Card payments in France

How people pay

In France, the card won. In 2025 the Banque de France counted 35.6 billion cashless transactions, 5.5% more than the year before. Cards made up 62.7% of them by volume, excluding cash withdrawals. Credit transfers were 17.9%, direct debits 14.1%, and cheques only 1.9%.

Look inside those card payments and you see the habit. In shops, 72% of card payments were contactless in 2025, against 68% in 2024. More than 19% of in-store card payments went through a mobile wallet, up from 15%. Cash withdrawals by card fell for the second year running.

Cash has not vanished. It has stopped being the default. In 2024, the ECB's SPACE survey, read by the Banque de France, showed card payments at French points of sale outnumbering cash for the first time. Cash fell to 43% of point-of-sale transactions by number.

Cards and the domestic scheme

France has its own card scheme, Cartes Bancaires, run by the GIE CB. It calls itself the most used card and mobile payment scheme in the country. Most French consumer cards are co-badged: CB for domestic use, Visa or Mastercard for everything else.

Your acquirer's price sits on top of interchange and scheme fees. So which network a co-badged card goes through can change what the payment costs you. The interchange regulation caps the fee on consumer cards at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit. It applies in the EU, and through the EEA Agreement also in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. It does not cover commercial cards, three-party schemes or cash withdrawals.

Beyond cards

Account-to-account payments are growing from a small base. SEPA Instant transfers were 17% of French credit transfers by volume in 2025, against 10% in 2024. The EU instant payments regulation made that an obligation: euro-area banks had to receive instant transfers from 9 January 2025 and send them from 9 October 2025.

Wero is the newcomer. On 20 April 2026 one French banking group announced the first French online shop payments with it, with access opening to 500,000 customers in May and the aim of reaching all of its online banking customers over the summer. I found no later official update on the French rollout when I checked in October 2026. For now it is one to watch.

Rules a merchant must know

Co-badged routing is your choice, and the customer's. Article 8 of the interchange regulation bars card schemes, issuers, acquirers and technical providers from locking a co-badged card to one brand. You may set a default brand on your terminal. The customer must be able to override it.

No surcharge, on any card. French law goes further than the EU. Article L112-12 of the Code monétaire et financier says the payee may not apply charges for the use of a given payment instrument, with exceptions only by decree. That covers business cards too. The EU floor is narrower: the second payment services directive bars charges on payment instruments whose interchange fees are regulated under the interchange regulation. Price the cost in. Do not add it at the till.

The till is regulated, not just the terminal. If you are subject to VAT (not under the franchise en base) and record consumer payments in till software, that software must be unalterable, secure, and keep and archive its data. You prove it with a certificate from an accredited body or, again since 21 February 2026, an individual attestation from the publisher. Plain card terminals are outside the rule. The proof has changed twice since 2025, so check the tax authority's page before you buy.

Getting paid

The authorisation is instant. The settlement and payout to your account follow the schedule in your contract, often measured in working days. No single rule sets that number, so ask for yours in writing.

In France the payout lands as a euro credit transfer, and transfers are speeding up. Since the instant payments regulation, a bank may not charge more for an instant transfer than for a standard one. Ask whether your payouts can arrive instantly. Nothing obliges your acquirer to offer it.

Match each payout to your sales report. A gap is almost always fees, refunds or a chargeback.

What I'd tell a merchant here

Ask which networks your terminal accepts and which one it picks by default. You are allowed to choose.

Make sure the terminal takes a tap and a phone. In 2025, 72% of French in-store card payments were contactless.

Check that your till software is certified, or covered by an attestation, before the tax office asks.