalments are popular in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Nordics. The revised Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 brings most of these interest-free and small loans under consumer credit rules, with information duties and creditworthiness checks; member states apply it from 20 November 2026. The provider carries most of these duties, but your checkout shows its information. If pay later is a large share of your sales, ask your provider what changes in its flow.