Payment Methods in the GCC: How Gulf Shoppers Pay

Gulf shoppers are ready to pay you online. Most of them tap a card or Apple Pay, and the money lands in your account within days.

That's a big change from a few years ago, when cash at the door was the norm. Today, cards and wallets carry most online orders across the Gulf.

There's one twist: each country has its own national debit network, and you need the right one at checkout.

Below, you'll see every major Gulf payment method, what each one costs you, which countries need it and the checkout stack to launch with.

How do Gulf shoppers pay online?

Most pay by debit card or digital wallet. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) and cash on delivery (COD) fill the gaps.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest market, shows the pattern clearly:

Wallets40%

• Digital wallets (Apple Pay, STC Pay)40%
• Debit cards (mada)19%
• Credit cards12%
• Bank transfer9%
• Cash on delivery8%
• Prepaid cards7%
• Buy now, pay later4%

Source: Worldpay data via Antom, 2025. Wallet payments mostly run on mada cards underneath.

Wallets lead, but there's usually a mada debit card inside that Apple Pay button. The UAE leans even harder on wallets.

The same pattern repeats across the Gulf. Think of it as two layers.

The bottom layer is the rail: a national debit network like mada or KNET, or the Visa and Mastercard networks. The top layer is the button the shopper presses, which is often Apple Pay. You need both layers to work, or the payment fails.

On top of that sit BNPL apps like Tabby and Tamara, and good old cash at the door. Each one has its own cost and its own job at your checkout.

GCC payment methods at a glance

Here's every method that matters, with how common it is, what it costs you and who needs it:

Method	Where it matters	How common	Typical cost to you	Who needs it
mada	Saudi Arabia	Inside most Saudi online payments	About 1%, capped at 1.75%	Every store selling to Saudi shoppers
Apple Pay	All six countries	Top mobile checkout	Same as the card inside it	Every store
Visa, Mastercard, Amex	All six, UAE most	Expats, tourists, big orders	About 2.25–2.9% plus a fixed fee	Every store
KNET	Kuwait	About 75–80% of online payments	Up to 2.5% plus a fixed fee	Anyone selling to Kuwait
BenefitPay and Benefit debit	Bahrain	About 280 payments per resident a year	Quote from your acquirer	Anyone selling to Bahrain
NAPS / Himyan via QPAY	Qatar	Nationals and mass-market shoppers	About 2.5% plus QAR 1 at local gateways	Stores with Qatar demand
OmanNet / Maal	Oman	Most local debit cards	About 1.5% at local gateways	Stores with Oman demand
STC Pay	Saudi Arabia	Younger shoppers and expat workers	From 0.90% plus setup	Optional add-on
Tabby / Tamara	KSA, UAE, Kuwait (Tamara also Bahrain)	Small share, big baskets	About 3–6%	Fashion, beauty, electronics
Cash on delivery	All six, Oman most	Shrinking, but big for new brands	Courier fee plus refused parcels	New brands winning first orders

Two things jump out. Local debit is the cheapest way to get paid. And the methods shoppers love most, Apple Pay and BNPL, sit on top of rails you have to set up properly.

The main payment methods, one by one

mada: Saudi Arabia's debit network

Mada is Saudi Arabia's national debit network, run under SAMA (the Saudi Central Bank). Almost every Saudi bank account comes with a mada card, about 30 million in all.

It's also your cheapest card rail. Published mada rates are about 1%, and SAMA caps mada online fees at 1.75%.

The catch? Only stores with a Saudi entity can process mada domestically. Foreign stores charge co-badged mada cards as Visa or Mastercard, at card rates and with more declines.

Our Saudi payment methods guide covers gateways and fees in detail.

Apple Pay and other wallets

Apple Pay is the button most Gulf mobile shoppers press. It costs you nothing extra: you pay the rate of the card inside it, so a mada card in Apple Pay is charged at the mada rate.

It's live in every GCC country. The UAE got it first, and Oman last:

Samsung Pay and Google Pay exist too, but they're a much smaller slice. Switch them on if your gateway supports them at no extra cost.

Visa, Mastercard and Amex

International cards work in every Gulf country. They matter most in the UAE, where expats and tourists pay with cards from home.

They cost more than local debit. Saudi credit card rates run about 2.25–2.8% plus SAR 1.

UAE gateways charge around 2.25–2.9% plus a fixed fee of up to AED 1.

Watch the foreign-card surcharge. Stripe adds 1% for international cards in the UAE, and Telr adds 0.5%.

KNET: Kuwait's must-have

KNET is Kuwait's debit network and online gateway. It carries about 75–80% of Kuwait's online payments, the strongest local-network dependence in the Gulf.

So a Kuwaiti checkout without KNET loses most of its buyers. Put it first, above cards.

On cost, Kuwaiti gateways publish maximum tariffs. MyFatoorah lists debit at 2.5% plus 100 fils. Hesabe's ceiling for KNET is 2.5% plus KD 0.500.

Real rates are negotiated, and the fixed fee hurts most on small baskets. See how to accept KNET online for setup.

BenefitPay: Bahrain's national app

Bahrain runs on BENEFIT, its national payment switch. Shoppers pay with Benefit debit cards through the Benefit Payment Gateway, or with the BenefitPay app.

The app is everywhere. It handled 466 million transactions in 2025. That's roughly 280 per resident.

Your acquirer quotes Benefit merchant fees case by case. Offer both the BenefitPay app and Benefit debit, plus cards and Apple Pay.

NAPS, QPAY and Himyan: Qatar's debit rails

NAPS is Qatar's national debit switch. Online, local debit cards pay through QPAY, the central bank's ecommerce gateway.

Himyan is Qatar's national card brand, launched in March 2024. It runs over NAPS and works online through QPAY.

Credit cards and Apple Pay lead among expats and high earners. Local debit matters for Qatari nationals and mass-market shoppers. Local gateways such as Dibsy charge about 2.5% plus QAR 1 per payment.

OmanNet and Maal: Oman's debit rails

OmanNet is Oman's national debit switch. Maal, its first national card scheme, soft-launched in November 2025 and is accepted at local ecommerce gateways.

Oman is the Gulf's least digital market for now. Apple Pay only arrived in 2024, and COD still matters, especially outside Muscat.

Thawani is the main local gateway, at about 1.5% for debit cards. Regional gateways like Checkout.com and PayTabs also list OmanNET.

STC Pay and local wallets

STC Pay is Saudi Arabia's leading local wallet, now part of STC Bank. Gateways still list it as "STC Pay", and it needs its own integration because it isn't a card.

It's a nice add-on for younger shoppers and expat workers. Amazon Payment Services charges 0.90% per payment for it, plus a SAR 500 setup fee.

The other Gulf countries are building instant account-to-account rails instead of wallets:

• UAE. Aani, the central bank's instant payment platform, suits payment links and invoices.
• Kuwait. WAMD sends money by mobile number and passed 1 million accounts in its first year.
• Qatar. Fawran handles instant bank transfers, with request-to-pay.
• Bahrain. Fawri+ transfers, free for single-owner business accounts since September 2025.

None of these replace cards at web checkout yet. They're handy for WhatsApp sales, invoices and social selling.

Buy now, pay later: Tabby and Tamara

BNPL lets shoppers split the price into interest-free instalments. You get paid upfront, and the provider carries the risk if the shopper misses a payment.

Tabby and Tamara dominate. Tabby reports 25 million users across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. Tamara reports about 20 million and also covers Bahrain.

It costs more than cards. Neither publishes a merchant rate, and sellers typically report 3–5% for Tabby and 4–6% for Tamara.

So why pay it? Bigger baskets, fewer COD orders and no credit risk for you.

In Saudi Arabia, you must check out in SAR and can't add a surcharge for BNPL. Our Tabby vs Tamara comparison shows which one fits your store.

Cash on delivery

With COD, the shopper pays the courier at the door. It's shrinking fast, and it's about 8% of Saudi online payments.

But new brands still need it. Shoppers who don't know you yet want to see the parcel before they pay, so new direct-to-consumer stores often see 40–60% of orders on COD at launch.

The courier fee looks small, at about SAR 3–14 per parcel in Saudi Arabia. The real cost is refused parcels: you pay shipping both ways and lose the ad spend that won the order.

You can charge a clearly shown COD fee. Confirm every order on WhatsApp before dispatch. Our guide to cash on delivery in the GCC shows how to keep it profitable.

Local payment rails by country

Every GCC country runs its own national debit network, so here's the one you need in each market:

Kuwait is where this matters most. KNET dominates online payments, so list it first at checkout.

Oman is the opposite case. Cards and wallets are growing, but plan for more COD and fewer BNPL options than elsewhere.

Selling in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman? Read pricing in 3-decimal currencies before you set up your checkout.

What payment stack should your store offer?

Offer these five methods, in this order, which together cover almost every Gulf shopper:

1. Apple Pay, shown first on mobile.
2. The local debit network for each country you sell to (mada, KNET and so on).
3. Visa and Mastercard for credit cards and foreign cards.
4. Tabby or Tamara, ideally both, if your average order is mid-sized or higher.
5. Cash on delivery, confirmed on WhatsApp before dispatch, with a small fee or a prepaid discount.

Why does this matter? A checkout with only Visa and Mastercard looks foreign to many Gulf shoppers. Plenty of them simply can't pay on it.

Worked example: what 100 Saudi orders cost to collect

Take a Saudi store with a SAR 300 average order. Here's a typical payment mix for a young brand, priced with the rates above:

Each refused parcel burns about SAR 78: shipping both ways, handling and the ad spend that won the order.

So COD is a fifth of the orders but more than half the cost (SAR 472). Two-thirds of that comes from the four refused parcels.

That gives you a clear plan. Push shoppers towards mada and Apple Pay with a small prepaid discount. Then confirm every COD order to cut refusals.

The figures leave out VAT on fees and your platform's own fee. Shopify stores pay extra for an outside gateway, as the Shopify notes below explain.

How do you choose a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is the service that takes the shopper's payment and pays it into your bank account. Start with where your company is registered, because that decides which gateways will take you.

Here's the short version:

• Saudi company. Use a local, SAMA-licensed gateway like Tap, HyperPay, Moyasar, PayTabs or Geidea. It processes mada domestically at a lower rate.
• UAE company. You get Shopify Payments and Stripe, plus regional gateways like Telr, Tap and Checkout.com.
• Selling to several GCC countries. Pick a regional gateway with local rails, such as Checkout.com, Tap or PayTabs.
• No Gulf company yet. Start on Amazon or noon, which collect every local method and pay you out.

Price matters, but approval rates matter more. A gateway that approves a few more local debit payments in every hundred beats one that's slightly cheaper. Our breakdown of payment gateway fees shows where every point goes.

1

Confirm your entity

Your country of registration decides which gateways can onboard you.

2

List your methods

Apple Pay, the local debit rail, cards, BNPL and COD for each target country.

3

Check your platform

Shopify needs a gateway with a proper app. Salla and Zid include payments.

4

Get two or three written quotes

Ask for rates by method, fixed and monthly fees, payout timing and chargeback costs.

5

Test, then keep a backup

Pay with real local cards, test a refund, and keep a second gateway ready.

Most gateways quote rather than publish prices, so asking for quotes is normal. Our payment gateway directory lists independently researched providers by country.

Notes for UAE-based companies

• You get the easiest start. Shopify Payments and Stripe both onboard UAE businesses, and nowhere else in the GCC.
• Stripe stops at cards. A UAE Stripe account takes cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, but not mada, KNET, Benefit, NAPS or OmanNet.
• Add a regional gateway for the rest. Checkout.com, Tap or PayTabs can add the local rails for other Gulf markets.
• Saudi mada still charges as Visa or Mastercard. Domestic mada needs a Saudi entity, which you can add once Saudi sales grow.

For UAE rates and gateways, see our guide to payments in the UAE.

Notes for Chinese sellers

• Start on a marketplace. Noon and Amazon collect every Gulf payment method and pay you out abroad.
• Your own site needs a local route. That means a UAE or Saudi entity, a local partner, or a merchant of record that sells in its own name.
• Price in local currency. Shoppers trust it, and Saudi BNPL requires SAR.
• Keep stock in the Gulf if you offer COD. Shipping a refused parcel back to China rarely pays.

Notes for Shopify stores

• Shopify Payments is UAE-only. Everywhere else in the Gulf, you connect an outside gateway and pay Shopify's 0.2–2% extra fee.
• Pick a gateway with a real app. Check that local debit and Apple Pay work inside Shopify's checkout, not just on a redirect page.
• Add BNPL as separate apps. Tabby and Tamara both have Shopify apps, but each needs its own merchant contract.

Where to go next

Start with the guide for your first market, then add BNPL and COD. These three are the best place to begin:

Want every country and method guide in one place? Browse the payments hub.