According to Online Shopping in Spain—a report published in 2025 by the Spanish National Observatory for Technology and Society (ONTSI)—93.5% of customers who shop online consider online shopping secure. However, almost 55% of those surveyed perceive payment process security as “improvable” or “very improvable.”

In fact, almost one in four online shoppers that avoid shopping from their smartphones say they do so because of a lack of security. Ultimately, improving the perception of security when accepting online payments can have a direct impact on a business’s potential audience. One way for businesses to achieve that goal is to implement the most secure online payment methods in Spain.

In this article, we explain which payment methods minimize the risk of online fraud, when it’s best for customers to use them, and how to implement them in your ecommerce business.

What’s in this article?

• Which online payment methods in Spain are the most secure?
  
• Common types of online payment fraud in Spain
  
• How to improve payment security in an ecommerce store
  
• How Stripe protects companies against fraud
  
• FAQs about the most secure online payment methods in Spain
  

Which online payment methods in Spain are the most secure?

According to data from the ONTSI report Online Shopping in Spain, 37% of online shoppers consider payment security “acceptable.” Below, we explain which online payment methods help customers perceive the shopping experience as more secure.

Bizum

Many customers consider Bizum to be the most secure way to pay online. This is due to the ease of confirming and canceling transactions. In addition, customers only have to enter phone numbers to complete payments, instead of card or account numbers.

Because Bizum was developed by several Spanish financial institutions and payment associations, it includes the same security measures as banking apps. To further enhance security, some banks apply their own restrictions to Bizum payments, such as maximum amounts and other limits.

Digital wallets

Digital wallets—also known as “e-wallets”—offer a high level of security by using modern security measures, such as biometric data or one-time codes generated by mobile payment technology. By using these measures, digital wallets reduce the risk of fraud and strengthen customer trust.

Even so, it is important to keep apps and mobile devices updated for these security measures to be truly effective. This requirement can generate some customer distrust, especially among those who use older devices that no longer receive updates.

Cards

For online purchases with cards, companies use the 3D Secure authentication protocol. However, the level of security depends on the features or additional protection measures of some cards.

For example, companies can set specific spending limits on corporate cards, making them a highly secure payment method. Prepaid and virtual cards offer additional layers of security. A virtual card avoids exposing the details of the card associated with the bank account. Prepaid cards limit financial losses in case of fraud by requiring the manual addition of funds.

Direct debits

Payments by direct debit provide an additional layer of security by requiring the customer to sign a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) mandate. This means customers avoid unauthorized charges, and businesses minimize fraud.

According to a Stripe report, online fraud—such as customer claims against unauthorized charges—is a growing concern among companies with recurring revenue models, especially those that sell to individuals (i.e., B2C). Direct debits help reduce this concern by requiring the customer’s signature, which demonstrates their consent to carry out the collections.

Bank transfers

Bank transfer payments are processed on the bank’s platform. Therefore, customers can avoid entering sensitive data on the ecommerce store’s site by sending it through the banking portal instead. Typically, banking portals implement effective security measures, such as two-factor authentication.

This makes bank transfers a secure online payment method, especially ordinary bank transfers that allow customers to review the payment online before the payment processes. However, instant bank transfers are less secure for customers because they cannot cancel transfers in cases of fraud, such as identity theft.

Cash on delivery (COD)

COD is a particularly secure method for shoppers because they do not have to pay until they receive their orders. They also don’t need to enter their bank details in the online store. However, conflicts can arise with the courier if the customer wants to open the package before paying. Some courier companies require their employees to receive payment before delivering the order or allowing it to be handled.

Despite this potential drawback, COD is the ideal option for the 6.5% of shoppers in Spain who perceive the online buying process as “very unsecure,” according to the ONTSI report Online Shopping in Spain. Those shoppers stated that the fear of not receiving products is one of the reasons they refrain from online shopping.

Payment method advantages, disadvantages, and ideal use cases in Spain

Common types of online payment fraud in Spain

In today’s digital society, fraud is a constant risk with online payments. According to a Mastercard study, around 80% of Spaniards were victims of an attempted scam in 2025. With online payments, fraud can happen because some payment methods are more vulnerable and prone to it. Below, we discuss some of the most common types of fraud.

Phishing attacks

By sending emails that attempt to impersonate a well-known brand (e.g., a bank, store, or government entity), fraudulent actors collect login credentials, passwords, or card information.

In 2024, over 21,000 cases of phishing were recorded in Spain, according to the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE).

Card testing fraud

Once a fraudulent actor steals debit or credit card credentials through techniques such as phishing, they might execute card testing fraud next. This involves making several purchase attempts on ecommerce sites to find out which cards remain active. Then, they can use the active cards to make unauthorized, high-value purchases or sell the card details.

To prevent this from happening in your ecommerce store, it is important to implement payment fraud detection and prevention measures that do not focus solely on identifying large or unusual purchases. For example, it is advisable to also verify additional information, such as billing addresses.

Chargeback fraud

A chargeback occurs when a customer files a dispute with their bank about a payment in order to reverse the transfer of funds after a purchase. There are cases where chargebacks are legitimate, such as when a customer discovers that they have been charged after canceling a subscription. However, some chargebacks can be used to carry out fraudulent actions.

As revealed in Mastercard’s 2025 Global Chargebacks Outlook, businesses identify 45% of chargebacks as fraudulent.

How to improve payment security in an ecommerce store

Improving payment security is beneficial for both businesses and customers. For businesses, it means a decrease in chargebacks, fraud attempts, and losses. For customers, knowing their data is protected can provide peace of mind and trust in the purchasing process. Below, we provide a list of the most effective strategies to increase the security of online payments:

• Implement SCA requirements
  SCA is a regulation that requires companies to incorporate an additional authentication step into their checkout flows. Nearly 69% of businesses say that implementing SCA has reduced chargebacks, according to the Online Payment Methods and Fraud Report.
  
• Verify the billing address
  An effective technique for preventing fraud is to compare the billing address the customer provides with the one on file with the card issuer. To facilitate this task, businesses can use an increasingly popular tool among companies in Spain: address verification service (AVS). Another option is to implement Know Your Customer (KYC) to verify customers’ identities before they contract services or make online purchases.
  
• Introduce an antifraud tool
  Antifraud tools analyze each customer’s behavior to determine the likelihood that the transaction is fraudulent. These tools are especially useful for ecommerce businesses that handle high volumes of transactions. For example, Stripe Radar—an antifraud solution—natively integrates at all levels of the payment platform to identify and prevent fraud in real time.
  
• Tokenize payments
  Payment tokenization is a security technique that involves replacing confidential payment information—such as debit or credit card numbers—with a unique set of random characters called “tokens.” This measure helps ensure the security of payments in ecommerce stores because it prevents sensitive data from being exposed during transactions. This can minimize the likelihood of unauthorized access or misuse.
  

How Stripe protects companies against fraud

According to the same Mastercard study, 74% of Spanish shoppers trust their financial providers’ ability—more than their own ability—to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. This is similar to companies that rely on payment providers to ensure the security of transactions and protect against fraud.

For example, Stripe Payments—the company’s payment platform—has the strictest security certifications in the industry. Furthermore, it complies with all current regulations to accept payments from customers in more than 195 countries and supports more than 100 forms of online payment.

Additionally, Stripe Radar maintains a perfect balance among authentication, cost, and protection. Using artificial intelligence (AI), this antifraud tool analyzes each payment before it affects your business, reducing fraud by an average of 38%. If a payment is classified as high risk, Radar adaptively applies 3D Secure authentication to more accurately identify fraudulent actors and prevent legitimate customer transactions from being blocked.

Stripe also complies with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). This legislation protects customer information in online transactions and gives customers the right to control who can access their financial data.

FAQs about the most secure online payment methods in Spain