How to Accept Payments Online: 8 Methods and What They Cost (2026)

Adding a checkout button is the easy part of accepting payments online.

The money you lose sits in what happens after the payment clears. Which methods do your buyers actually expect? What does an overseas card really cost once the international and conversion surcharges stack up? And where does the money land, in which currency, and how many times does it get converted on the way? Get those wrong and a 2.9% fee quietly becomes 5.4% on an overseas sale that needs converting.

This guide covers the eight main ways to accept payments online, what Stripe and PayPal actually charge in the US and Hong Kong, where the main gateways work, how to set up payments step by step, and how to get paid by international customers without losing margin to conversions. It draws on our payments team's experience supporting over 10,000 business account clients.

Here's how to choose methods your customers trust, at a cost you can live with.

8 Ways to Accept Payments Online

The right mix depends on who your buyers are and where they are. Start with this overview, then read the methods that match your business.

1. Credit and Debit Cards

Cards are the method buyers expect everywhere. Picture a shopper who reaches your checkout and finds no card option: faced with setting up a new wallet or arranging a bank transfer, most will simply buy from a competitor that takes cards. Accept the major networks (Visa, Mastercard® and American Express) through your payment provider.

Cards matter most for ecommerce stores, travel and hospitality businesses with cross-border customers, subscription services, and professional services with international clients who want to pay without waiting on a bank transfer.

2. Bank Transfers

Bank transfers move money directly from your customer's account to yours, usually at a lower fee than cards. In the US, that means ACH payments, electronic transfers between US banks, or eChecks, where the customer enters their account and routing number in an online form. Stripe charges 0.8% for ACH Direct Debit, capped at USD 5, compared with 2.9% + USD 0.30 for a domestic card.

The trade-off is speed. Settlement takes longer than a card payment, so bank transfers suit recurring payments, high-volume B2B invoices and high-ticket purchases better than standard retail checkouts.

3. Mobile Payments

Mobile payments let customers pay from their phone, and the popular options vary sharply by region. Apple Pay and Google Pay are global, Venmo and Cash App are US-centric, and WeChat Pay and Alipay dominate mainland China. If you sell into Hong Kong or China, offering Alipay and WeChat Pay is often what gets the sale. Stripe Hong Kong charges 2.2% + HKD 2.00 for both, and our guide to Hong Kong payment methods covers the local options in more detail.

4. Payment Gateways

A payment gateway is the service that captures your customer's payment details at checkout, encrypts them and passes them on for authorisation. For most small businesses, it comes bundled inside a payment service provider like Stripe or PayPal, so one sign-up gives you the gateway, the processing and the payouts.

• PayPal suits almost any business model and supports invoices and payment links. US fees: 3.49% + a fixed fee for PayPal Checkout and Venmo, 2.99% + a fixed fee for standard card payments, and 4.99% + a fixed fee for Pay Later.
• Stripe embeds a customisable checkout in your site without redirecting the customer, and suits subscription or complex billing models. US fees: 2.9% + USD 0.30 for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% if currency conversion is needed. Stripe Billing costs 0.7% of billing volume on pay-as-you-go pricing, per Stripe's US pricing page.

Our Stripe vs PayPal comparison goes deeper on choosing between the two.

5. Digital Wallets

Digital wallets are now the biggest way people pay online. Per the Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026, digital wallets account for 56% of global ecommerce transaction value, based on a survey of more than 63,000 consumers in 42 markets. If your checkout doesn't show Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal, you are asking shoppers who account for more than half of global ecommerce spending to change how they normally pay.

6. Cryptocurrency

Crypto is still a niche payment method, but adoption is real in some markets. The Chainalysis 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index ranks Brazil first, followed by the US, Nigeria, Japan and South Korea, with India sixth and Thailand eighth. Most businesses that accept crypto do it through a processor that converts to regular currency straight away, which avoids holding a volatile asset. Check your account provider's policy first, because many restrict crypto-linked funds.

7. Click-to-Pay Invoices and Payment Links

Click-to-pay invoices and payment links let a customer pay straight from an email or message, which suits services and B2B sales where every transaction is different. PayPal's US payment links cost 3.49% + USD 0.49 for PayPal methods and 2.99% + USD 0.49 for cards. Automated invoicing software that sends reminders and records payments saves the most time once you have more than a handful of clients.

8. Recurring Billing

Recurring billing charges customers automatically on a schedule, so it is the natural fit for subscriptions and memberships. The key difference from invoicing is automation: you set the plan once and the provider handles each charge, retries and receipts. Budget for the extra cost, such as Stripe Billing's 0.7% on top of card fees, and for failed payments when cards expire.

What Online Payments Actually Cost

Payment fees stack. Most guides quote the domestic card rate, but international sales add surcharges that can nearly double it. The figures below come from each provider's published fee pages, including PayPal's US business fees, as of October 2026.

Stripe and PayPal in the US

On an overseas sale that needs converting, Stripe US charges 2.9% + 1.5% + 1%, so the headline rate is roughly half of what you really pay.

Stripe and PayPal in Hong Kong

For a Hong Kong business selling internationally, conversion is the biggest line. A sale that has to be converted on Stripe Hong Kong costs 3.4% + 0.5% + 2%, or 5.9% plus the fixed fee. The way to cut it is to be paid out in the currency you charged, which the cross-border section below covers.

Where the Main Gateways Work

Gateway availability depends on where your business is registered, not where your customers are. Stripe lists the US, the UK, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore as supported, according to its global availability page. India is in preview, so Indian businesses need to contact Stripe's sales team rather than sign up directly.

PayPal works in a different way in India: businesses there can receive payments from international customers but not domestic payments from Indian customers. If your company is registered in a market with gaps like these, the registration country decides your options before fees do.

How to Set Up Online Payments

Setting up online payments takes five steps, and most businesses can go live within a day.

Step 1: Choose Between a PSP and a Merchant Account

A payment service provider (PSP) such as Stripe, PayPal or Square bundles the gateway, processing and payouts in one sign-up. You can be live in minutes to hours, with no monthly fee on standard plans. A dedicated merchant account gives you your own account with an acquiring bank. It usually means underwriting, a longer setup and monthly fees in exchange for lower per-transaction rates, so it tends to pay off only at high, steady volumes. Start with a PSP and move to a merchant account when the fee savings justify the extra setup.

Step 2: Set Up and Verify Your Account

For a PSP, sign up online, verify your business details and connect the account you want paid into. For a merchant account, apply with your company documents and complete the provider's underwriting and credit checks.

Step 3: Add Payments to Your Website

On an ecommerce platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce, use the built-in payment integrations. On a custom site, add your provider's plugin or code snippet, or use hosted payment links if you don't want to touch code. Offer cards, the digital wallets your buyers use, and bank transfers for larger orders, and connect your provider to your accounting software, such as Xero, so payments reconcile automatically.

Step 4: Test Before You Launch

1. Run test transactions with your provider's test card data.
2. Check that payouts arrive in your account in the currency you expect.
3. Test the checkout on mobile.
4. Go live once every step works.

Step 5: Monitor and Improve

Track conversion rates and cart abandonment, watch for fraudulent transactions and chargebacks, and review which payment methods customers actually use. Drop the ones nobody picks and add the ones your abandoned carts are asking for.

When a customer pays, the gateway encrypts their details and passes them to a processor, which asks the customer's card issuer to authorise the payment. Once it's approved, the funds settle to your provider and are then paid out to your account. Settlement times vary by provider and method, so check your payout schedule before you plan your cash flow around it.

Getting Paid by International Customers

Selling abroad works best when the money lands in the currency it was paid in. Every conversion between your customer's card and your account costs you, and on many setups there are two: once at the payment provider, and again when the payout reaches an account that only holds your home currency.

For a Hong Kong company, the practical setup looks like this:

• Charge in your customers' currencies where your provider allows it, so they see familiar prices.
• Choose your payout currency carefully. Stripe Hong Kong pays out in HKD or USD, so a USD payout to an account that holds USD avoids converting at the payout stage.
• Use an account that holds several currencies. A Statrys business account receives in 11 currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, RMB, JPY and SGD. There are no Statrys charges for receiving HKD or USD from Stripe, or HKD from PayPal Hong Kong.
• Manage what you hold. Holding foreign currency exposes you to rate swings, so it helps to minimise FX exposure by converting on your own schedule rather than at every payout.
• Connect your provider once. Our guide to connecting Stripe to your account walks through the setup, and our PayPal Hong Kong business account review covers PayPal's side.

One thing to be clear on: a Statrys account doesn't accept card payments directly. You collect payments through a provider like Stripe or PayPal, then receive the payouts into Statrys. Our guide to cross-border payments explains the wider set of options for receiving money from abroad.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Accepting Online Payments

How to Choose the Right Payment Provider

Choose a payment provider on total cost, payout speed and currencies, security, and fit with your platform, not on the headline rate.

• Total cost. Add international surcharges, conversion fees, chargeback fees and any monthly charges to the per-transaction rate.
• Payouts. Check how fast funds settle and which currencies you can be paid out in. Faster payouts in the right currency often matter more to cash flow than a slightly lower percentage.
• Security. Your provider should be compliant with PCI DSS, the card industry's security standard. Version 4.0.1 is current, and its future-dated requirements became mandatory on 31 March 2025, per the PCI Security Standards Council.
• Restrictions. Higher-risk industries, such as CBD or some travel businesses, may face provider restrictions or higher rates.

Pricing models matter too. Flat-rate pricing (for example 2.9% + USD 0.30 on every domestic card) is simple and suits startups and lower volumes. Interchange-plus pricing passes on the card networks' actual interchange fee plus a fixed markup, which is harder to predict but often cheaper at high volumes or with a mix of card types. Before you commit, run test transactions in the provider's sandbox and read reviews from businesses like yours.

Bottom Line

Accepting payments online is easy to start and easy to overpay for. Offer cards and the digital wallets your buyers already use, add bank transfers for larger B2B payments, and start with a PSP rather than a merchant account. Then look past the headline fee: on international sales, surcharges and conversions can nearly double what you pay, and the account your payouts land in decides whether you convert twice.