This dossier presents facts and statistics on payment methods in different situations in Belgium. This topic is meant to answer questions like "do Belgian consumers prefer to pay for their offline retail purchases with cash money?", "do Belgians use credit cards during online shopping?" and "are contactless payments a big deal in the country?"

This dossier looks at both offline and online payments. Belgian payment is unique, though, in that it has a domestic payment method that can be used in both situations: Bancontact (first called "Mr Cash"). This system uses debit cards from over 20 Belgian banks. In early 2019, Bancontact merged with payment app Payconiq to become "Payconiq by Bancontact". No numbers were available (yet) on this new service, hence Payconiq and Bancontact are mentioned seperately in this dossier.

The dossier cannot answer questions about Samsung Pay, Venmo or Swish in Belgium, as none of these payment services are present in the country. Both Apple Pay and Google Pay are available in the country. Note that we also offer other dossiers with a more specific focus on certain aspects talked about here. These dossiers include:

• Payment methods in the Benelux;
• Contactless payments and near field communication (NFC) payments in the Benelux;
• Cross-border online shopping in Belgium.