BLIK and pay-by-bank in Poland: a guide for foreign online stores

A store that sells into Poland with a card form and a PayPal button usually sees the same pattern: traffic arrives, baskets fill, and a large share of shoppers leave at the payment step. Polish shoppers mostly do not pay online with a card. They type a six-digit code from their banking app, or they pick their bank from a list and approve a transfer.

This article explains how BLIK and pay-by-link transfers work, what a merchant outside Poland needs from a provider, how One-Click, recurring payments, refunds and disputes behave, and the mistakes that cost orders. For the wider picture of bank-based payments, see our article on account-to-account and instant payments; for currency and method order, our guide to checkout localisation.

Why does BLIK matter for a foreign online store?

Because it is how most Polish shoppers already pay online. According to BLIK’s results for 2025, users made 2.9 billion transactions worth PLN 441.5 billion, and the number of active accounts reached 20.7 million at the end of December, after more than 2 million new users joined during the year. E-commerce is the core of the system: BLIK reports 1.4 billion payments in online stores in 2025, worth PLN 219 billion, up 27% in value, and says online transactions account for nearly half of all its transactions. The average online payment was PLN 158.

Survey data points the same way. IAB Polska, presenting the Gemius report “E-commerce w Polsce 2026”, published on 30 September 2026, says 67% of online shoppers used BLIK in the past year and that for more than half it is their main way to pay online. Deferred payments, by comparison, were used by 17% of respondents.

The practical conclusion is simple: in Poland, BLIK is not an extra method to test later. It belongs near the top of the payment step, priced in PLN.

How does a BLIK payment work at checkout?

The standard flow takes a few seconds once the shopper has their phone in hand:

1. The shopper picks BLIK at checkout.
2. They open their banking app and generate a code. BLIK’s FAQ says the code always has six digits and is valid for 2 minutes.
3. They type the code into the checkout.
4. The bank sends a request to the app showing at least the amount and the recipient, and the shopper approves it.
5. The provider confirms the result to the merchant.

Stripe’s documentation adds the timing that matters for checkout design: once the payment has started, the customer has 60 seconds to authorise it, after which it times out and they need a new code. Stripe says customers typically approve in less than 10 seconds. Antom’s documentation lists a default payment timeout of 14 minutes for its BLIK flow, so read each provider’s numbers rather than assuming one value.

Limits are set by the shopper’s bank, not by the merchant. BLIK’s FAQ says banks set the number and amount limits individually, and that payments above PLN 50 must be confirmed with a PIN unless the bank lets customers manage that threshold. A basket that fails on a limit is a bank decision, and the shopper may be able to raise the limit in their app.

What are BLIK One-Click, recurring payments and Pay Later?

They are variants of the same rail, each removing a step for repeat customers.

Variant	What the shopper does	What the merchant needs	Source
Code payment	Generates a six-digit code and approves in the app	Nothing beyond BLIK support	BLIK, Stripe
One-Click (payment without code)	Pays with a code once, accepts an invitation to save the shop, then approves later payments in the app	Shopper accounts with login; provider support for aliases	BLIK
Recurring	Approves a mandate once; later charges run without a code	Provider support, eligible banks, mandate disclosures	Stripe
BLIK Pay Later	Chooses deferred payment inside the BLIK flow	Provider support	BLIK

One-Click. BLIK’s merchant documentation says the shopper must be logged in to the shop’s site, makes a first BLIK payment with a code, and accepts an invitation to save the shop in the banking app. From then on, they pay at that shop without a code but still confirm in the app. The shop can set the alias to expire after at most 2 years; if it does not, BLIK assigns 2 years from registration. A further option, sometimes called One-Click 2.0, lets the shopper turn off the confirmation step for a saved shop, but BLIK says the flag is only a recommendation to the bank, which decides.

Recurring. Stripe’s documentation says it uses BLIK Model O, which allows flexible amounts and schedules. The customer approves a mandate in their banking app, after which the merchant can charge off-session. Stripe’s limits are specific: off-session only, PLN only, and no more than PLN 2,000 per charge. Not every bank supports it. BLIK says recurring payments are available to customers of eight banks, and Stripe lists the banks it supports and returns a recurring_not_supported_by_bank decline for others. BLIK reports 1.6 million recurring payments in 2025, worth PLN 76 million, so the feature is still small next to code payments.

Pay Later. BLIK reports 235.5 thousand BLIK Pay Later transactions in 2025, worth PLN 59.4 million, and describes growth in deferred payments of about 440% on the year. Ask your provider whether its BLIK connection includes it before showing it as an option.

Where does pay-by-link fit next to BLIK?

Pay-by-link covers the shoppers who prefer to log in to their bank, or whose bank or limits do not suit BLIK for a given order. Polish aggregators such as Przelewy24 and PayU present a list of banks; the shopper picks one, logs in and approves a transfer prepared for the order. It is a form of bank redirect, close in spirit to open banking payment initiation.

Stripe’s Przelewy24 documentation shows how this differs from BLIK in practice:

• Currency. Przelewy24 accepts PLN and EUR, with a minimum of EUR 0.50. BLIK is PLN only.
• Time to pay. The customer completes authorisation within one hour of checkout, against a 2-minute BLIK code.
• Confirmation and settlement. Confirmation is immediate; settlement takes up to two business days.
• Refunds. Refunds can be submitted for 180 days and take up to 3 business days. They arrive as a separate credit referencing the original statement descriptor, never as a reversal, and are not labelled as refunds on the bank statement.
• Disputes and recurring. Stripe says there are no disputes that turn into chargebacks, and recurring payments are not supported.

Stripe also asks P24 merchants to show a business address, tax identification number, registration number, refund policy, privacy policy and terms of service on their website. A foreign store should check these before applying.

How does a merchant outside Poland get BLIK?

Through a provider that offers BLIK to merchants in its own country. The terms differ more than the shopper experience does. The table compares three providers’ documentation as we read it in October 2026.

Topic	Stripe	Antom	PayPal
Merchant locations	EEA, UK, Switzerland, US, Canada, Australia, Singapore	Singapore, EEA, US, Hong Kong, UK	Global, excluding Russia, Japan and Brazil
Currency	PLN	PLN	PLN
Amount limits	Not stated on the method page	PLN 0.01 to 10,000	Minimum PLN 1
Refunds	Full and partial	Full and partial, 365 days	Within 180 days
Disputes	BLIK claims process	Supported	Chargebacks not supported
Recurring	Yes, with mandate	Subscription payments not supported	Billing agreements not supported

Three questions decide the choice. First, which customers you can reach: the shopper is always in Poland, but your entity must be in a supported country. Second, how you will price: BLIK is charged in PLN, so show PLN prices rather than converting at the last step; our article on multi-currency pricing and DCC explains why. Third, what you need beyond one-off payments, such as recurring charges or One-Click for repeat buyers.

How do refunds and disputes work?

Refunds go back through the provider to the shopper’s bank account. Stripe says BLIK supports full and partial refunds, processed immediately or within a couple of hours depending on the bank. Antom lists a 365-day refund period and PayPal 180 days. Przelewy24 refunds through Stripe take up to 3 business days and are not labelled as refunds, so tell the customer a credit is coming. Our refunds reference compares these windows with other local methods.

Disputes are where providers diverge. Stripe describes a BLIK claims process that customers can use for suspected fraud, double payments, or a difference between the order and the transaction amount. Stripe holds the disputed amount, asks for evidence such as tracking IDs, shipping dates or delivery records, and gives the merchant 12 calendar days to submit it. PayPal says chargebacks are not supported for BLIK. BLIK’s FAQ sends complaints to the bank whose app was used. Whatever the provider, keep order and delivery records: the shopper approved the payment in their own app, so most claims turn on whether the order matched what was charged.

Worked example: adding BLIK and pay-by-link to a card checkout

Example figures, for illustration only.

An electronics store based in Germany sells into Poland at an average order of PLN 250. Each month, 5,000 shoppers reach the payment step. With cards only, 3,000 of them try a card and 80% are approved. After adding BLIK and Przelewy24, some card users switch and many shoppers who left before now try a method they use daily.

Setup	Attempts	Completed	Orders	Revenue
Cards only	3,000 card	80%	2,400	PLN 600,000
Cards	1,200 card	80%	960	PLN 240,000
BLIK	2,600 BLIK	85%	2,210	PLN 552,500
Przelewy24	400 transfers	80%	320	PLN 80,000
Cards, BLIK and Przelewy24	4,200 in total	83%	3,490	PLN 872,500

In this example the store gains 1,090 orders and PLN 272,500 a month. The completion rates are invented, and the real gap depends on your audience, prices and how the methods are shown. The direction is the point: when most shoppers pay with BLIK, a card-only checkout measures only part of the demand.

What are the common mistakes?

• Showing BLIK with a foreign currency. BLIK is charged in PLN. A price in EUR that converts at the payment step adds doubt at the moment the shopper is reading the amount in their banking app.
• Treating the code as payment. A typed code starts the payment; it does not complete it. Fulfil on the provider’s final status, ideally by webhook, as our guide to webhooks and idempotency explains.
• No path after a timeout. Codes last 2 minutes and Stripe allows 60 seconds to approve. Let the shopper enter a new code without restarting the order.
• Promising subscriptions to every shopper. Recurring BLIK depends on the bank and on per-charge caps such as Stripe’s PLN 2,000. Handle the unsupported-bank decline with a card fallback.
• Assuming one dispute rule. One provider runs a BLIK claims process, another says there are no chargebacks. Read your provider’s terms and keep delivery evidence either way.
• Silent pay-by-link refunds. A Przelewy24 refund arrives as an unlabelled credit. Email the customer when you send it, or expect a support ticket.

How does Omno support BLIK and pay-by-bank in Poland?

Where a connected provider offers BLIK or Przelewy24, Omno can show them in the hosted checkout next to cards. Eligibility rules can show these methods only to customers in Poland paying in PLN, routing rules choose between providers by country, method, currency and customer group, and if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts. Merchants with their own checkout can use a Direct Link behind their own BLIK button, which splits payments between providers by share or priority. The final status of each payment arrives by webhook. The hosted checkout page describes the flow.