iDEAL, Bancontact and Wero: pay-by-bank in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany

A store that sells into the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany with one card form treats three different markets as one. Dutch shoppers mostly pay from their banking app, Belgian shoppers reach for Bancontact, and German shoppers lean on PayPal and invoice. All three markets are also being reshaped by Wero, the wallet run by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), and the largest change began on 26 October 2026.

This article covers what each market uses, where the iDEAL to Wero migration stands on 2 November 2026, what it means for a store outside the Netherlands, how refunds and disputes compare, and what to ask a provider. For the wider picture of bank-based payments, see account-to-account and instant payments; for the Polish equivalent, see BLIK and pay-by-bank in Poland.

Which payment methods lead in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany?

The three markets are neighbours, but their checkouts look different.

Market	What leads online	Evidence	Put first at checkout
Netherlands	iDEAL	72% of online purchases and 58% of online spending in Q1 2026 (Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor)	iDEAL, then cards and Klarna
Belgium	Bancontact	393 million online payments through mobile solutions in 2025 (Bancontact Company)	Bancontact, then cards
Germany	PayPal and invoice	28.7% and 26.1% of online retail revenue in 2025 (EHI)	PayPal, invoice, direct debit, cards

The Dutch numbers matter for foreign sellers in particular. The same monitor counts 13.1 million Dutch online shoppers in the first quarter of 2026, of whom 5.1 million also shop cross-border, and 12.5 million cross-border purchases in the quarter. Credit cards took only 8% of purchases, so a foreign store with cards alone misses most of the way that market pays. Our Netherlands guide and Belgium guide cover the rest of each market.

Where does the iDEAL to Wero migration stand in November 2026?

It has reached the point where merchants can begin to move. iDEAL now belongs to EPI, the company behind Wero, as Stripe’s documentation notes. EPI says online commercial payments with Wero went live on 26 October 2026 for all participating Dutch banks: ABN AMRO, ASN Bank, bunq, BUUT, Finom, ING, Knab, Nationale-Nederlanden, Rabobank, Triodos Bank and Van Lanschot Kempen. Merchants can now move, but the rollout is phased, so each one follows its own timeline and that of its provider.

Date	What happens	Source
29 January to 31 March 2026	Co-branding: checkouts show the combined iDEAL and Wero logo; the flow stays the same	Stripe
26 October 2026	Wero online payments go live with 11 Dutch banks	EPI
Q1 2027	Purchase protection solution announced, after workshops in Q4 2026	EPI
Q2 2027	Subscriptions and pay on delivery added	EPI
31 December 2027	Banks and providers aim to finish the migration, at the latest	Dutch Payments Association
January 2028	Purchase protection embedded for Dutch consumers	EPI
31 December 2028	Pricing stays broadly aligned with the current level until this date	CM.com

Treat the end date as a goal, not a guarantee. Stripe’s migration page gives a wider window: it estimates iDEAL’s shutdown for 2027 to 2028 and recommends that merchants move during 2027. The future dates in the table are plans and may change.

For shoppers, little should change. The Dutch Payments Association says consumers keep paying through their own bank and do not need to change anything with it, but that banks, providers and online retailers will need to adjust systems and processes. CM.com describes the flow: on desktop the shopper scans a QR code to open their banking or Wero app, and on mobile the app opens automatically.

What does the migration mean for a store outside the Netherlands?

Four things are worth checking now, even if your iDEAL traffic is small.

Access may not carry over. This is the point most easily missed. Stripe’s iDEAL page lists about 40 business locations, including the US, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Singapore. Its Wero page, as of today, lists only EU and EEA countries. The UK, the US and Switzerland are not on it. Stripe’s lists may grow, and other providers set their own, but a store outside the EEA should ask this question first.

The contract changes. CM.com says merchants sign a Wero contract with their current iDEAL provider in the second phase, and that each provider sets its own migration strategy. Existing iDEAL contracts stay valid in the meantime.

Live status varies by provider. Stripe’s documentation lists Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands as Wero customer locations, while its migration page still describes Wero as a private preview for German consumers, with Dutch access at the end of 2026. Ask what is live for your account, not what the documentation says in general.

You may run both for a while. Stripe recommends testing Wero against iDEAL on the Dutch checkout from Q4 2026, says running both is possible but not recommended long term, and suggests a clean cut-over in 2027 once Wero is fully available in the Netherlands.

Features differ during the move too. At Stripe, iDEAL supports recurring payments through SEPA Direct Debit, while Wero does not yet. CM.com adds that purchase protection applies only after a merchant has moved to a full Wero contract and branding.

Website rules carry over as well. Stripe says iDEAL scheme rules require a Dutch business to show its Chamber of Commerce number, and a business outside the Netherlands to show its registration number with the equivalent body. Check that your footer does this before launch.

How does Bancontact work, and where does Wero fit in Belgium?

Bancontact is Belgium’s own method. Stripe describes it as a card or mobile app linked to a Belgian bank account. The shopper is redirected to a Bancontact page, enters card details or scans a QR code on desktop, or uses a card or deep link to the app on mobile, and has 1 hour to authorise. The result comes back immediately. Stripe lists accounts in about 40 countries, in EUR, from a minimum of 0.50 EUR.

Mobile is now the norm. Bancontact Company says about 90% of its online payments in 2024 were made with a smartphone. It organises its products under three names: Bancontact Card, for online payment with a debit card and card reader; Bancontact Pay, for mobile payments; and Bancontact One Click, for customers whose card details are saved with a merchant. In the same announcement, the company said it distributes Wero to Belgian merchants.

Wero is arriving alongside it. EPI announced Wero for e-commerce in Belgium on 3 March 2026, with ING, KBC and BNP Paribas Fortis live, Belfius to follow, and nine more banks planned for the second half of 2026. It named Ahold Delhaize, Bpost and LIDL among merchants that intended to activate it during 2026, and Worldline, Buckaroo, Mollie and Stripe among the acquirers and partners. Nothing we reviewed says Bancontact will be replaced, so keep it first for Belgian shoppers and treat Wero as an addition. Recheck this during 2027.

What about Germany, where no bank button leads?

Germany has no iDEAL. EHI’s Online-Payment 2026 study, reported by IT Finanzmagazin and based on revenue data from 172 merchants, gives these shares of online retail revenue for 2025: PayPal 28.7%, invoice 26.1%, direct debit 14.4%, cards 13.7%, instalment purchase 4.7% and prepayment 3.5%. Sofortüberweisung, a bank redirect, was at 0.9%. The study does not mention Wero, and its figures predate most of Wero’s online rollout.

Wero is the one to watch. Retail-News reported in September 2026 that Wero had reached 10 million registered users in Germany and 60 million across Europe, and that more than 48,000 merchants across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands had processed Wero transactions. Lidl added it to its online shop in July 2026, and dm followed at the end of August. The article also notes that a broad in-store rollout in Germany is still pending.

So add Wero in Germany if your provider offers it, and keep the established methods first. Registered users are not the same as shoppers who pay online. Our guide to which local methods to add first shows how to score a method like this one, and the Germany guide covers the market.

How do refunds and disputes compare?

Stripe’s documentation is a useful reference, because it sets the three methods side by side. Other providers set their own terms.

At Stripe	iDEAL	Wero	Bancontact
Customer locations	Netherlands	Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands	Belgium
Currency	EUR	EUR	EUR
Refund window	180 days	730 days	730 days
Partial refunds	Yes	Yes	Yes
Disputes	No	No	No
Recurring	Through SEPA Direct Debit	No	No

The practical differences sit in the detail. iDEAL refunds can stay pending for up to 7 days. Bancontact refunds arrive as a separate credit, not a reversal, and are not labelled as refunds on the statement, so Stripe suggests telling the customer when you issue one. Because none of the three has a chargeback route, an unhappy customer comes straight to you. Our article on refunds across local methods covers how to plan for that.

What should you ask your payment provider?

Send these questions before you plan any checkout work:

1. Which of iDEAL, Wero and Bancontact are live today for an entity in my country? Ask per method, and get it in writing.
2. When will my iDEAL traffic move to Wero? Ask for a month, not a year.
3. Do I need a new contract? Ask who signs what, and when the old one ends.
4. Will you run iDEAL and Wero side by side? Ask how long, and who controls the split.
5. Who updates the checkout? At Stripe, hosted pages update themselves and custom interfaces do not. Confirm which applies to you.
6. What happens to refunds on old iDEAL payments after cut-over? Check the refund window still applies.
7. Which Wero banks are live in each country? The list differs in Belgium and the Netherlands, and it is still growing.
8. Which Bancontact products do I get? Ask about the card flow, the app flow and One Click for returning customers.
9. How are payments reported? A new method code changes your reconciliation and your reporting.

How does Omno support iDEAL, Bancontact and Wero?

Omno puts the providers you choose behind one integration, and each provider onboards you separately. Where a connected provider offers iDEAL, Bancontact or Wero, your team can add it in the no-code checkout builder, show it by country, currency and amount, and set routing rules that decide which provider receives each payment, with no release needed. A method change like this one then becomes a dashboard task. The hosted checkout page shows how it works.