In 2025, according to data from Mastercard, 50.7% of shoppers in Spain used mobile phones to make contactless payments – the highest figure on record.

While most of the users of this technology are younger customers, it is steadily gaining popularity with other demographics. This could be because contactless payments offer many advantages, which explains why more and more businesses in Spain accept them.

In this article, we cover why businesses choose to offer contactless payments and what's required to implement them.

Key takeaways

• Customers typically make contactless payments with debit or credit cards. In Spain, customers can also make payments directly from bank accounts via Bizum Pay.
  
• Customers can complete contactless payments without inserting a card and without the card being physically present. This is because data is transmitted wirelessly via near-field communication (NFC).
  
• Contactless payments are highly secure because of measures such as tokenisation and limits on payments that do not require additional verification.
  

What are contactless payments?

Contactless payments are monetary transactions processed without inserting a credit or debit card into a reader. In the case of digital wallets, a physical card isn’t required for payments.

In Spain, contactless payments are regulated under Royal Decree Law 19/2018 on payment services. This decree implements Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market, which specifically mentions contactless payments in item 96 of the preamble.

How does contactless technology work?

Contactless payments are supported by near-field communication (NFC) technology, which wirelessly transfers data between devices. Cards or digital wallets send the information, and card terminals receive it.

With contactless payments, the point-of-sale (POS) system does not receive the information from the card, only the card terminal does. This is an important distinction because, in Spain, the terms "POS" and "card terminal" are often used interchangeably, even though they differ.

For the transmission of data to take place, the card's built-in chip must have a short-range wireless connection that allows it to receive power. In this case, the card terminal is the device sending power through an electromagnetic field.

While this technology might seem complex, it is a straightforward process for customers:

• Enter the amount: A staff member enters the amount due on the card reader.
  
• Verify the amount: The customer checks that the amount shown on the terminal screen matches the purchase amount.
  
• Unlock the device: The customer unlocks their mobile device using a method such as biometric authentication or a security code.
  
• Select a payment method: The customer selects the stored payment method they want to use. For example, if they use Bizum Pay, they can choose whether to pay by card or with the bank account linked to Bizum.
  
• Make the payment: The customer briefly holds their device near the payment terminal to complete the payment. If they are making a contactless payment with a card, they simply need to tap the card on the terminal.
  

Benefits of contactless payments

The speed of contactless payments benefits both businesses and customers, but there are additional benefits for each group.

For businesses

• Greater customer loyalty: Offering customers' preferred payment methods promotes repeat purchases, and contactless payments are becoming increasingly popular. In the first half of 2025, contactless payments were used for more than 4.7 billion transactions in Spain, with a total value 10% higher than in the same period the previous year.
  
• Increased productivity: Compared to methods such as cash, contactless payments accelerate the customer flow and save time at the checkout stage, boosting the business's productivity.
  
• Enhanced brand image: Offering a relatively modern payment method – first introduced in 1995 – that is more hygienic and eco-friendly can improve the brand's image.
  

For customers

• Convenience: Contactless payments don't require the card to be inserted into the reader. If the customer has a digital wallet, they can pay by simply holding their mobile device (e.g., smartphone or smartwatch) up to the reader.
  
• Security: Contactless payments use secure tokenisation to encrypt card information.
  
• Personal identification number (PIN): In Spain, customers aren't required to enter their PIN for contactless payments up to €50.
  

Most popular contactless payment methods in Spain

According to the European Central Bank, nearly 33 billion contactless payments were made in the eurozone in the second half of 2025. Below, we discuss the most popular methods in Spain.

Digital wallets

Digital wallets are mobile payment applications that are typically designed for smartphones or smartwatches. In Spain, 61% of customers use these devices to make contactless payments.

To access funds, a digital wallet is linked to a credit card, debit card, or bank account. The following are among the most widely used digital wallets in Spain:

• Apple Pay: Apple Pay is a contactless card payment method that works with Apple Wallet, a digital wallet that is compatible with Apple devices.
  
• Google Pay: This contactless card payment method was launched in 2018 following the merger of Android Pay and Google Wallet. According to the Payments and Open Banking Survey, Google Pay and Apple Pay are the preferred solutions for 16% of customers in Spain.
  
• Bizum Pay: Unlike other digital wallets, Bizum Pay supports card payments and also enables non-card payments directly through linked bank accounts. As of August 2026, Bizum Pay was available at more than 85% of payment terminals in Spain.
  

Cards

Payments with NFC-enabled cards have also become increasingly popular in Spain. Cards are the preferred payment method for 67% of customers, according to the Payments and Open Banking Survey. Similar to using mobile devices to make contactless payments, customers simply need to hold their cards near payment terminals.

Bizum

Customers can use Bizum to make in-person payments at businesses. To do so, customers enter the phone numbers linked to their Bizum accounts on the business's payment terminal. Unlike with Bizum Pay, there is no need to hold a mobile device near the terminal, as the transaction is authenticated on the smartphone, smartwatch, or tablet.

How to offer contactless payments to customers in Spain

It can be easy for businesses to enable contactless NFC payments, as long as they use the right technology. Here's a step-by-step guide.

Choose a provider

Select a payment service provider that supports contactless payments and doesn't charge extra fees for using them. For example, Stripe charges the same fees for card payments and digital wallet payments, which were used in 22% of online payments in Spain.

Install a card terminal

The card terminal needs to meet the following criteria:

• Compatible with NFC contactless payment technology
  
• Compliant with International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 14443, the standard that outlines how devices must read information from NFC-enabled cards
  

The card terminal reads the card data and connects with the chosen payment service provider. In Spain, payment terminals have traditionally been provided by banks, but more and more businesses are now choosing bankless card terminals to avoid additional bank contracts.

Stripe Terminal offers advanced card readers that accept card and digital wallet payments, such as the S700 and the BBPOS WisePOS E. These card readers allow you to manage all in-person and online payments through a single, centralised location: Stripe's payments platform.

Train staff

Employees need to know how to use this payment method when customers request it. They also need to be familiar with the decline codes the reader might display when a payment is declined.

Update the terminal

It is important to regularly update the terminal. This helps avoid service interruptions that could impact the internet connection and prevent payments from processing.

Are contactless payments secure?

Contactless payments are highly secure. In fact, this is one of the main reasons their use increased by 11.9% year on year in the first half of 2025, according to Bank of Spain (BdE) data.

To help customers mitigate the risks associated with contactless payments, the BdE shares a number of good practices. These include checking the transaction amount on the payment terminal screen, keeping the paper receipt, or requesting an electronic receipt. In any case, contactless payments are a highly secure payment method because of measures such as the following:

• Transaction limits
  Many financial institutions limit the number of contactless transactions that can be made each day. This helps to prevent a large number of fraudulent transactions if a card or device is lost or stolen.
  
• Protection against unauthorised use
  Access to a device is not enough to make a payment. Before using a card or bank account stored on a mobile device, the customer must unlock it and authorise the transaction. Authorisation methods include facial recognition, fingerprints, or app-specific security codes.
  
• Additional verification
  For payments over €50, the customer must enter their card PIN or verify their identity using their mobile device.
  
• Tokenisation
  A unique token replaces sensitive payment data, such as a card number. This helps prevent exposure of the information.
  
• Device or card proximity
  Making a contactless payment requires deliberately holding the payment device or card close to the terminal. This makes it difficult to charge the card without the customer's consent.
  

How Stripe can help

Stripe Terminal allows businesses to grow their revenue with unified payments across in-person and online channels. It supports new ways to pay, simple hardware logistics, global coverage and hundreds of POS and commerce integrations to design your ideal payments stack.

Stripe powers unified commerce for brands like Hertz, URBN, Lands' End, Shopify, Lightspeed and Mindbody.

Stripe Terminal can help you:

• Unify commerce: Manage online and in-person payments on a global platform with unified payments data.

• Expand globally: Scale to 24 countries with a single set of integrations and popular payment methods.

• Integrate your way: Develop your own custom POS app or connect with your existing tech stack using third-party POS and commerce integrations.

• Simplify hardware logistics: Easily order, manage and monitor Stripe-supported readers, wherever they are.

Learn more about Stripe Terminal or get started today.

FAQs about contactless payments in Spain