Expanding into a new market is an exciting step for any business, but it’s important to do things right. For example, offering preferred payment methods is one of the best ways to appeal to a new audience.
My online store does business in Hungary, so I’ve collected data on the most popular ways residents pay. You can use this information to decide what payment methods your business should accept to appeal to the Hungarian market.
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5 Top Payment Methods in Hungary
The ecommerce industry in Hungary is growing fast now that over 90% of the population has access to the internet. Recent data shows that 57% of Hungarian residents bought something online in the last 3 months.
Contactless payments are also becoming extremely popular. Hungarians spend about HUF 5.6 billion annually with contactless cards and apps.
Here are some of the most popular payment methods in the country.
1. Mastercard
Mastercard is the most popular credit card in Hungary by quite a large margin. It’s commonly used to make payments both online and in-store. Hungary has been slower than other European countries in taking cashless payments, but adoption has increased over the past 3 years.
Recently, Mastercard published data for 2022 showing an all-time high for card payments in Hungary. Over half of residents use bank-issued cards (of any brand) daily, and 72% of people use their cards more than once per month.
2. Visa
Visa cards are the second most popular credit card in Hungary. Approximately 20% of the nation’s card owners use Visa, most commonly to complete POS purchases and place orders with online stores.
Visa cards are compatible with digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Hungarian cardholders can register for an easy checkout experience with these apps.
3. PayPal
PayPal is commonly used in Hungary for peer-to-peer money transfers and online shopping.
A survey of 1,000 respondents in 2021 showed that PayPal was by far the most commonly used fintech platform, with 65% of the votes. In comparison, Google Pay received 9% and Apple Pay got 6%.
4. Google Pay
Nearly half of Hungary’s internet shopping purchases are made with smartphones, so mobile wallets are becoming more widely used. Around 80% of mobile devices in Hungary use the Android operating system.
Android supports Google Pay, so it’s more popular than Apple Pay for digital wallet payments. More than 90% of cards used in Hungary are global brands like Mastercard and Visa, so most people can easily register their cards in the Google Pay app.
5. Apple Pay
Although Apple products are significantly less popular than Android devices in Hungary, they still make up 20% of the market.
Apple Pay and other digital wallets are quickly catching up to card-based payments online thanks to the rise in m-commerce. With so much online shopping happening on smartphones, mobile payments are now only 6% behind card payments in Hungary.
The Best Way to Accept Global Payments
Pay.com lets your business accept payments from all over the world. Our global payment processing system protects transactions from common pitfalls that lead to payment denials. You can easily integrate our system into your site, either with a hosted checkout page or our developer-friendly API.
Pay.com also makes it easy to accept a range of popular payment methods, including credit and debit cards, mobile wallets, and payment apps, to provide your customers with extra convenience.
Plus, with top-level PCI DSS compliance, you can rest easy knowing that you’re meeting the highest security standards. Using 3DS2 authentication, we work to keep your business safe from fraudulent transactions while maintaining a frictionless checkout experience for your customers.
Click here to create your Pay.com account now!
The Bottom Line
Hungary is still in the process of its transition to accessible cashless payments, but the pandemic helped boost its progress. The country’s top payment methods are all globally-used services so it’s fairly easy to provide options many Hungarians prefer.
Partnering with Pay.com allows your business to accept a growing range of payment methods so you can accommodate customers from all over the world. Our commitment to security will let your customers feel comfortable buying with you because we keep their payments as secure as possible.
Pay.com uses global payment processing to help your customers’ transactions go through quickly from anywhere in the world. You can choose from a wide variety of payment methods to provide your customers with a convenient checkout process.
Monica is a journalist with a lifelong interest in technology. She first started writing over ten years ago and has made a career out of it, with a special focus on fintech. She enjoys the challenge of explaining complex topics to a broader audience.
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