Payment methods

Viva supports a wide variety of card schemes, digital wallets, local payment methods, e-banking services and more.

• Overview
  • Payment method messaging
• Available payment methods
  • Cards
  • Digital wallets
  • Local payment methods
  • Direct Debit & other
• Country availability
• Functionality
  • Asynchronous payments
  • Cross-border payments
  • Refunds
  • Recurring payments
  • Pre-authorizations
  • Card installments
  • Card Verification
  • Mastercard Click to Pay
• Payment methods for POS
  • Smart Checkout payment methods
  • Native POS payment methods
• Get Support

Overview

Viva allows merchants to accept payments online, via our plugins, Smart Checkout, and payment tools, and offer multiple payment methods to their customers.

• Offer payment methods familiar to your customers
• Cater to the payment preferences of international customers
• Avoid losing customers by not offering their preferred payment methods
• And thus, increase your conversion rate

In order to be able to offer these payment methods to your customers, the below conditions need to be met:

• First, you need to be eligible for a payment method: this depends on:
  • The country of registration of your Viva account (refer to the ‘Merchant Countries’ column in the tables below)
  • The type of your business (i.e. MCC = Merchant Category Code)
• Then, the payment method needs to be activated for you:
  • Some payment methods are automatically activated for you by us (e.g. Apple Pay)
  • Other payment methods can only be activated by yourself (e.g. PayPal)
  • For other payment methods you need to get in touch with us to activate them for you after a further review of your business (see further below for details)

Payment method messaging

It is important that the customer is aware of the payment methods you offer via Smart Checkout, as this will increase conversion and average order values.

You should let your customers know about the available payment options as they browse your online store, even before they decide to buy. Informing them early on will help the purchase decision, especially when offering BNPL or financing options. Doing so will create trust and let the customer know they can pay with whatever payment method is convenient to them. This is especially helpful for your international customers, as they will know they can pay with their own local payment method, even though they are shopping from a merchant from another country.

Display payment method icons or banners throughout your online store (indicatively: footer, homepage, product display page, cart/basket page, checkout, and so on) to captivate shoppers from the start, make your customers shop with confidence, help shoppers find the answers to their most commonly asked questions, and increase conversion. Especially when offering BNPL or financing options, inform your customers about their options as early as possible.

You can potentially include icons of the offered payment methods in:

• The footer or header of your online store
• The individual product pages
• The checkout page before redirecting the customer to Smart Checkout

Consider also including an FAQ to tell your customers everything they want to know about how to buy from you and all the payment methods you offer. This way, you’ll reduce any friction in the purchase journey as well as reducing contacts to your customer service team.

Available payment methods

Cards

Payment Method	Merchant Countries	How to activate	Asynchronous [?]	Refunds [?]	Recurring payments [?]	Pre-authorizations [?]	Card installments [?] (Greece only)	Card Verification [?]
Visa	All	By default [1]	No
Mastercard [†]	All	By default [1]	No
American Express	All	By default [1] (excluded merchant categories)	No					Not yet available, but will be supported at a later date
Maestro	All	By default [1]	No
Bancontact	Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	By default [1]	No
JCB	All	By default [1] (excluded merchant categories)	No
Diners Club International	All except Sweden	By default [1]	No
Discover	All except Sweden	By default [1]	No
Cartes Bancaires	France only (can also be supported in all EUR countries via an exceptional process)	By default [1] (for Viva NEXT terminals and Tap-on-Phone - Android only)	No	Refunds are available on Viva NEXT terminals (for contact payments only)		Pre-authorizations will be supported at a later date for both Viva NEXT terminals and Tap-on-Phone

[1] - This payment method is activated by default - you automatically offer this payment method to your customers
[2] - This payment method is activated or initiated by the merchant - please see the individual payment method page for details on how to offer this payment method to your customers
[3] - This payment method is activated by Viva - please contact your sales representative or use our Live Chat(which can be found in your Production Viva self-care account) if you would like to offer this payment method to your customers
[†] - Mastercard Click to Pay is also supported (currently in Belgium only)

Digital wallets

Payment Method	Merchant Countries	How to activate	Asynchronous [?]	Refunds [?]	Recurring payments [?]	Pre-authorizations [?]	ISV schema [?]
Apple Pay (guide)	Apple Pay supported countries	By default [1] (excluded merchant categories)	No
Google Pay (guide)	Google Pay supported countries	By default [1] (excluded merchant categories)	No
Samsung Pay (guide)	France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom	By default [1]	No
PayPal (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide and the excluded merchant categories	No
PayPal Pay Later (guide)	France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom	Included by default with PayPal [2]	No
Viva Wallet (guide)	Greece, Cyprus, Malta	By default [1] (to disable, see Note box below table)	No
MobilePay Online (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain & Sweden	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide and the excluded merchant categories	No

[1] - This payment method is activated by default - you automatically offer this payment method to your customers
[2] - This payment method is activated or initiated by the merchant - please see the individual payment method page for details on how to offer this payment method to your customers
[3] - This payment method is activated by Viva - please contact your sales representative or use our Live Chat if you would like to offer this payment method to your customers

Local payment methods

The following table shows the country-specific ‘alternative’ payment methods we support. 

‘Customer Countries’ refers to the country of the customers who can pay using this payment method. For example, a French merchant can be paid via iDEAL by a customer based in the Netherlands.

Payment Method	Merchant Countries	Customer Countries	How to activate	Asynchronous [?]	Refunds [?]	Recurring payments [?]	Pre-authorizations [?]	ISV schema [?]
BANCOMAT Pay (guide) Please note: this payment method is coming soon	Italy	Italy	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide	Yes	Only one refund is allowed
Bancontact QR (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	Belgium	By default [1]	No		Bancontact QR supports recurring payments, but only in cases in which the issuing bank also supports recurring payments
BitPay (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom	All	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
BLIK (guide)	Poland	Poland	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
Bluecode (guide)	Austria and Germany	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	By Viva [2] – see our activation guide and the excluded merchant categories	No
EPS (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	Austria	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
iDEAL (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	Netherlands	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
IRIS (guide)	Greece	Greece	By default [1]	Yes
Klarna (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom	Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide and the excluded merchant categories	No
MULTIBANCO (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	Portugal	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide	Yes	Please note: this service is currently unavailable
MB WAY (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	Portugal	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide	Yes
P24 (guide)	Poland	Poland	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
Payconiq (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	Belgium, Luxembourg	By default [1] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
PayU (guide)	Czech Republic, Poland	Czech Republic, Poland	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
Satispay (guide)	Italy, France, Luxembourg, Germany	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	No
Swish (guide)	Sweden	Sweden	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide	No
tbi bank (guide)	Greece	Greece	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide and the excluded merchant categories	Yes
Trustly (guide)	Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom	Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
WeChat Pay (guide)	France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom	All	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes

[1] - This payment method is activated by default - you automatically offer this payment method to your customers
[2] - This payment method is activated or initiated by the merchant - please see the individual payment method page for details on how to offer this payment method to your customers
[3] - This payment method is activated by Viva - please contact your sales representative or use our Live Chat(which can be found in your Production Viva self-care account) if you would like to offer this payment method to your customers

Direct Debit & other

The following baking-related payment methods are available:

• Pay By Bank: the customer can pay a merchant by logging into their e-banking and then authorizing the specific payment to the merchant
• Cash (Viva Spot): the customer can pay using cash at more than 2000 spots of the Viva partner network in Greece (Viva Spot)
• e-banking (ΔΙΑΣ/DIAS): the customer can pay via e-banking of a Greek Bank (Πληρωμές)
• Pay on Delivery: this payment method allows the customer to pay via their chosen method, upon the delivery of the goods and/or services they have ordered

Please see the below table for further information:

Payment Method	Merchant Countries	How to activate	Asynchronous [?]	Refunds [?]	Recurring payments [?]	Pre-authorizations [?]	ISV schema [?]
Pay By Bank (guide)	Currently available for merchants registered in Finland (support for more Euro countries coming soon)	By Viva [3] (excluded merchant categories)	Yes
Cash (Viva Spot) (guide)	Greece, Malta	By default [1]	Yes
e-banking (ΔΙΑΣ/DIAS) (guide)	Greece, Malta	By default [1]	Yes
Pay on Delivery (guide)	All	By merchant [2] – see our activation guide	No

[1] - This payment method is activated by default - you automatically offer this payment method to your customers
[2] - This payment method is activated or initiated by the merchant - please see the individual payment method page for details on how to offer this payment method to your customers
[3] - This payment method is activated by Viva - please contact your sales representative or use our Live Chat(which can be found in your Production Viva self-care account) if you would like to offer this payment method to your customers

Country availability

Find below the payment methods available to a merchant depending on the country of registration of their Viva account.

Functionality

Asynchronous payments

Asynchronous payment methods are those in which payments are not confirmed immediately (synchronously). In essence, these rely on a delayed payment notification (via webhooks) before the payment can be confirmed as complete.

It may take up to several days for this confirmation to take place, although in the typical case the payment is confirmed almost immediately. Until the payment is confirmed, it will remain in the status of ‘pending’.

In order to receive a notification when a payment has been confirmed, you can use the Transaction Payment Created and Transaction Failed webhooks for successful and failed payments, respectively.

The following payment methods are asynchronous:

• Most Local payment methods - BANCOMAT Pay, BitPay, BLIK, EPS, iDEAL, IRIS, MULTIBANCO, MB WAY, P24, Payconiq, PayU, Trustly & WeChat Pay
• Most Direct Debit & other payment methods - Pay By Bank, Cash (Viva Spot) & e-banking (ΔΙΑΣ/DIAS)

Cross-border payments

You can accept payments from international customers as follows:

• Smart Checkout: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods, provided you indicate the country of the customer (use the countryCode parameter of the Create payment order API call)

• Shopify Smart Checkout plugin: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods

• WooCommerce Standard Checkout plugin: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods

• WooCommerce Smart Checkout plugin: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods except for local payment methods and Pay By Bank

• PrestaShop Smart Checkout plugin: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods

• OpenCart Smart Checkout plugin: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods except for local payment methods and Pay By Bank

• Magento Smart Checkout plugin: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods except for local payment methods and Pay By Bank

• Quick Pay: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods except for local payment methods and Pay By Bank

• Payment notifications: you can accept payments from international customers for all payment methods except for local payment methods and Pay By Bank

Refunds

All payment methods offer the option to perform a refund via banking app or API, apart from the following exceptions. In these cases, you will need to manually transfer the funds back to the customer’s account via their IBAN:

• BitPay
• Cash (Viva Spot)
• e-banking (ΔΙΑΣ/DIAS)
• Pay on Delivery

Recurring payments

Please see our tutorial on handling recurring payments.

The following payment methods support this functionality:

• Cards
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Samsung Pay

Pre-authorizations

Please see our tutorial on handling pre-authorizations.

The following payment methods support this functionality:

• Cards
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Samsung Pay
• MobilePay Online

Card installments

Please see our tutorial on handling card installments. This functionality is only available in Greece and only refers to Credit cards.

Card Verification

Card Verification functionality allows for a zero-amount payment order to be created, to allow for verification of the customer’s card without any money being taken.

The following card schemes support this functionality:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Maestro
• Diners Club
• Discover
• (American Express will be supported at a later date)

Mastercard Click to Pay

Mastercard’s ‘Click to Pay’ functionality allows customers to save an eligible Mastercard payment card within their account, allowing for faster and easier use across merchants as well as across devices.

• New users (i.e. customers who have not utilised Mastercard Click to Pay previously) can start using this functionality by entering the details of a valid Mastercard payment card, before reviewing the Click to Pay disclosure at the bottom of the Smart Checkout page, and then selecting the relevant checkbox before proceeding
• Customers who have used Mastercard Click to Pay previously, but have not saved the cards within their browser for future use (via a cookie) will be prompted to authenticate via a One-Time Passcode (OTP) to access their Mastercard Click to Pay cards
• Customers who have opted to save their cards via a browser cookie will be shown their saved cards right away

Please see our Mastercard Click to Pay documentation for further information. Additionally, we have browser-based Customer-side card tokenization, which can be utilized for all types of cards.

Payment methods for POS

The above payment methods are all available for our Smart Checkout solution. Our ‘Viva.com Terminal’ application & Card Terminal Devices support Smart Checkout whilst also allowing for some additional payment options. You can find a full list of POS-supported payment options below, separated into Smart Checkout and Native POS payment methods.

Smart Checkout payment methods

Our POS (Terminal) Apps & Devices allow the merchant to generate a QR code for our Smart Checkout solution. This QR code can be presented to the customer to scan with their mobile device. Once scanned, the customer will be taken to a Smart Checkout payment page, where they can choose their preferred payment method.

As this uses our Smart Checkout solution, functionality is the same as for any other desktop or mobile Smart Checkout page. As such, a wide range of payment methods can be offered, including Cards, Digital wallets, Local payment methods & Direct Debit & other.

Native POS payment methods

Our POS (Terminal) Apps & Devices natively support several other payment methods, namely:

• Card present
• Digital wallets (contactless)
• Alipay
• Klarna (for POS)
• Payconiq (for POS)
• Satispay (for POS)

Card present refers to customer payments using a physical credit/debit card via contactless or via Chip & PIN (for devices with a physical card slot, such as terminals and our mini card reader).

Digital wallets (such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay) can be also be used to pay via contactless payment.

Alipay, Klarna (for POS) & Payconiq (for POS) all allow the merchant to generate a QR code for the customer to scan with their mobile phone or tablet. The customer can then complete the payment on their device.

Get Support

If you would like to integrate with Viva, or if you have any queries about our products and solutions, please see our Contact & Support page to see how we can help!