Payment Methods Buyers Expect in the US, EU, Brazil and India

A SaaS company in Bengaluru wins its first enterprise deal in Ohio. Six months later it launches in Sao Paulo with the same card-only checkout. Traffic arrives and trials convert, but Brazilian buyers stall at the payment step. Nothing is broken. The checkout simply asks Brazilians to pay the way Americans do.

Each market has a short list of payment methods its buyers trust. Missing the top one means losing sales you have already paid to acquire.

What to offer first

• US: cards and mobile wallets; ACH for invoices and annual plans.
• EU: cards and wallets everywhere, plus each country’s local method (iDEAL | Wero in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium); SEPA Direct Debit for subscriptions.
• Brazil: Pix and credit cards with installments; boleto for buyers without cards and for B2B.
• India: UPI and cards; UPI AutoPay or card e-mandates for subscriptions.

NPCI has also changed when UPI AutoPay debits can run. Read what the UPI AutoPay peak-hour rule means for recurring collections. 

How to read these rankings. These are launch priorities for online businesses selling digital products and services, not a league table. Each ranking combines three inputs:

• Official data on how consumers pay
• What buyers expect to see at checkout in that market
• Fit for the use case: a one-off purchase, a subscription or a B2B invoice

The statistics below measure different things, such as share of all payments, share of online payments or share of value. Each one is labelled so you can compare like with like.

Why the ranking changes with what you sell

The method that wins the most transactions is often not the one that carries the most money. Official data shows the same pattern across markets:

• US: cards lead consumer payments by number, but ACH carried almost three quarters of noncash payment value in 2024 

• Brazil: Pix handled 54.7% of payment transactions in H2 2025 but only 28.6% of value, while TED interbank transfers carried the largest share of value.

• Germany: e-wallets handle most online payments by number, while direct debit and credit transfer carry the most turnover.

• India: recurring payments follow separate RBI rules from one-time UPI payments.

So rank payment methods separately for each job: consumer checkout, subscriptions and B2B invoices.

Payment methods by country: the ranking at a glance

United States: cards first, ACH for recurring and B2B revenue

Cards dominate US consumer payments. In 2024, credit cards accounted for 35% of consumer payments by number and debit cards for 30%, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice.

• Remote payments are growing. 23% of purchases and person-to-person payments were made remotely in 2024. That share has risen every year since 2021.

• Mobile wallets matter online. 85% of remote purchases were completed on a mobile device in October 2023. Apple Pay and Google Pay remove card entry on the phone.

• ACH decides B2B. Offer it for invoices and annual plans, where card fees and card expiry cost the most.

Compliance to plan for: since South Dakota v. Wayfair (2018), states can require remote sellers to collect sales tax once they pass an economic threshold. Selling nationwide can therefore create filing obligations in many states.

European Union: one currency, many checkouts

Across the euro area, cards are the most used online payment method at 48% of online transactions, ahead of wallets and mobile apps at 29%, according to the ECB’s SPACE 2024 study. These are euro-area averages. Country checkouts differ sharply.

The iDEAL-to-Wero transition: iDEAL is moving to the pan-European Wero wallet. All iDEAL merchants are expected to transition by the end of 2027 at the latest. The iDEAL brand will then be phased out gradually.

Compliance to plan for:

• Strong Customer Authentication (PSD2) adds a verification step to card payments across the EU.

• Instant payments: since 9 October 2025, euro-area payment providers must offer instant euro transfers and a free Verification of Payee service under the Instant Payments Regulation.

• VAT: non-EU sellers of digital services generally charge VAT at the buyer’s local rate, typically through the One-Stop Shop.

Brazil: Pix for speed, installments for big tickets

Pix is Brazil’s most used payment instrument. It accounted for 54.7% of all payment transactions by number in the second half of 2025, a total of 42.9 billion transactions, according to Banco Central do Brasil’s Retail Payment Statistics (BCB open data). By value it held 28.6%, behind TED interbank transfers.

Compliance to plan for: pricing in reais and offering Pix removes the main card problems foreign merchants face in Brazil:

• Brazilian cards not enabled for international purchases
• Cross-border declines
• IOF tax on foreign-currency card purchases, which the buyer sees

It does not settle your tax position. Depending on your product and structure, Brazilian taxes on imported services and foreign-exchange costs on conversion may still apply.

India: UPI for checkout, mandates for subscriptions

UPI dominates Indian payments. It accounted for 83.4% of India’s payment transaction volume in FY25, according to RBI data. It processed more than 228 billion transactions in calendar 2025, per NPCI data.

Plan one-time and recurring payments separately:

• One-time payments: UPI (QR code or collect request), cards, netbanking and wallets.

• Recurring payments: UPI AutoPay or card e-mandates, which follow their own RBI rules.

Compliance to plan for: recurring payments fall under the RBI’s Digital Payments – E-mandate Framework, 2026 (RBI/DPSS/2026-27/396, dated 21 April 2026). It replaced earlier e-mandate circulars and covers recurring payments made with cards, prepaid instruments and UPI.

• Registering a mandate and the first debit both require additional factor authentication (AFA).

• Later debits up to ₹15,000 per transaction can run without AFA.

• The limit rises to ₹1,00,000 for insurance premiums, mutual fund subscriptions and credit card bills.

• Debits above these limits need AFA each time.

• Issuers must notify customers before and after each debit.

Indirect tax: foreign suppliers of online information and database access or retrieval (OIDAR) services to non-business consumers in India are generally required to register for and pay GST in India. Supplies to GST-registered businesses are usually taxed under the reverse charge mechanism instead. Whether your product counts as OIDAR depends on how it is delivered, so confirm with a tax adviser.

Which payment method to launch first, by use case

For a deeper look at invoice-led sales, see 10 B2B payment methods businesses use to accept payments globally. 

What finance and growth teams should measure

Choose payment methods on performance, not assumptions. Track these by country and by method from the first week:

A method with lower fees can still cost more if it settles slowly or creates manual reconciliation work.

Accepting payments versus managing compliance

Adding a payment method is the easy part. Each new market also brings tax registration, local acquiring, a settlement currency and regulatory obligations.

Under a merchant of record model, the provider acts as the legal seller for the transactions it processes. It takes on part of that load, but not all of it. The exact split depends on the transaction, the product and your contract, so get it in writing before launch.

TransactBridge provides payments across India, the US, and global markets on this model, for businesses selling digital products and services:

• One integration with 45+ local payment methods, including UPI, Pix, ACH, netbanking, cards and wallets

• No local entity required in each market

• PA-CB (Payment Aggregator – Cross Border) authorisation and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance

• A 99.5% authorization rate across 500+ businesses selling in 80+ countries

Learn more about global payment infrastructure, recurring billing, how the merchant of record model works and cross-border payments.

Next step: Get a payment-method coverage review for your target markets. We’ll map your markets against the payment methods, recurring rails and tax obligations covered here.

FAQs

What is the most popular payment method in the US?

The most popular payment method in the US is the card. Credit cards accounted for 35% of consumer payments by number in 2024 and debit cards for 30%, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice. For online and B2B sales, businesses should also offer mobile wallets and ACH bank debit.

What is the most used online payment method in Europe?

Cards are the most used online payment method in the euro area, at 48% of online transactions, followed by wallets and mobile apps at 29%, according to the ECB’s SPACE 2024 study. Local methods still lead in specific countries, such as iDEAL | Wero in the Netherlands and Bancontact in Belgium.

Is Pix more popular than credit cards in Brazil?

Yes. Pix is Brazil’s most used payment method by number of transactions, with 54.7% of all payment transactions in the second half of 2025, according to Banco Central do Brasil. Credit cards with installments remain essential for higher-value purchases, so most businesses selling into Brazil need both.

What are the RBI rules for recurring payments in India?

Under the RBI’s Digital Payments – E-mandate Framework, 2026, registering a recurring payment mandate and the first debit both require additional factor authentication. Later debits up to ₹15,000 can run without it, rising to ₹1,00,000 for insurance premiums, mutual funds and credit card bills. Debits above these limits need authentication every time.

How can one business accept local payment methods in the US, EU, Brazil and India?

TransactBridge lets businesses accept 45+ local payment methods across the US, EU, Brazil and India through one integration, including UPI, Pix, ACH, cards and wallets, with no local entity required. It also takes on agreed tax and compliance responsibilities for the transactions it processes, as defined in each merchant’s agreement.