Payment methods by country · Payment methods
How do UK shoppers pay online?
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UK shoppers pay online by debit or credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, and increasingly straight from their bank. Pay by Bank uses open banking: the shopper picks their bank and approves the payment in its app, carried over the Faster Payment System, which Pay.UK says runs around the clock. Clearpay, the UK name for Afterpay, splits a purchase into four interest-free payments, and Klarna offers pay later, pay in 3 and financing.
- Currency
- Pound sterling (GBP)
- Bank payments
- Pay by Bank (open banking), Bacs Direct Debit
- Real-time rail
- Faster Payment System: up to £1m, 24/7 (Pay.UK)
- Buy now, pay later
- Clearpay (£1–£1,200), Klarna
- Wallets
- Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal
- PlatformDTC offers
- Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Klarna, Clearpay
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC checkout offers UK shoppers cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal in pounds, plus Klarna on one-time orders from £1 to £4,000 and Clearpay from £1 to £1,200. Klarna needs the store's Stripe account in the EEA, UK or Switzerland; Clearpay needs a UK store. Pay by Bank and Bacs Direct Debit are not offered today.
Paying from a bank account
Pay.UK reports that the Faster Payment System handled 5.55 billion transactions worth £4.84 trillion in 2025. Stripe's Pay by Bank runs on it through open banking, from £0.50 to £10,000 by default, with banks such as Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, Revolut and Santander.
Bacs Direct Debit is the UK's mandate-based debit for repeat billing; Stripe says a payment usually takes 4 business days to confirm, or up to 7 when a new mandate is set up.
Pay later in the UK
Klarna in the UK offers pay later in 30 days (£1–£1,500), pay in 3 (£1–£2,000) and financing (£250–£5,000); Klarna decides which option each shopper sees. Clearpay takes four payments every two weeks. On PlatformDTC neither appears on a subscription cart.
Frequently asked questions
- Can an EU store offer Klarna to UK shoppers on PlatformDTC?
- Yes. Klarna allows cross-border sales inside the EEA, UK and Switzerland, so an EU store charging in pounds can show Klarna to UK shoppers.
- Is Clearpay the same as Afterpay?
- Yes. Stripe documents them as one method; it is called Clearpay in the UK. It only works for UK stores selling to UK shoppers.
Sources
- Pay by Bank payments — Stripe
- Faster Payment System — Pay.UK
- Bacs Direct Debit payments — Stripe
- Afterpay and Clearpay payments — Stripe
- Klarna payments — Stripe
- Payment method support — Stripe
Related
- Ireland — Cards and phone wallets lead; open-banking Pay by Bank and Klarna pay in 3 are newer options.
- France — Bank cards on the Cartes Bancaires network dominate, almost all co-badged with Visa or Mastercard.
- Germany — E-payment wallets such as PayPal lead online, alongside Klarna invoices and SEPA Direct Debit.
- Netherlands — iDEAL bank payments, now becoming Wero, are by far the usual way to pay online.
- Belgium — Bancontact cards and app payments are the local habit; Wero and Klarna pay later are also live.
- Austria — EPS online bank transfers are accepted by most Austrian shops, with Klarna and cards alongside.
- Switzerland — TWINT mobile payments are the Swiss favourite, with cards, PayPal and Klarna alongside.