Bizum Pay works as a mobile wallet, but many shops still lag

Bizum, which now counts 31.5 million users, is moving into the one area it was missing: payments in physical shops. Its wallet app, Bizum Pay, lets customers tap their phone on a card terminal and move money directly from their bank account to the merchant's, without going through the Visa or Mastercard networks.

After more than a month of everyday use, our tester concludes that the app can replace other mobile wallets, though only thanks to a fallback: many shops still do not accept Bizum at the terminal.

Two ways to set it up

Payment works through the phone's NFC, so the user must have Bizum payments enabled and the shop's terminal must support them. The customer's bank charges no fees, although the merchant could be charged a percentage depending on its own bank's terms.

There are two routes. Some banks, such as BBVA, offer the option inside their own app, in the Bizum section. The other is the Bizum Pay app, a generic wallet that also accepts bank cards and is the recommended option. Setup only requires entering the mobile number linked to Bizum. The app currently works with CaixaBank, Sabadell, Unicaja, Caja Rural, Bankinter, Ibercaja, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar, Abanca, Arquia Banca, Colonya Caixa Pollença and ING.

The fallback card

When a terminal does not accept Bizum, Bizum Pay offers to switch to a registered card, and the user taps the phone again. The catch is that the cashier sees the first payment as cancelled and must resend the amount, which slows down checkout. If Bizum is accepted first time, the experience is identical to paying by card.

Sovereignty, with caveats

According to Bizum, its mobile payments are largely independent of US technology, but not entirely. The phone still identifies itself to the terminal via the EMV standard, managed by EMVCo, which Visa, Mastercard and four other card networks control. Bizum chose it because it is available on most Spanish terminals. Apple and Google also decide which apps may use NFC; on iPhone, Bizum Pay is possible only because the European Commission forced Apple to open the chip to other wallets.

The next step has a date. In February Bizum signed an agreement with Wero, MB Way, Bancomat and Vipps MobilePay to link their systems, with in-store payments in other countries expected in 2027.