Alternative payment methods for modern businesses: a must or an advantage

In this guide, we explain what alternative payment methods are, how many exist, which types matter most, how preferences break down by region and industry and how businesses can add the right APM mix without overcomplicating their payment stack.

What are alternative payment methods?

Alternative payment methods, or APMs, are any methods other than traditional credit or debit cards issued by major international networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) or physical cash.

Simply put, they're the ways customers pay using bank accounts, digital wallets, mobile devices, or region-specific networks.

When a payment method handles the majority of transactions in its home market, calling it 'alternative' is a matter of convention, not reality. What ties APMs together is that they are built around how consumers in specific markets actually want to pay — often with one-tap checkout, biometric authentication, or instant bank-level confirmation.

The term ‘alternative’ is a Western-centric one — it describes what falls outside the card-dominant payment culture of North America and Western Europe. Zoom out, and the picture looks different:

In China and Southeast Asia, digital wallets and QR-based payments are the default. In India, UPI handles 85%⁠ of all digital payments. In Brazil, Pix reaches 93%⁠ of the adult population — more than 170 million people, including 60 million who do not hold a credit card. In the Netherlands, 73%⁠ of all online purchases are made via iDEAL.

Types of alternative payment methods

APM categories differ in how funds move, who holds the customer relationship, and what infrastructure lies beneath. These distinctions matter operationally for routing logic, settlement timing, fraud exposure, and reconciliation.

Below are the most common alternative payment option types you'll see globally, what makes each one distinct, and where they typically fit best in the checkout experience.

Digital wallets

Digital wallets store payment credentials — cards, bank accounts, or a prepaid balance — and let users pay without re-entering details at checkout. The wallet relationship sits with the provider, not the card network. Providers like PayPal, Alipay, and WeChat Pay hold the customer relationship end-to-end and may also support peer-to-peer transfers, balance top-ups, and loyalty programmes.

In Europe, digital wallets held 33%⁠ of the online transaction share in 2025 and are projected to reach 46% by 2030. PayPal alone has 213.7 million⁠ monthly active users in the US, 111 million in Germany, and 55.2 million in the UK.

Examples: PayPal, Alipay, WeChat Pay, GrabPay, Mercado Pago, Skrill, Neteller, Venmo.

Best for: Fast checkout, cross-border sales, markets with strong wallet preference, recurring purchases.

Mobile wallets (pass-through)

Mobile wallets⁠ — sometimes called pass-through wallets — do not hold a balance. Instead, they tokenise an existing card or bank account and authenticate payments via device biometrics (Face ID or fingerprint). The card network still processes the transaction; the wallet removes the friction of manual card entry and adds a security layer through tokenisation.

This distinction matters for payment teams: digital wallets route through the wallet provider; mobile wallets route through the underlying card network. Fraud profile, settlement, and interchange all differ accordingly.

Examples: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay.

Best for: Mobile checkout, in-app purchases, one-click flows, any context where reducing steps drives conversion.

Bank transfers and open banking

Bank transfers move funds directly from a customer's bank account to the merchant, with the customer authorising the payment in their banking app.

Traditional bank transfers (SEPA Credit Transfer, SWIFT) remain common for high-value and B2B transactions, where delayed settlement is acceptable. Open banking⁠-powered transfers, enabled by frameworks like PSD2⁠ in Europe, are built for consumer e-commerce: they are push payments (the customer initiates the transfer), with instant or near-instant confirmation and no interchange fees⁠.

The difference between direct bank transfer and open banking matters: a traditional SEPA transfer may take one to two business days to settle; an open banking payment is real-time and confirmed at the point of purchase. For merchants, both eliminate card interchange costs — typically the largest component of payment processing fees.

Capgemini projects instant payments will reach 22%⁠ of global non-cash volume by 2028, with Europe as a primary driver.

Examples: iDEAL (Netherlands), BLIK (Poland), Sofort/Klarna Pay Now (DACH), Trustly (Europe), SEPA Instant (EU), Faster Payments (UK), Open Banking (UK), Przelewy24 (Poland), EPS (Austria).

Best for: High-trust local payments, low-fraud flows, subscription billing, markets where cards are less dominant.

🗺Get your global payment navigator

Download our guide to get more tips on how to choose the best payment methods for your business in all markets across the globe.

Learn more

Real-time payment networks

Real-time payment networks are government-built or central-bank-operated rails that move money between bank accounts in seconds, 24/7, using mobile apps, QR codes, or phone numbers as identifiers. They are not an alternative to the dominant payment method in their home markets — they are the dominant payment method.

In India and Brazil — two of the world's largest and fastest-growing e-commerce markets — real-time payment⁠ networks have already won out over cards.

Examples: UPI (India), Pix (Brazil), PayNow (Singapore), PromptPay (Thailand), Blik (Poland), Wero (Germany, France, Belgium).

Best for: Merchants entering high-growth markets with low card penetration; high-frequency, low-friction consumer payments.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL)

BNPL⁠ lets customers split a purchase into instalments, typically interest-free, over three or four payments, or with longer-term financing. The merchant receives the full amount upfront from the BNPL provider, which then collects it from the consumer.

BNPL increases average order value and improves conversion for higher-ticket purchases, particularly among younger, credit-constrained shoppers.

The global BNPL market is projected to reach $37.21 billion⁠ by 2030, growing at a 27.5% CAGR — even as regulators in markets like the UK and Australia tighten oversight. Consumer appetite, particularly in fashion, electronics, and home goods, has proven resilient to that scrutiny.

Examples: Klarna, Afterpay/Clearpay, Affirm, Zip, PayPal Pay Later, Tabby and Tamara (MENA).

Best for: Higher-ticket items, conversion uplift at checkout, shoppers seeking budget flexibility.

📚BNPL for merchants in 2026: models, providers & evaluation framework

Learn more

Direct debit payments

Direct debit⁠ lets a merchant pull payments from a customer's bank account on a recurring schedule, with prior authorisation (a mandate). It is the structural foundation of subscription billing in Europe and Australia — used by SaaS platforms, gyms, utilities, and streaming services.

The core advantage for subscription businesses is durability: once a mandate is set up, it continues until cancelled. There is no card expiry to manage, no token to refresh, and no failed renewal from a card replacement. The trade-off is settlement timing (one to three business days in most markets) and the possibility of mandate disputes.

Examples: SEPA Direct Debit (EU), Bacs Direct Debit (UK), ACH Debit (US), BECS (Australia), eMandates.

Best for: Subscriptions, memberships, recurring invoices, utility payments.

Domestic card schemes

Domestic card schemes operate similarly to Visa and Mastercard but are specific to a single market. They are often preferred locally because they are tailored to local consumer behaviour and offer merchants lower processing costs. Many companies co-badge with international networks to gain cross-border acceptance, but in their home markets, they frequently lead.

Missing a dominant domestic scheme in your checkout can be as damaging as missing a wallet or bank transfer option, particularly in regulated or card-mature markets.

Examples: Cartes Bancaires (France), Bancontact (Belgium), Mada (Saudi Arabia), RuPay (India), Troy (Turkey), Multibanco (Portugal), Carte Bleue (France).

Best for: Merchants targeting specific card-mature markets; reducing interchange costs vs international card rails.

Carrier billing

Carrier billing charges a purchase directly to the customer's mobile phone bill or deducts from prepaid credit. Authentication is automatic via the mobile network, making low-value digital purchases low-friction. It is particularly relevant in markets where traditional financial infrastructure is limited, and among younger demographics without credit cards.

Examples: Boku (global), operator-specific billing in Southeast Asia, LATAM, and Africa.

Best for: Digital content, streaming subscriptions, micro-transactions, emerging markets, unbanked users.

Prepaid vouchers and cash-based payments

Prepaid vouchers allow customers to pay online using cash purchased at retail outlets. At checkout, the customer selects the option, receives a barcode or unique code, pays at a participating store, and the merchant ships once payment is confirmed. This bridges the gap between cash economies and e-commerce, reaching unbanked or privacy-conscious consumers who would otherwise be excluded from online commerce.

Prepaid cards load a fixed balance and work like debit cards without requiring a bank account. Both types offer zero chargeback risk beyond the loaded amount.

Examples: PaysafeCard (Europe), Neosurf (Europe, Australia), OXXO (Mexico), Boleto Bancário (Brazil), Multibanco (Portugal), retail cash barcodes.

Best for: Cash-reliant markets, privacy-seeking users, gaming and digital goods, and unbanked audiences.

Virtual cards

Virtual cards are digital, often single-use card numbers generated for a specific transaction or merchant. They run on standard card rails but add a security layer by preventing the exposure of real card details. Increasingly used for both consumer online shopping and corporate expense management.

Examples: Revolut virtual cards, Wise digital cards, tokenised cards via Apple Pay/Google Pay, and corporate virtual card programs.

Best for: Safer online card payments, B2B controlled spending, and subscription management.

Cryptocurrency

Crypto payments allow customers to pay using decentralised digital currencies. Mainstream adoption remains limited for consumer e-commerce — volatility and settlement complexity are real constraints. Stablecoin⁠ payments (pegged to fiat, such as USDC) are growing in B2B and cross-border contexts where traditional settlement is slow or expensive.

Examples: Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, platform-native crypto checkout solutions.

Best for: Cross-border B2B, crypto-native businesses, markets with currency instability.

Global alternative payment methods by region

What feels like a natural payment choice in one market can feel unfamiliar or unavailable in another. Regional APM coverage is the variable that most directly determines checkout conversion in each market.

The map below shows which APM category dominates in each market — hover over any country to see the leading methods and key data points. Grey countries indicate markets where payment method data is limited, no single APM category is dominant, or the market is not relevant for international merchants.

Below is how the shift plays out across major markets and what it means for your payment mix.

Popular alternative payment solutions in Europe

Europe is steadily moving from a card-first default toward wallets and bank-based payments, driven by the maturity of open banking and the rollout of SEPA Instant across the eurozone. According to the Global Payments Report 2025 by Worldpay, digital wallets hold 33% of the European online transaction share and are projected to reach 46% by 2030. In the UK, that figure is expected to reach 58%⁠ market share by 2030.

Europe's payment landscape is highly fragmented by country, which means a pan-European checkout strategy is not the same as a localised one:

What it means for merchants: Success in Europe increasingly requires a per-country APM strategy rather than a single European one. iDEAL in the Netherlands, BLIK in Poland, Bancontact in Belgium — each is the expected default in its market. Missing one of these can become a conversion problem.

Popular alternative payment methods in APAC

APAC⁠ is the world's most APM-driven region. Here, wallets and QR-based payments overtook cards early on. Super-apps like WeChat, Alipay, Grab, and GoPay turned mobile payments into a daily habit long before many Western markets caught up. Worldpay highlights⁠ APAC as the most wallet-forward region and notes the long-term surge of wallets and mobile payments globally.

UPI alone accounts for 85% of India's digital payments and roughly 49% of global real-time payment volume. Alipay and WeChat Pay together serve over one billion active users. In Southeast Asia, GrabPay and GoPay have embedded payments into the same apps people use to order food and book rides.

What it means for merchants: If you want to convert customers in APAC, wallet-first checkout experiences are a baseline expectation. Card-only checkout will consistently underperform across China, Southeast Asia, and increasingly India.

Popular alternative payment methods in North America

North America⁠ remains card-centric, but cards are increasingly used in wallets rather than entered manually. Digital wallet share is projected to reach 52% by 2030; in Canada, 47%. PayPal dominates digital wallet usage; Apple Pay leads mobile.

BNPL has also carved out a stable place at checkout across many categories, especially for shoppers who want flexibility without leaving the purchase flow.

What it means for merchants: APMs in North America are primarily a conversion booster. Wallets reduce friction for mobile shoppers; BNPL improves checkout completion for larger purchases. ACH/bank transfers are a viable low-cost option for recurring billing.

Popular alternative payment methods in Latin America

LATAM is leapfrogging traditional payment models— moving directly from cash to instant transfers and mobile wallets, bypassing the card-dominant stage entirely. According to Statista, digital wallets account for 22% of regional e-commerce total payment volume and are projected to reach 29% by 2030.

Pix is the clearest illustration of what instant adoption looks like when a payment method is built around financial inclusion. Launched by Brazil's central bank in November 2020, it reached 93%⁠ of Brazil's adult population — over 170 million users — within a few years, including 60 million who do not own a credit card. It’s free for consumers, available 24/7, and instant. Pix is on track to overtake credit cards as Brazil's leading e-commerce payment method.

Beyond Brazil, OXXO vouchers in Mexico serve a large unbanked population, while Mercado Pago dominates across several Spanish-speaking markets.

What it means for merchants: Winning LATAM requires supporting instant A2A transfers, digital wallets, and cash-based digital alternatives. Card-only checkout will lose both conversion and accessibility in most major LATAM markets.

Popular alternative payment methods in the Middle East and North Africa

MENA is one of the fastest-growing⁠ digital payments regions globally, driven by government-led cashless initiatives, high smartphone penetration, and a young, tech-fluent population. Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia are actively building toward cashless economies through digital ID systems, national instant-payment schemes, and regulated fintech expansion.

Key APMs in MENA:

• Mada (Saudi Arabia) — the dominant domestic card scheme for online and in-store payments
• STC Pay (Saudi Arabia) — leading mobile wallet with millions of active users
• Apple Pay — high adoption in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, driven by iPhone penetration
• Fawry (Egypt) — cash-based digital payments network with 30M+ registered users; critical for reaching Egypt's large unbanked population
• Tabby and Tamara — BNPL providers growing rapidly across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait; particularly strong in fashion and lifestyle categories
• OPay (Egypt, Nigeria) — mobile wallet bridging banked and unbanked

The MENA region also has a significant unbanked population — particularly in Egypt and parts of the Levant — making cash-based digital alternatives (vouchers, e-cash networks) as important as mobile wallets.

What it means for merchants: MENA is not a monolithic market. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have different card penetration levels, dominant methods, and regulatory environments. A MENA-ready payment strategy needs, at a minimum, Mada for Saudi Arabia, a recognised mobile wallet layer, and a BNPL option for higher-ticket categories.

Top alternative payment methods in iGaming

iGaming is one of the verticals most dependent on a broad and well-optimised APM stack and one of the most demanding to get right.

The reasons are structural – players deposit and withdraw frequently, often in multiple currencies, across markets with varying regulatory environments. Card acceptance is restricted in many iGaming-licensed jurisdictions (particularly the UK, where credit card gambling was banned in 2020⁠). High-risk classification by card networks means higher decline rates and more chargebacks on card transactions than in most other verticals.

APMs solve several of these problems simultaneously:

• E-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, MuchBetter) are the de facto standard for iGaming players, because they offer fast deposits, near-instant withdrawals, and a layer of separation between the player's primary bank account and the gaming platform. Many players maintain a wallet specifically for gaming spend.
• Prepaid vouchers (PaysafeCard, Neosurf) are favoured by players who prefer anonymity or spend controls. No bank account required; no chargeback possible.
• Bank transfers and open banking are growing as a low-friction deposit channel, particularly in markets where wallets are less entrenched. BLIK in Poland and iDEAL in the Netherlands have high iGaming adoption.
• Crypto remains niche but is specifically relevant for platforms operating in markets where traditional banking access to iGaming is restricted.
• BNPL is generally not appropriate for iGaming — most jurisdictions prohibit credit-funded gambling, and responsible gambling frameworks explicitly exclude instalment payment products.

APM approval rates in iGaming face an additional structural challenge: without a PAN-equivalent identifier, routing engines have less signal to work with per method. This is addressed through customer-to-provider binding and smart retry flows — a topic covered in depth in our guide to APM approval rates⁠.

The right APM mix for an iGaming platform depends heavily on licensed markets. A UK-licensed operator needs Pay by Bank and Skrill/Neteller as table stakes. A platform targeting Nordics and Eastern Europe needs BLIK, Trustly, and local wallets. A platform with an MGA licence targeting Southern Europe and LATAM needs a different set again.

Advantages of alternative payment methods

Alternative payment methods are among the most reliable ways to boost conversion and keep payments resilient across markets. As APMs now drive about two-thirds⁠ of global e-commerce value, they've become the default expectation for a huge share of customers. Accepting alternative payment methods brings many benefits to online businesses, including more sales, improved customer experience, and higher conversions by meeting customer preferences and enabling seamless online purchases.

Here's the breakdown:

• Higher checkout conversion. Cart abandonment when the preferred payment method is missing ranges from 44–56%, depending on the demographic. Adding the right local wallets, instant transfers, or BNPL directly removes the friction that causes that abandonment.

• Better mobile performance. Mobile shoppers want tap-and-go flows, not form-filling. Wallets and mobile payments compress checkout to seconds, mirroring how people already buy in apps and on phones. Worldpay highlights⁠ mobile-led APM growth as a primary driver of the new payments mix.

• Access to new markets and underserved customers. In high-growth markets — India, Brazil, Southeast Asia, MENA — a significant share of the addressable customer base either lacks a card or prefers not to use one. APMs are the only way to reach them. Pix in Brazil reaches 60 million consumers without a credit card. Fawry in Egypt reaches a large unbanked population via cash-based digital payments. Without these methods, those customers do not exist in your checkout funnel.

• Higher approvals with lower fraud risk. Many APMs, especially digital wallets and bank-authenticated A2A, verify users in trusted environments (biometrics, banking apps) and use tokenisation⁠ to prevent real card or account details from being exposed. That combination reduces fraud and chargeback pressure and typically improves authorisation success compared with manual card entry, resulting in fewer false declines at checkout.

• Cost optimisation when orchestrated. APMs often carry different — and in many cases lower — fee structures than card payments. Bank transfers and A2A methods typically carry no interchange fees⁠. When routed intelligently across providers, the right APM mix lets you balance conversion rate and processing cost per market, ticket size, and risk profile.

• Customer trust and loyalty. In markets where an APM is the established norm, offering it signals that you understand the local market. Customers are more likely to complete a purchase — and return — at a merchant whose checkout reflects how they already pay in everyday life.

💥Free payment routing guide

Explore proven strategies to improve your transaction success rates.

Download

Challenges and risks to consider when implementing APMs

APMs can boost conversion and unlock new markets, but every new method changes your payment stack⁠, checkout UX, and ops workload. Here's what to watch out for.

• Complexity grows quickly. Each APM has its own API, flow, certificate, and update cycle. Add several directly, and you end up with a patchwork of SDKs, redirects, and version changes to maintain. Development capacity shifts from product to payment infrastructure.
• Performance and fraud profiles are uneven by market. A method that performs strongly in one country may underperform in another due to differences in bank behaviour, provider uptime, or consumer familiarity. Fraud patterns also differ by APM type — A2A vs vouchers vs BNPL each carry different risk profiles, and one-size-fits-all risk rules will not hold across all of them.
• Checkout UX can degrade. Too many options, inconsistent UX patterns, or showing the wrong methods to the wrong users can create more friction than a simpler checkout. Decision paralysis and mobile drop-off are real risks when APM selection is not managed carefully.
• Operations get heavier. Unlike cards, APMs do not follow a single rulebook for settlement timing, refund logic, dispute handling, or reporting formats. Finance and support teams absorb this complexity first — in the form of reconciliation work, slower refunds, and unclear cash-flow visibility.
• Regulation and lock-in. Some APMs require local licensing, data residency compliance, or approval from a specific regulatory body. Others are tied to a local PSP, and once a method is embedded in your checkout, migrating later is costly and disruptive.

🤔Thinking about a new checkout but not ready to invest blindly?

With this checkout demo editor, you can test-drive the whole experience before making a decision.

Try it

The way to add APMs strategically — by picking for real regional demand, maintaining a clean checkout UX, continuously monitoring performance, and keeping reconciliation manageable — is through payment orchestration⁠. A single orchestration layer connects multiple APMs, handles localisation, routes intelligently across providers, and keeps reporting in one place, without requiring a separate engineering sprint per country or method.

How to implement APMs for your business: 6 essential steps

Accepting alternative online payment methods is an opportunity to grow your sales and attract more customers. So, it would help if you were conscientious about choosing the right ones to provide the smoothest online shopping for your customers.

Here are the steps you can take right now.

Step 1. Determine whether your business actually needs APMs

Not every business needs a broad APM mix from day one. The clearest indicators that you do:

• You sell in markets where cards are not the dominant online payment method
• You are expanding into new geographies
• You serve mobile-heavy audiences or younger demographics
• You operate in iGaming, gaming, forex, or another high-risk vertical with card restrictions
• Your current checkout data shows a high rate of payment method abandonment at the final step

Here are the market segments that require alternative online payment methods — check if your business is among them.

If the answer is 'yes', move to the next step.

Step 2. Map demand by region and customer segment

APMs are never universal. What converts in Germany may be irrelevant in Canada. So before choosing methods, look at:

• Where your traffic comes from/where you plan to expand
• What your users already pay with locally (wallets, A2A, BNPL, vouchers, etc.)
• Device split (mobile-heavy audiences usually expect wallets)

Understanding payment preferences in other countries and targeting new customer segments is essential for successful global expansion, as expanding payment options can attract diverse customers and drive revenue growth.

Step 3. Evaluate each candidate against four criteria

Rank every APM candidate against:

• Expected volume or conversion uplift it will deliver;
• Market coverage relative to your priority geographies;
• Integration and maintenance weight, including checkout UX changes, refund logic, reporting, and risk rules;
• True cost profile, including provider fees, FX, and settlement terms.

Methods that score well across all four are genuine priorities. Those that score well on coverage but poorly on everything else may belong later in the roadmap.

Step 4. Prioritise by impact vs effort

The right 5–7 methods per market will outperform 20 poorly-presented options. Present methods that are genuinely relevant to the customer's location and device. Keep the checkout clean — localise the display, show logos customers recognise, and avoid surfacing methods unlikely to be used in that market. On mobile, prioritise wallet-first flows. Implement a phased rollout by adding APMs in waves, so you get wins without bloating checkout.

Step 5. Pilot + A/B test before full rollout

Start with 1–2 markets or segments. Track:

• conversion uplift vs card-only baseline
• approval rates per method
• drop-off stage in the flow
• refund friction/support tickets
• fraud patterns by method

Output: validated proof of value before you scale complexity.

Step 6. Monitor performance continuously

APM performance varies by provider, time of day, and market conditions, and it shifts over time as demand evolves and providers degrade. Approval rates for APMs often lag card rates because routing engines have less signal to work with: there is no PAN-equivalent identifier for many APM types, which makes precise routing harder to achieve.

After launch, track approval rates, failure codes, and conversion impact per method and per provider. Monitor what each APM actually costs you per approved transaction, how well your fallback logic recovers failed payments, and whether every method is earning its place in the stack in terms of ROI.

Route intelligently – sending every transaction for a given method to the same provider, regardless of past performance, sets a structural ceiling on your results. If a method starts underperforming or becomes too expensive, reroute traffic to a better option or retire it altogether.

Connecting each APM directly means separate contracts, integrations, and maintenance cycles. Payment orchestration solves this by providing a single integration point that connects to multiple APMs and providers, handles routing and cascading logic, and centralises reporting and reconciliation. For businesses adding APMs across multiple markets, the difference in engineering and operational overhead between direct integration and orchestrated integration is significant.

How Corefy helps implement alternative methods

Corefy makes APM adoption practical, not painful. Instead of integrating each method individually, you connect to Corefy once and get a unified layer to add and manage alternative payment options across markets.

Here's what that looks like in real terms:

• One integration – many payment methods. Corefy already comes connected to hundreds of PSPs, acquirers, and local payment providers, so you don't have to integrate them one by one. You simply plug your existing MIDs into Corefy and instantly unlock access to all supported alternative payment methods — wallets, A2A, BNPL, prepaid, and local options — through a single interface. From there, you stay in control: enable or disable methods, switch providers, set routing rules and fallbacks, without rebuilding checkout or running a new development cycle every time you expand or optimise.

• Local methods where they matter. Expanding into new regions? Corefy helps you roll out the APMs customers expect in each market (and hide the ones they don't), so your checkout feels native, not generic.

• Smart routing for higher success rates. You can route payments dynamically by country, currency, traffic source, device, risk profile, or provider performance and set fallbacks if a method or PSP underperforms.

• Less operational chaos. Corefy gives you a single dashboard for analytics, performance tracking, and method management, so finance, support, and product teams don't have to juggle separate provider back offices.

• Faster experimentation, safer scaling. Add a new APM, test it in one market, measure uplift, and scale only if it earns its place without touching core code.

If you're growing locally or going cross-border, we are ready to help you launch the right alternative payment methods quickly and keep checkout clean.