Alternative Payment Methods: 9 Worth Offering International Customers

Your checkout accepts Visa and Mastercard. A customer in Amsterdam wants to pay from their bank. A customer in Sao Paulo pays almost everything with Pix. A customer in Nairobi has a phone wallet and no card at all. And a customer in Germany has a card that their bank keeps declining on foreign sites.

All four want to buy. None of them can, at least not easily. That is the whole case for alternative payment methods: everything that is not a credit or debit card, and that some of your customers prefer to one.

The numbers back it up. In Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2026, which covers 42 markets, digital wallets alone made up 56% of global ecommerce value in 2025. And in Baymard Institute’s checkout research on US shoppers, leaving aside people who were just browsing, 10% had abandoned an order because their card was declined and 9% because there were not enough payment methods.

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Here are nine worth knowing, grouped by the problem each one solves.

1. Digital wallets

PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and their regional cousins. They fix friction: no card number to type, a familiar button, a fingerprint instead of a form. That is why they now lead global ecommerce by value.

Watch for: many wallets still run on the customer’s card underneath. They make paying easier for people who have a card, but they do not reach people who do not.

2. Local bank payment methods

In some markets people pay online straight from their bank. In the Netherlands that is iDEAL, now branded iDEAL | Wero, which describes itself as an online payment method that lets consumers pay via their own bank. In Poland it is BLIK. They fix the local habit: a Dutch shopper who sees no iDEAL button may simply leave.

Watch for: each one is local. You need a payment provider that supports each method in each market, and that list grows quickly once you sell in several countries.

3. National instant payment systems

Some countries built their own real-time payment rails, and shoppers adopted them on a huge scale. Pix, run by Brazil’s central bank, and UPI in India are the best-known. The Global Payments Report names both, along with Wero, as systems still expanding. They fix reach in markets where these are the default way to pay.

Watch for: access usually comes through a local acquirer or payment provider, and settlement is in the local currency.

4. Buy now, pay later

The shopper splits the price into instalments, and the provider pays you upfront and collects from them. It fixes larger baskets, where the total is what makes someone hesitate. The Global Payments Report expects BNPL to reach 500 billion dollars in global ecommerce value by 2030.

Watch for: you pay the provider for taking on the credit risk, and BNPL suits physical goods and bigger tickets far better than low-priced digital services.

5. Direct debit

The customer authorises you to pull payments from their bank account, which in Europe usually means SEPA Direct Debit. It fixes subscriptions without cards, and it does not expire the way a card does.

Watch for: the payer can ask their bank to reverse a direct debit for a period afterwards, so it carries its own version of the chargeback problem.

6. Bank transfers

The oldest alternative, and still the default for business invoices and large amounts. Inside the euro area it got much better recently. Under the Instant Payments Regulation, banks in the euro area have had to offer instant euro transfers since October 2025, at no more than the price of a regular transfer, and payment and e-money institutions must follow by April 2027. It fixes large and B2B payments with no card fees and no chargebacks.

Watch for: outside SEPA, an international transfer can still take days and lose money to intermediary banks, and matching transfers to orders is often manual.

7. Cash-based methods

Payment vouchers that the customer pays in cash at a shop or a bank, prepaid cards bought with cash, and cash on delivery. They fix customers who prefer cash or have no bank account.

Watch for: confirmation is slow, a share of vouchers is never paid, and digital goods cannot wait for a courier.

8. Mobile money

In parts of Africa and Asia the phone became the bank account. M-PESA, from Kenya’s Safaricom, is the classic example. It fixes markets where card ownership is low but nearly everyone has a phone.

Watch for: it is very local, with its own integrations, limits and currency in every country.

9. Crypto and stablecoins

Here we have an obvious interest, so let us be precise about where crypto earns its place and where it does not.

Where it fixes something. Cards get declined more often for businesses that issuers treat as high risk, such as VPNs, proxies and hosting, and crypto removes the issuer from the payment. A confirmed blockchain payment has no chargeback mechanism, because there is no issuer to appeal to. And stablecoins such as USDC and EURC give a cross-border customer a dollar or euro payment that does not depend on their card or their bank. In some industries it is already mainstream, which we covered in how the proxy industry relies on crypto.

Where it does not. The same Global Payments Report puts direct crypto payments at 0.19% of global transaction value. That is niche. If your customers are domestic, have a local method they love and do not hold crypto, adding it will change very little. And because there are no chargebacks, the buyer has to trust you before paying, which is easier for an established store than a new one.

At our checkout, a shopper can pay from any wallet by copying an address, connect one through WalletConnect, or pay with Binance Pay. Our published processing fee is 1% on the Standard plan, and the full table is on our pricing page.

Which method fixes which problem

How to choose for your own store

1. Start with where your customers are. Your analytics already show the top countries. The right method for Brazil is useless in Poland.
2. Look at where you lose them. Declines, abandoned payment steps and support tickets about payment tell you which problem to fix first.
3. Match the method to the product. Instalments for a laptop, instant confirmation for a digital download, an invoice for a B2B contract.
4. Add one at a time and measure. A new button is a change to your checkout like any other. For the crypto side, our notes on crypto checkout conversion show where orders get lost.

FAQ

What is an alternative payment method?

Any way to pay that is not a credit or debit card: digital wallets, bank payments, instant payment systems, buy now pay later, direct debit, bank transfers, cash-based methods, mobile money and crypto.

Are alternative payment methods cheaper than cards?

Some are, some are not. It depends on the method and the provider, so compare the full cost per method, including refunds, disputes and conversion, rather than the headline rate.

Is crypto an alternative payment method?

Yes. It is a small one by global value, but it does specific jobs well: cross-border payments, customers whose cards get declined, and businesses that cannot afford chargebacks. Our honest comparison of crypto and cards goes through it in detail.

How many payment methods should I offer?

Enough to cover how your actual customers pay, and no more. A short list that matches your markets beats a wall of logos. For a broader starting list, see our best payment methods for small businesses.

Cards still matter, and they will for a long time. However, every market has customers who would rather pay another way, and each of the nine above exists because a real group of them did. Find out which groups you are losing, and add the method that brings them back.

Thinking crypto might be the method your customers are missing? Start with us.