Selling online to the United States: payment methods a foreign store can really offer

The United States looks like the easy market. It speaks one currency, runs on Visa and Mastercard, and has shoppers who are used to buying online. Then a foreign store tries to add the methods it sees at American checkouts, and finds that several of them will not take a company based outside the US.

This article covers how Americans pay online, which methods a foreign store can get, how ACH and buy now, pay later work, what US acquiring requires, and which tax and customs questions to take to an adviser. The United States guide has the market data. This article is about what you can set up.

How do Americans pay online?

By card. The Federal Reserve’s 2025 triennial payments study, released on 1 July 2026, counts 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024, and cards made up over three quarters by number. Debit cards were most of those, but credit card payments grew faster than debit for the first time in almost a decade.

Online, the preference is stronger. Pew Research Center, using the Atlanta Fed’s 2025 survey, reports that 92% of Americans preferred a credit or debit card for online purchases. Online banking or direct transfer took 2%, and other methods 5%. That question asks about the method people prefer, and it does not split wallets out from cards.

ACH is the other big system, but it is built for a different job. The Fed says ACH makes up almost three quarters of noncash payments by value, and Nacha counted 35.2 billion ACH payments in 2025. Much of that is business payments, not checkout. Nacha reports close to 8.1 billion business-to-business payments alone.

So the order for a checkout is clear: cards first, then the wallets that hold those cards, then the extras.

Which US methods can a foreign store get?

This is where the US differs from most markets. The table uses published terms from Stripe and PayPal, and other providers may differ, so treat it as the set of questions to ask.

Method	What it is	Foreign store without a US entity?	Published evidence
Cards	Visa, Mastercard, American Express	Yes, through a cross-border acquirer	See our acquiring article
Apple Pay	A card held in a wallet	Yes, if your provider supports it	See our Apple Pay article
PayPal	Wallet with its own account	Yes, through your own PayPal account	Stripe processes it for European businesses
ACH debit	Debit from a US bank account	Sometimes	Stripe lists EEA, UK and Swiss businesses
Cash App Pay	Wallet funded by balance or debit card	Not at Stripe	US business location only
Venmo	PayPal-owned wallet	No	US-based merchants and consumers only
Affirm	Instalments	Not at Stripe	US and Canadian businesses, domestic sales only
Klarna	Pay later and instalments	Not at Stripe	US customers need a US business

Two things follow. A foreign store can reach most US spending without a US company, because that spending sits on cards. And the methods that need a US entity are extras worth adding later, once volume justifies the cost.

How do PayPal, Cash App and Apple Pay fit?

Apple Pay is a card payment in a wallet, so it follows your card setup. Our article on Apple Pay and Google Pay covers domain setup, tokens and authentication.

PayPal is the wallet to add next. Stripe says it processes PayPal only for businesses in supported European countries, and that businesses elsewhere use their own PayPal account through a separate route. Either way, a foreign store can usually reach PayPal customers, and Stripe lists customer locations as worldwide. Stripe also lists refunds for up to 180 days.

Venmo is a different case. PayPal’s documentation says it is for US-based merchants and US-based consumers only, and that payment must be in USD.

Cash App Pay has real reach. Block reported 59 million Cash App monthly transacting actives in June 2026. Stripe’s documentation shows how it behaves. It uses the customer’s Cash App balance or a linked debit card, and it cannot combine the two for one order. The shopper scans a QR code on desktop or switches to the app on mobile, with 10 minutes to authenticate. Stripe lists US business locations only and marks it as not available cross-border, and it suggests keeping orders below about 2,000 USD to reduce declines. Refunds run for up to 90 days. Customers have up to 120 days to dispute, and you have 13 days to submit evidence. Cash App takes liability for customer fraud on on-session payments.

Is ACH worth adding for a foreign store?

Only for some sellers. ACH debit moves money straight from a US bank account, and Stripe’s documentation sets out the trade-offs clearly.

• Access: Stripe lists the US, EEA countries, the UK, Switzerland and others as business locations, with coverage marked as domestic and cross-border. Canada is in preview, and some EU business categories are restricted, including digital goods.
• Speed: it can take up to 4 business days to learn whether the payment worked, so it does not suit goods that ship the same day. Stripe’s Instant Bank Payments is a faster alternative, as part of its Link product.
• Authorisation: the customer must accept a mandate and the bank account must be verified, by login or microdeposits.
• Disputes: customers can generally dispute a debit for up to 60 calendar days on a personal account, and two business days on a business account. Disputes in those windows are final and cannot be contested through the ACH network.
• Refunds: full refunds only, for up to 180 days, sent as a separate credit that is not labelled as a refund.

Stripe says ACH is popular for large or recurring transactions, and that fits what you see above. A store selling high-value goods, or selling to businesses, may gain from it. A store selling low-value orders to consumers probably will not.

The rules are also tightening. Nacha’s second phase of fraud monitoring took practical effect on 22 June 2026 and applies to non-consumer originators and others not covered by the first phase in March. It requires risk-based processes to find unauthorised entries, reviewed at least once a year. Ask your provider what it handles and what it expects from you.

Which buy now, pay later options work from abroad?

Demand is real. The Federal Reserve’s report on household well-being says 16% of adults used buy now, pay later in 2025, up one percentage point. Access is the problem.

Affirm. Stripe describes pay-in-30, pay-in-4 and monthly plans of up to 36 months, from 35 to 30,000 USD. You get the full amount upfront and Affirm collects from the customer. But Stripe lists businesses in the US and Canada, with the UK in preview, and says Affirm supports domestic transactions only. It also asks for a public website showing prices in the customer’s local currency, and bars B2B and pre-orders. Customers have up to 120 days to dispute, and you have 15 days to respond.

Klarna. Stripe lists US options from pay in full to financing, with limits by product and some US states excluded per product. Its cross-border table lets EEA, UK and Swiss businesses sell to customers across Europe, and limits everyone else to their home country. So a German store on Stripe cannot show Klarna to a US shopper.

Other providers and direct contracts may differ, and Stripe says PayPal customers can choose buy now, pay later as a funding source. Ask, but expect a US entity to be part of the answer. Plans change at each provider’s discretion, so confirm limits before you promote them.

What does a foreign merchant need for US acquiring?

Acquiring in the US is about where your business really is, not where you would like it to be. Visa’s rules, in the edition dated 24 October 2026, set the test. For a card-absent sale, rule 1.5.1.2 says the acquirer must assign the country of the merchant’s principal place of business as the merchant outlet location. It may add another country only where all of these apply:

• The merchant has a permanent location there, where its employees or agents carry out the business activity behind the purchase.
• The merchant assesses sales taxes on the transaction there.
• That location is the legal jurisdiction governing the contract with the cardholder.

The rule also says acquirers must not misrepresent an outlet location, and that Visa can decide the correct location in a dispute. A US mailbox does not meet that test.

Stripe’s US account requirements point the same way. It says registered businesses must be registered in the US, even if they operate abroad, and it verifies the legal entity name, entity type, EIN, SSN or ITIN, and business address. Post office boxes are not accepted. Stripe may also ask for official documents.

In practice, a foreign merchant weighing this should go through a list:

1. Measure first. Compare approval rates on US cards by acquirer and card type. Our article on local and cross-border acquiring explains how much difference to expect.
2. Take legal advice on structure. Decide whether a US company is justified, and what operations it must really have.
3. Ask what verification needs. Ask each provider which entity, tax number, owner identification and bank account it requires.
4. Check the owner. Ask whether a non-resident owner can be verified, and with which documents.
5. Plan cash flow. Ask how USD reaches your parent company, and at what cost.
6. Update the checkout. Add US-only methods only once you are eligible.
7. Keep the cross-border route. It is a useful fallback while the new route builds a track record.

What should you ask a tax or customs adviser?

These two topics affect what the customer pays, so they belong in the plan. We do not give tax advice, and the rules change, so treat these as questions.

Sales tax. The Supreme Court held in South Dakota v. Wayfair in 2018 that states can require out-of-state sellers without a physical presence to collect sales tax. That case concerned a law covering sellers with more than USD 100,000 in sales or 200 or more transactions in the state each year. Avalara said in August 2026 that many states have since dropped the transaction test, and that the rules differ by state. Ask where you have nexus, whether that test reaches a seller outside the US, and how tax should appear at checkout.

Duties. US Customs and Border Protection published rules on 24 June 2026 that indefinitely suspend the de minimis exemption for goods valued at USD 800 or less. Those shipments now need an entry, and duties, taxes and fees generally apply. KPMG adds that for mail, a broker, owner or purchaser must file and pay, and that duties will not be collected at delivery. It also says the statutory exemption ends on 1 July 2027. Ask who acts as importer, how duty is shown at checkout, and what happens on a return.

How does Omno support selling to the United States?

Omno puts the providers you choose behind one integration, and each provider onboards you separately. Your team can show cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and, where a connected provider offers them, other methods in the no-code checkout builder, by country, currency and amount. Routing rules can send US cards to the provider you choose by card BIN, country, currency or amount. If a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts. The smart routing and cascading page shows how the rules work.