Payment options in Germany?

[amaze]

Hi,

After doing some research into e-commerce in Germany I have found that Germans like to pay by bank transfer and cash on delivery. Obviously both are quite unknown in the UK.

Have any companies started to sell to Germany and found a good way to allow Germans to pay except by CC?

Thanks

 

[8420PR]

Short Answer: Paypal & Moneybookers (payment consolidator for bank transfers, sofortuberweisung etc).

Credit cards are very rare in Germany, not very widely issued or accepted. Bank transfer (lastchrift) is the most common payment method, but in my opinion totally unsuitable for the internet age (you don't want to have to check your bank statements before shipping orders).

For internet orders, one of the oddest payment methods is sofortubeweisung, where you enter your online banking TAN details into the website (effectively logging into your bank site but still on the shop). From a security point of view I would never do it, but many Germans do.

Lastly, payment on delivery is widely offered, but I don't know anyone who uses it.

 

[Davef]

Following on from the above post we have received the following in the past which maybe of some interest

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

I am looking for the person responsible for online payments at xxxx.

We have launched our innovative payment system DIRECTebanking.com two weeks ago in the UK. It represents a major step in the UK e-payment scene as it is the first European online banking payment method in the UK.

This is how it works:
1. Customer selects DIRECTebanking.com
2. Customer selects his bank and account number.
3. Customer confirms the payment by entering his online banking information.
Within seconds a payment confirmation is then sent out to the merchant.
Please check the system on our website: https://www.payment-network.com/deb_com_en

The key benefits for online merchants:
- No charge backs
- Competitive pricing: starting 0.8% even for international payments
- Direct reach of approx. 77 million online-banking users in six countries
- Better liquidity: transfers within 0-3 days
- Easy integration due to prebuild shop modules and integration with payment service providers.

Over 10.000 eCommerce companies are already registered for our system including KLM, DELL, Tui.at, TicketOnline.de, Moneybookers, GlobalCollect, Neteller, Saferpay, Conrad and many more.

As we have just started in the UK I would like to make xxx a special offer for a limited time:
- No fixed fees for the use of our system until the 31.08.2009.
- Only £ 4.90 monthly maintenance fees starting from September
- 1% transaction fees

Please write or call me if you are interested in this offer. Of course I am happy to provide further information and to answer any questions you may have.

 

[deniser]

The above post is correct although credit cards are becoming more widespread and I do get quite a few orders on my site from people using them.

Paypal is commonly used in Germany because Ebay is quite big there.

I sometimes allow customers without a card to transfer money directly to my bank account. They pay a really small charge for international transfers, something like 75p compared to our £15-35.

There is a similar problem in Holland. They have a system there which allows for direct transfers called "Ideal".

 

[amaze]

What a great few posts thanks!

So I guess we need to look to integrate "DIRECTebanking" if we want to offer payment options to the majority of Germans. Sounds a "clean" way of accepting bank transfers online.

What about Google Checkout - do Germans use this - we already have this integrated along with the normal credit\debit cards.

Anything else we should consider when launching a German website that may not be obvious (i.e. German language, euro's).

Cheers