In today’s interconnected world, online payments have become an integral part of our daily lives. Whether you’re shopping online, paying bills, or transferring money, understanding the most popular payment methods is essential. Here's a handy global guide:

The Evolving Landscape

Naturally, payment methods will vary from place to place due to a multitude of factors. The ever-evolving fintech landscape is always throwing up new payment software systems. For example, according to Khadija Bilal, revolutionary new systems can even be used by players to securely top up online casino accounts without even needing to access their bank account.

For example, Instadebit casinos give Canadian players the freedom to make secure deposits and withdraw funds from their gambling accounts. This payment method offers a wealth of benefits, with online casinos that offer it becoming more popular. Systems such as instadebit cover anything from online gambling platforms to basically any type of merchant that offers it as a payment method. Differences in geography, local culture, technological advancements, and other factors influenced by a region’s economic strength and their sophistication can all have a bearing on what types of payment methods they favor.

With that in mind, here are the most popular forms of payment you’re likely to find all over the world:

Credit Cards

Still reigning supreme, credit cards (such as American Express, Mastercard, and Visa) dominate the global payment landscape. They offer convenience, security, and widespread acceptance.

Mobile Apps and eWallets

Mobile apps and electronic wallets, from well known and globally used service providers like PayPal, to more regionally popular ones like Alipay and WeChat Pay in China, have revolutionized mobile payments.

Bank Transfers

These are direct bank transfers that are popular in Europe and other regions. They offer a secure way to move funds between accounts, minimizing third-party involvement.

With all this in mind, here’s a breakdown of which payment systems are most popular in specific parts of the world, together with their preferred uses.

United Kingdom

The U.K. has a unique and highly modernised mix of payment methods that mirror the sophistication of its economy and history:

Contactless Cards

Tap-and-go payments using contactless debit or credit cards are ubiquitous.

Apple Pay and Google Pay

Mobile wallets are becoming increasingly popular for in-store purchases, online transactions, especially mobile purchases directly from app stores or in-game purchases, and even as a payment method accepted by an ever-growing list of online gambling platforms.

Direct Debit

Widely used for recurring payments like utility bills, monthly contracts like those for mobile phones, and subscriptions, direct debits make for a quick and easy payment method. They work by granting creditors the right to debit amounts owed to them directly from the debtor’s bank account.

Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region is a dynamic hub for e-commerce and mobile payments. Let’s explore some popular methods there:

Alipay

China’s Alipay is the go-to mobile payment service. With its digital wallet, users can pay directly from their mobile devices for a variety of goods.

WeChat Pay

Integrated into the WeChat super app, WeChat Pay is a must-have for businesses targeting Chinese consumers, since it can be used by them to pay for any goods or services offered by any merchant that supports it.

Afterpay (Clearpay)

In Australia and New Zealand, Afterpay allows shoppers to buy now and pay later in four interest-free instalments. The service can basically be used to purchase anything, except items on its banned list such as tobacco, alcohol in bulk or hard liquor, firearms, etc.

GrabPay

Bridging the gap in Southeast Asia, GrabPay is used in Singapore and Malaysia. It’s powered by a lifestyle super app with ideals of financial equality called Grab. The service can be used to pay for everything from rides to food orders, and credits can be transferred to family and friends.

UnionPay

China’s UnionPay, with more than 7 billion cards issued, dominates the card network landscape in China and beyond.

Europe

Europe boasts diverse payment preferences, as can be expected given its rich and diverse history, its sophisticated mixed economy regions, and places of extreme wealth like Monaco and Luxembourg. Here are some popular payment methods used on the continent:

Bancontact

Widely used in Belgium, Bancontact facilitates online payments via debit cards. The most widely used card-based payment method in the country, it’s widely recognised there for its smooth and efficient payment processing features.

Credit Cards

Visa, Mastercard, and Amex remain common choices across various countries in Europe. They’re especially in countries that are hotspots for tourism like Italy, France, and Spain; but also within Scandinavian countries like Iceland and Finland.

Debit Cards (Maestro)

Maestro cards are also highly prevalent, especially in countries like Germany and the Netherlands.

PayPal

A trusted global name, PayPal is widely accepted for cross-border transactions and widely used across many European countries.

SEPA

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) enables seamless euro-denominated transfers within the EU for all of its member countries, as well as the four member states of the European Free Trade Association — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The following Principalities and microstates are also a part of SEPA — Monaco, Andorra, San Marino, and the Vatican City.

Sofort

Very popular in Germany, Sofort allows instant bank transfers during online purchases.

The Middle East

Many countries in the Arab world still cling to more old-fashioned payment methods rooted in tradition and cultural underpinnings. Sharia laws against interest and credit-based transactions found in the Quran and the Hadith also contribute to the lack of credit cards and other interest-based financial practices in the region. As a result, popular payments in the region are as follows:

Cash on Delivery (COD)

Many Middle Eastern and Gulf states rely heavily on cash on delivery options for online purchases due to the relative lack of credit cards in the region. Still often a heavily cash-based society, cash, in general, is still widely used in the region across a wide variety of transactions and industries.

This is true, even among countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — surprising when you consider how exorbitantly wealthy both countries are, but unsurprising when you factor in how strongly both countries practice Sharia law.

Debit Cards

Despite COD once being the most popular payment method for online deliveries in Saudi Arabia, debit cards have now overtaken it. Since most banks there and in other Gulf regions won’t offer credit cards, debit cards have spiked in popularity.

In the wealthier parts of the Middle East, they’ve also grown in popularity a lot since people in those places are often insanely well off, and a debit card requires a positive balance and uses your own money (not the bank’s money like a credit card does),

CashU

As a digital prepaid card service, CashU is popular and trusted in countries within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region such as Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, and Syria. It works by preloading a digital or plastic Mastercard that can be used at thousands of different merchants in the region that accept it.

Africa

Card and Electronic Transactions

As one of the most developed and economically advanced countries in Africa, debit and credit cards, EFTs, payment wallets, and now even contactless payment systems and mobile payments are among the most used payment methods in South Africa.

Whether it’s at physical merchants, online stores and deliveries, or any kind of transaction that accepts them, card, electronic and digital payments are widely used by those South Africans who have access to them. Contactless cards have also grown in popularity since their introduction there, with all major banks now offering them, and most physical stores accepting them.

Cash

Despite South Africa’s love affair with plastic and digital payment methods, as it remains economically characterized by being the nation with the highest income inequality rate in the world, many people live below the poverty line. As a result, outlying areas and sprawling rural townships have developed informal localized economies where cash is still heavily favoured.

This is especially true in the poorer, more remote regions of the country, where many people are unbanked. This is also true of many other Southern, eastern, and Central African nations like Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, and Gabon.

Mobile Money Apps

The economic and geographic disparities between the haves and the have-nots in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Ivory Coast mean remittance services, and mobile money apps like Mukuru, M-Pesa, and MTN’s MoMo have captured up to 50% of the market share in them. Such services are widely used in African countries to send money to friends and family and to make purchases.

A South African company, MTN has grown to become the largest telecoms company on the continent. Its MoMo service has become a lifeline for people and family members separated by the geographical and economic divide between the urbanized areas where work is the most prevalent, and the rural homes that depend on them. The service works by storing money in a secured electronic account linked to an MTN phone number. Mobile payments made secure and simplified, MoMo users can send or receive money via a person’s mobile number.