How do people in Ecuador pay online?
Ecuador adopted the US dollar as its official currency in January 2000, so prices, settlement and refunds are all in USD. Merchants pricing in dollars face no local currency conversion.
Cards carry most online spending. According to PCMI data cited by Latam Fintech Hub, credit cards accounted for 74% of e-commerce sales volume in 2025 and debit cards for 16%, with digital wallets at 6%, bank transfers at 3% and cash at 1%. Visa and Mastercard are the main international schemes, and Diners Club has its own local issuer. A checkout that handles cards well, with good approval rates per issuer, covers most of the market.
Wallets and QR payments are growing fast, mostly in person for now. DeUna, backed by Banco Pichincha, is described in the bank’s 2025 annual report as the largest digital payment and collection ecosystem in Ecuador, and more than 1.9 million of its clients made and received instant payments with DeUna QR codes that year. The DeUna network counted 380,000 affiliated businesses in 2024, and customers of partner cooperatives can pay DeUna merchants from their own institution’s app. Payphone, a local payments app and gateway, reported about 500,000 users and 40,000 registered merchants in Ecuador at the end of 2024.
Cash still reaches online checkouts through payment codes. Paysafe supports PagoEfectivo for Ecuador in USD: the shopper receives a code and pays it through internet banking or at agency networks such as Western Union RedActiva and Servientrega, with a maximum of USD 941 per payment in Paysafe’s documentation.
The rails are changing too. In December 2024 the monetary policy board approved rules for an interoperable real-time payment network run through the Central Bank’s Sistema Integrador de Pagos, under which payments by key or QR code are capped at one unified basic salary, USD 470 in 2025. In March 2026 the Central Bank set a messaging standard for payment networks, with mandatory implementation by 30 November 2026.
What rules shape online payments in Ecuador?
Digital services from abroad carry IVA. Under the Ley Orgánica de Simplificación y Progresividad Tributaria and SRI rules applied from September 2020, card issuers and other payment intermediaries withhold 100% of the IVA on payments to non-resident digital service providers that appear on the SRI’s list and have not registered with the SRI, and the card statement serves as the withholding receipt. The general rate rose from 12% to 15% on 1 April 2024 under Executive Decree 198, and in December 2025 the SRI confirmed that 15% stays in force for 2026 unless a new decree changes it.
Money leaving the country is taxed. The currency outflow tax (ISD) rose from 3.5% to 5% on 1 April 2024, under the law passed to confront the internal armed conflict. For shoppers, card issuers withhold ISD once a cardholder’s spending abroad passes an annual exempt amount, USD 5,188.26 in 2025, and El Comercio notes that charges from streaming and other platforms based abroad count towards it. Because ISD applies to transfers abroad, a merchant that collects locally should ask each provider how ISD is handled when funds settle outside Ecuador.
Shoppers have 15 days to return or exchange. A reform published in the Registro Oficial on 11 February 2022 replaced article 45 of the Ley Orgánica de Defensa del Consumidor. A consumer who buys goods or services by any means can now return or exchange them within a term of 15 days after receipt, if the nature of the product allows it and it is in the condition received, and a service is returned by ending the contract at once. The seller cannot settle the return with credit notes or substitute goods. Before the reform the period was three days and applied only to purchases by phone, catalogue, television, internet or at home. The same law requires automatic renewals to be notified 15 days in advance and bars sellers from forcing a customer to cancel through a different channel from the one used to buy.
Data protection is enforceable. The Ley Orgánica de Protección de Datos Personales took effect in May 2021, and its sanctions regime applied from 26 May 2023, with fines calculated on the previous year’s business volume.
How would Omno route payments in Ecuador?
Omno is built for markets like this: a merchant connects once and sets routing rules per method, currency and customer group. Because every payment is in USD, routing decisions turn on approval rates, method coverage and provider rules rather than currency.
- Card pay-ins could be routed by BIN, so cards from each Ecuadorian issuer go to the acquirer your rule sets for that issuer, with cascading to the next provider in the rule if one is unavailable or rejects the request.
- DeUna pay-ins would be routed to a provider that holds a DeUna connection, with a numeric code or a dynamic QR shown in the hosted checkout and the final status confirmed by webhook.
- PagoEfectivo codes would stay pending until the shopper pays, and the order would be confirmed only when the provider’s webhook confirms payment.
- Payouts could be limited by eligibility rules to providers that pay USD to the recipient’s own bank account, with each status confirmed by webhook.
Customer groups and customer verification levels could keep first-time customers on conservative routes while repeat customers go to the providers you choose for them. The routing-decision log would record which provider handled each payment and why, so finance teams can reconcile settlements by route.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for cards first. With credit and debit cards carrying about nine in ten online dollars, card approval rates decide most of the outcome, and a second acquirer protects revenue when the first one declines or fails.
Plan for QR and cash options. DeUna and PagoEfectivo reach shoppers without a card or who prefer not to use one, but both have short or delayed confirmation, so orders need a pending state and clear expiry times.
Plan for returns within 15 days. Returns and exchanges are a legal right for 15 days after receipt, and refunds cannot be swapped for credit notes, so refunds need to flow back to the shopper’s card or account.
Plan for tax on cross-border sales. Digital services sold from abroad carry 15% IVA, withheld by card issuers when the seller is not registered with the SRI, and ISD at 5% applies when money is transferred out of Ecuador.