How do people in Iceland pay online?
Iceland is a card market. The Central Bank of Iceland says payment intermediation is mostly digital, with payment cards and electronic transfers the most used instruments. In April 2026, domestic payment cards turned over 98.2 billion ISK in Icelandic retail outlets, 2.9 billion ISK more than a year earlier. Credit cards made up 57.8 billion ISK of that and debit cards 40.4 billion ISK, so credit cards lead even in everyday spending. Foreign cards added 24.7 billion ISK.
Online, the pattern holds. Rapyd’s research, published in its Iceland payments guide, found that 78% of consumers had used a credit card for recent online purchases and 46% named credit cards as their preferred online method. The latest Eurostat figure for Iceland, from 2021, put the share of people who had bought online in the previous 12 months at 84.65%.
Phone wallets ride on those cards. Apple Pay and Google Pay are both available in Iceland according to Apple’s and Google’s own country lists, and Apple names Arion Bank, Íslandsbanki, Landsbankinn, Kvika, several savings banks and the Aur app among its Icelandic issuers.
Pay-later services are a local habit. With Netgíró the shopper types a phone number instead of card details, confirms in the app, and pays all purchases at the end of the month, either at once or in instalments; Netgíró charges a monthly fee of 695 krónur in months it is used. Pei, run by Greiðslumiðlun ehf., gives 14 days to pay at 0% interest and can be extended to 30 or 60 days; it says more than 1,700 merchants accept it.
What rules shape online payments in Iceland?
Shoppers have 14 days to withdraw. Under Act No. 16/2016 on consumer contracts, as the Consumer Agency (Neytendastofa) explains it, a consumer who buys by phone or online can cancel within 14 days of the contract or of receiving the goods, whichever is later, without giving a reason. The seller must refund what was paid as soon as possible and no later than 14 days.
VAT is 24%, with a reduced rate of 11% for items such as food, books and accommodation. A foreign company selling electronic services to Icelandic consumers must register under the simplified VOES scheme once its sales pass ISK 2,000,000 in any twelve-month period, and files every two months. Foreign sellers that only ship goods into Iceland are not liable for Icelandic VAT themselves; VAT is charged at import and paid by the owner of the goods.
Payment infrastructure is changing. The Central Bank is leading a domestic request-to-pay infrastructure for account-to-account payments in krónur, hosted in Iceland and aligned with the SEPA Request to Pay rulebook where it applies. In June 2026 it signed an agreement with the ECB for Iceland to join TIPS, so that payments in krónur settle instantly in central bank money from 2028.
How would Omno route payments in Iceland?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, amount and customer group. In Iceland:
- Card pay-ins would follow rules by BIN, currency and amount, with cascading: if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay would be shown in the hosted checkout through providers that support them, next to the card form.
- Pay-later options such as Netgíró or Pei could be added through a provider that supports them, with rules by amount so they appear only where they fit the basket.
- Saved cards would let returning shoppers pay without typing card details again.
Webhooks would confirm each final status, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for credit cards first. They carry the larger share of card turnover, and most online shoppers reach for them.
Plan for krónur. Pricing and settling in ISK keeps the checkout familiar for Icelandic shoppers.
Plan for VAT on e-services. Check whether your B2C sales of electronic services pass ISK 2,000,000 a year, the point at which VOES registration is needed.
Plan for change in account payments. The domestic request-to-pay infrastructure and TIPS membership from 2028 may bring a bank payment option to checkout, so keep a slot for one in your rules.