Updated September 2026
Introduction
Businesses are always looking for new ways to expand their customer base and increase profits. One way to do this is by using foreign payment gateways for international eCommerce transactions.
- International payment gateways are online payment processing systems that enable businesses to accept payments from international customers all over the world.
- These gateways are used to securely authorize and process payments made through credit or debit cards, e-wallets, bank transfers, and other payment methods.
- They also help to ensure that the payment is received in the correct currency and that any fees associated with the transaction are accurately reflected.
- Businesses need to carefully evaluate features such as transaction fees, security, and ease of use when selecting an international payment gateway. If it doesn't connect to an ERP, users might want to look into a hub payment option to make everything easier.
Using a payment gateway for international eCommerce transactions allows businesses to expand their customer base and take advantage of an opportunity to access new markets with ease, increasing their bottom line and providing greater freedom for business owners.
This article will discuss the benefits of using a payment gateway for international eCommerce transactions, including increased security, improved customer experience, convenience, and cost savings. Let's take a look at how you can increase your sales with a payment gateway.
What Is International eCommerce?
An international payment gateway authorises and captures payments from customers in other countries, handling multiple currencies, local payment methods and the authentication rules of each market. What differs from a domestic gateway sits behind the checkout page: the authorisation path, the currency conversion and the regulatory obligations.
International eCommerce is the ability of businesses to offer their goods and services over the internet to customers around the world. As a result, accepting international payments allows companies to increase their reach and customer base beyond their regional market and local payment methods.
A foreign payment gateway provides a secure way for customers to make payments online when purchasing goods and services from international vendors. They enable currency conversion, which allows customers to pay in their local currency with minimal fees.
Through international eCommerce, businesses can access new markets and increase sales without having to open physical stores in different countries or manage multiple currency accounts. International payment gateway providers make transactions between buyers and sellers safe and secure, allowing businesses to expand their operations without worrying about the complexities involved in dealing with different currencies or financial institutions.
Selling abroad is a payments problem long before it is a logistics one.
What Is an International Payment Gateway?
An international payment gateway is an online service used to enable payments for customers who are located in different countries. This type of payment gateway allows businesses to process payments from customers located anywhere in the world. This is especially beneficial for businesses that have customers or suppliers located outside their own country.
Using an international payment gateway can be a great way for businesses to expand into new markets and reach more customers around the world. By accepting payments from different countries with an international payment gateway, businesses can increase their sales by providing more options for customers who are not able to use traditional payment methods due to restrictions on currency exchange fees or other factors.
The checkout page is the part everyone compares. The authorisation path behind it is the part that decides the outcome.
Factors to Consider When Choosing an International Payment Gateway
When selecting a payment gateway, there are certain considerations that need to be taken into account in order to ensure the best possible outcome.
Experience Is Key
It's vital to select a payment gateway that has experience with payments in a global marketplace. Gateways that specialize in global payments have specialized knowledge of local regulations, currencies, fraud detection systems, and taxation issues related to cross-border payments. This expertise allows for smoother transactions with fewer complications.
Being Well-Connected
Opting for an experienced international payment gateway allows merchants to benefit from its existing network of partners worldwide.
Security
Security is also paramount when choosing an international payment gateway. Payment gateways should be PCI DSS compliant in order to protect customers’ financial data from theft or fraud. Merchants should select gateways that offer strong encryption services as well as additional layers of security like tokenization which work together to protect against unauthorized access.
The Necessary Features
Merchants must evaluate which features they need from their international payment gateway in order to meet the specific needs of their business. For example, some businesses may require localized checkout experiences while others might need fraud prevention tools or advanced reporting capabilities. Selecting a payment gateway that offers all these features will enable merchants to simplify their operations and provide customers with an efficient buying experience regardless of where they are located in the world.
Tell us how you take payments today and which gateway and ERP you run. We'll walk through what Payment Hub would change end-to-end, against a sandbox of your own system.
What international processing actually costs
A domestic quote is usually a percentage plus a fixed fee, and that is genuinely most of the cost. An international one has more parts, and the parts that are missing from the headline are the ones that grow with volume. Expect the base transaction percentage, plus a cross-border surcharge wherever the payment is not acquired locally, plus an FX spread wherever conversion happens, plus scheme fees that differ by card type and region, so a premium consumer credit card from another continent costs materially more to accept than a domestic debit card. A merchant of record folds all of this into one higher percentage and takes the tax obligation with it, which is why its rate looks expensive next to a gateway's and often is not. The only comparison worth making is total cost on a representative basket in each market you are actually entering, including the conversion, rather than advertised rates side by side.
Ask where the FX margin sits. It is the line most often absent from a quote and most often the largest after the base rate.
Six questions that narrow the field quickly
Most of the evaluation collapses into a handful of answers. Do you acquire locally in each of my target markets, or is every transaction presented cross-border? What is your authorisation rate in those markets, as opposed to your global average? Which local payment methods do you support there specifically? Who converts the currency, at what spread, and can I settle in local currency instead? Which version of 3-D Secure do you implement, and how do you apply the exemptions rather than challenging every transaction? And are you the merchant of record or am I? A provider that answers all six precisely is a serious candidate. One that answers them with the number of countries it supports has not answered them.
| Market | Methods buyers actually expect | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
Netherlands | iDEAL | Dominant to the point that cards alone lose most of the market |
Germany | Bank transfer, direct debit, invoice | Card penetration is far lower than in the UK or US, pay-on-invoice is normal |
Brazil | Pix, Boleto, instalments | Instalment payment is expected even on modest baskets |
India | UPI, RuPay, netbanking | UPI carries an enormous share of volume |
China | Alipay, WeChat Pay | International cards are the exception, not the default |
Japan | Konbini, carrier billing, cards | Convenience-store payment remains common for online orders |
Poland | BLIK, bank transfer | A local scheme with very high consumer adoption |
Nordics | Swish, Vipps, MobilePay, invoice | Mobile-first local schemes plus buy-now-pay-later on invoice |
What actually decides whether a cross-border payment succeeds
Gateway comparisons tend to stop at fees and supported currencies. Neither is what usually costs an expanding merchant money. The payment either authorises or it does not, and the reasons it does not are specific.
Authorisation rate, the number nobody quotes
A domestic card transaction on a mature market authorises at a high rate. The same shopper's card presented from a foreign acquirer authorises materially less often, because the issuing bank sees an unfamiliar country code, an unfamiliar merchant category and a currency it did not expect. Every declined authorisation is a sale that was going to happen. A gateway with local acquiring in a market, meaning it presents the transaction domestically rather than cross-border, usually recovers a meaningful share of those declines, and that recovery dwarfs a difference of a few basis points in transaction pricing. Ask any vendor for authorisation rates by market, not a global average, and ask whether they acquire locally or route everything through one entity.
Pricing is easy to compare, which is exactly why it gets compared. Authorisation rate is the number that decides the outcome.
Who converts the currency, and where the margin sits
Someone converts the money, and whoever does takes a spread on top of the interbank rate. If the gateway converts, that spread is usually somewhere between the quoted transaction fee and invisible. If the customer's issuer converts, the customer sees the charge in your currency and absorbs the rate. If you settle in the local currency into a local account, you have taken the FX decision in-house and can hedge it. Dynamic currency conversion, where the shopper is offered a choice at checkout, pays a rebate to the merchant and is disliked by plenty of shoppers for good reason. None of these is wrong, but they are very different economics, and a fee comparison that ignores which one applies is comparing nothing.
European authentication is a hard requirement, not a feature
Under PSD2, payments where both the merchant's and the cardholder's providers are in the European Economic Area require strong customer authentication, normally delivered through 3-D Secure. This is not a fraud tool a merchant opts into. A transaction that should have been authenticated and was not can simply be refused. The practical questions for a gateway are which version of 3-D Secure it implements, how well it applies the available exemptions for low-value and low-risk payments, and how much friction its challenge flow adds. A poor implementation converts the regulation into abandoned baskets.
Local payment methods are often the whole market
Cards are not the default everywhere. A checkout offering only card payments will underperform badly in markets where bank transfer, direct debit or a domestic wallet is what people actually use: iDEAL in the Netherlands, SEPA Direct Debit across the euro area, Alipay and WeChat Pay in China, and a long list of country-specific schemes elsewhere. Coverage of these is the most useful single line in a gateway comparison, and it is the one most often reduced to a marketing claim about supporting a hundred-plus methods. The right question is which methods are supported in the three markets you are actually entering.
Merchant of record: whose problem is the tax
A gateway processes the payment and leaves you as the seller. A merchant of record becomes the legal seller, which moves the obligation for registering and remitting consumption taxes, VAT in Europe and GST elsewhere, onto them, along with the chargeback liability. That is a large convenience and it costs a visibly higher percentage. For a business entering several tax jurisdictions at once with no finance team to spare, that percentage is frequently cheaper than doing it properly in-house. For an established seller in one or two markets, it rarely is.
Chargebacks and settlement across a border
Cross-border disputes take longer, the evidence requirements vary by scheme and region, and the representment window can differ from the domestic one. Settlement timing also stretches: money that lands next day domestically can take several days from a foreign acquirer, and that gap is a cash-flow question rather than a technical one. Both belong in the evaluation and neither appears on a pricing page.
Diagnosing a market that underperforms
When a new market converts badly the instinct is to blame the storefront, and the storefront is usually innocent. The diagnosis separates cleanly if it is taken in order. Start at the checkout: if shoppers are arriving and leaving before entering payment details, the problem is a missing payment method, not a decline, and no authorisation report will show it because those customers never attempted one. If they are attempting and failing, pull the decline codes by issuing country rather than in aggregate, since a healthy global average hides a single bad market comfortably. Soft declines concentrated in one country point at cross-border presentment and argue for local acquiring. A spike in authentication abandonment points at the 3-D Secure configuration instead. And if orders complete but revenue lags, look at the conversion spread before anything else. Each of those has a different fix, and applying the wrong one is how a market gets written off as uninterested.
Aggregate authorisation rate is the metric most likely to hide the problem you are looking for. Always split it by issuing country.
Local acquiring, 3-D Secure behaviour and retry logic decide far more of your cross-border approval rate than the gateway brand does. We can look at where yours are failing.
5 Steps to Accept Overseas Payments
Once international payment gateways have been vetted and the best option chosen, merchants are ready to start accepting payments from overseas. The process of accepting these payments will vary slightly depending on the chosen gateway, but the basics remain the same:
Register
Merchants must first register with the gateway, and provide their financial credentials for authentication.
Set Up
Merchants then set up a payment button or widget on their website that allows customers to make secure payments.
Ensure currency conversion is enabled.
This is a vital feature as it allows customers from all over the world to pay with local payment methods. It also helps avoid confusion due to conflicting exchange rates and eliminates customer frustration due to additional fees being charged at checkout. Therefore, processing payments for conversion of currency must be enabled through the gateway’s dashboard before online payments can take place.
Keep Compliance
Merchants must ensure that all compliance requirements are met in order for them to be allowed to accept payments internationally. As different countries have different regulations surrounding online commerce, merchants may need additional verification documents or licenses depending on where they are located and where they are selling goods or services too.
Keep Track of Taxes
Merchants may need to understand how taxes apply when selling goods or services overseas and ensure they comply with applicable laws in each country they do business.
Once these requirements have been met, merchants can begin accepting international payments securely and efficiently through their chosen payment gateway.
The Most Popular International Payment Gateways
Not all payment gateways are the same. With the variety of payment gateways available, it can be difficult to determine which are the most popular for international payments. Let's take a look at some of the most popular and what they can do.
How to read this list
Every gateway below will process an international payment, and every one of them describes itself as secure, fast and global, which means those words carry no information. What separates them for a specific merchant is narrower and rarely published: whether they acquire locally in the markets you are entering or present everything cross-border, which local payment methods they support in those particular countries, where the FX margin sits, and whether they act as a plain gateway or as merchant of record. None of that can be read off a feature list, and it changes by market rather than by vendor, so the same provider can be the obvious choice for one expansion and the wrong one for the next. Treat the entries below as the shortlist to ask those questions of, not as a ranking. The order is not a ranking either.
A vendor that cannot give you authorisation rates by market is telling you something, even if it is not telling you the number.
PayPal

PayPal is one of the most popular and best international payment gateways, allowing users to securely send and receive payments online. It enables quick and secure cross-border transactions, making it an ideal choice for businesses and individuals alike. PayPal also provides a suite of tools for recurring payments, making it easy to set up subscription plans and automate payments.
Its services are highly customizable, allowing businesses to create custom checkout experiences for their customers. Additionally, its secure payment processing technology ensures maximum security for both buyers and sellers when transferring funds across borders.
Worldpay

Worldpay is one of the most popular international payment gateways. It provides a secure and fast payment process for businesses in global markets, allowing them to accept payments from customers in their local currencies. Worldpay offers services for businesses of any size or industry, including credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Worldpay also provides advanced fraud protection and multi-currency support. It supports over 150 currencies worldwide so that business owners can accept payments from customers around the world without worrying about currency exchange fees or other associated costs.
Sage

Sage is a payment gateway provider that provides international payment gateways for merchants. It is one of the most popular payment gateway providers due to its range of features, ease of use, and competitive payments.
The advantages of Sage Pay include secure payments, flexible pricing plans, accepting international payments, and merchant account integration. In addition to these benefits, Sage Pay also offers excellent customer service and technical support.
Braintree

Braintree supports different currencies and payment methods such as credit and debit cards, PayPal, Google Pay and Venmo, making it easy for customers to make payments in any way they choose. Furthermore, its secure payments system and fraud management tools help protect merchants from any fraudulent activities.
Braintree also offers an array of features such as recurring billing and subscription plans that make it easier for businesses to manage their subscription-based services. Its user-friendly dashboard makes it easy to process and manage payments without any hassle, and if there is a problem, the customer support team is available 24/7.
Stripe

Many people consider Stripe to be one of the best international payment gateways for online payments. Its smooth integration into websites and mobile apps makes it an attractive option for international ecommerce merchants. Stripe also offers fraud protection, subscription billing, and support for multiple currencies.
From a security standpoint, Stripe has reliable measures in place to protect customer data, including two-factor authentication and PCI compliance. Additionally, Stripe offers low transaction fees and flexible pricing plans that can fit any budget. This makes it an ideal choice for both small businesses and large enterprises looking to increase their international reach.
Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay stands out among online payment gateways. It has changed the way customers pay for goods and services online and become the go-to choice for millions of shoppers worldwide. With Amazon Pay, customers can pay in an online store without entering their credit card or bank details.
Its simplified checkout process makes it simple for customers to make purchases quickly and securely, without having to fill out lengthy forms or provide personal information. Also, its fraud detection technology keeps customer data secure, meaning that customers can shop with peace of mind knowing that their information is safe from hackers. Amazon Pay also offers buyers rewards points which can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases or cash-back options.
Adyen

Adyen is an international payment gateway that offers a variety of payment solutions for both online and in-store purchases. It enables customers to pay with their local currency, regardless of where they are in the world. Adyen also enables currency conversions, allowing customers to shop across borders without worrying about exchange rates.
In terms of security, Adyen uses advanced encryption protocols and fraud detection technologies to protect customer data from unauthorized access. It also provides merchants with dispute resolution services and chargeback protection to help reduce the risk of losing money due to fraudulent transactions.
Checkout.com

Checkout.com offers both online and point-of-sale solutions that can be integrated into any existing system with ease. With its extensive range of features, merchants can manage their payments quickly and efficiently while having access to real-time analytics and reporting tools.
Checkout.com enables customers to pay in their preferred currency thanks to its multi-currency support capabilities. This allows businesses to easily manage international transactions while taking advantage of local currency discounts. Checkout.com's payment gateway solution is also highly secure, backed by stringent fraud prevention measures coupled with 24/7 customer service support for any issues that may arise during the transaction process.
2Checkout

2Checkout is popular among international payment gateway providers, known for its fast and secure payments. It supports a variety of payment methods including credit cards and popular digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. It also offers a range of currency exchange services that help merchants to accept payments from customers around the world in their local currency
The main advantage of using Checkout is its intuitive user interface, which makes it easy for merchants to set up their online store and start accepting payments quickly. Checkout also provides merchants with access to powerful tools that can help them optimize their checkout process for better conversions. This includes features like dynamic pricing optimization, which allows merchants to customize prices based on customer behavior or offer discounts at certain times of day or month.
Authorize.net

Authorize.net provides everything needed for a merchant account, including recurring billing and secure data storage. Its payment gateway is set up to handle transactions in multiple currencies and languages, making it an ideal choice for businesses operating across borders. Authorize's fraud detection tools are renowned for their accuracy and efficiency in detecting suspicious activity on accounts.
Authorize.net also offers powerful customer support options to help customers with any issues that may arise during the course of business. This includes 24/7 phone support and detailed tutorials that guide users through different areas of their accounts so they can get back up and running quickly if something goes wrong.
GoCardless

This payment provider allows businesses to process payments from global customers through direct debit and ACH. It is especially popular with organizations that need to collect recurring payments, such as subscription-based services or online marketplaces.
GoCardless is renowned for its secure infrastructure and an easy-to-use dashboard that allows merchants to manage their payments in one place. Additionally, the company provides low processing fees and no additional setup costs.
GoCardless integrates with a number of popular eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. This makes it easier for merchants to accept international payments without having to build custom integrations for each platform.
Verifone

Verifone is a leading global payment processing solution provider and payment processor, offering secure and complete payment solutions for businesses. It provides retailers with innovative products such as Verifone's mobile point-of-sale (POS) platform.
The company enables merchants to accept debit, credit, prepaid cards, contactless payments, digital wallets, and other forms of payment quickly and securely. Verifone also offers analytics to help businesses better understand their customers’ needs. Its advanced security features ensure the safety of customer data and transactions. It also provides value-added services such as fraud protection and loyalty programs that help businesses increase revenue streams and maximize their profits.
None of the twelve is the answer on its own. The market you are entering picks the shortlist.
An expansion that stalled on declines
Expansion problems usually look like demand problems from the inside. The traffic arrives, the baskets fill, and the revenue does not follow.
A US supplements brand opens Germany, the Netherlands and Japan
Roughly $14M in domestic revenue, one gateway, card-only checkout, settling everything in dollars through a single US acquirer.
Market 1, Germany, and a number nobody believed
Traffic and add-to-cart look healthy. Completed orders do not. Authorisation on German-issued cards runs far below the domestic rate, and the decline codes are generic enough that the team first blames the checkout design.
Market 1, the actual cause
Transactions are being presented cross-border from a US acquirer. German issuers see a foreign merchant, an unfamiliar category and a dollar amount, and decline conservatively. Nothing is broken, the routing is simply wrong for the market.
Market 2, the Netherlands makes it obvious
The same setup performs worse again, for a different reason: a large share of Dutch shoppers expect iDEAL and the checkout offers only cards. This is an absent payment method rather than a decline, and it never shows up in authorisation statistics because those shoppers do not reach authorisation.
Market 3, Japan repeats the pattern
Card penetration is high but local methods matter, and settlement in dollars means every customer sees a converted amount at their issuer's rate. Refunds become awkward conversations about exchange differences.
The change, local acquiring
The gateway is replaced with one that acquires locally in each market and settles in local currency. The same customers, the same cards, presented domestically.
The change, methods and authentication
iDEAL and SEPA Direct Debit are added for the euro markets, and the 3-D Secure implementation is configured to use exemptions on low-risk baskets instead of challenging everything.
What moved, and what did not
Authorisation on German cards recovered most of the gap to the domestic rate, and Dutch conversion rose once iDEAL appeared. Traffic did not change. The demand had been there the whole time. The payment path was rejecting it.
The diagnosis took longer than the fix, which is usual. Decline data is not something most merchants look at until someone tells them to.
Bring Everything Together with a Payment Hub
No matter which international payment gateway provider you choose, you're going to want to connect it to an ERP. Unfortunately, many international gateway payment providers can't make that happen.
That's where the Clarity Payment Hub comes in. Payment Hub can capture funds, invoice automatically, and so much more, all while following PCI DSS compliance.
You won't believe the features that Payment Hub delivers, so click that last link to read up on it. We'd love to give you a demonstration, so get in touch to make it happen.
Choosing the gateway is the visible decision. Reconciling what it settles is the one that lasts.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best international payment gateway?
There is no definitive "best" international payment gateway, as different businesses have different needs and requirements. However, some popular options of international payments include PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, and Braintree. Factors to consider when choosing a payment gateway include transaction fees, ease of use, security, currency support, and customer support.
How do I accept overseas payments?
To accept overseas payments, you will need to set up an international payment gateway or use a payment processor that supports international transactions. Some popular options include PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, and Braintree. These platforms allow you to accept payments from customers in different countries and in various currencies.
What is the difference between a payment gateway and a payment processor?
The gateway is the part your checkout talks to: it collects the payment details, authenticates the shopper and passes an authorisation request onward. The processor and the acquiring bank move the money and settle it to your account. Many vendors now do both, which is why the terms are used interchangeably, but when comparing international options the distinction matters because acquiring is the half that determines whether a foreign card authorises.
Why do foreign cards get declined more often?
Because the issuing bank is assessing an unfamiliar transaction. A payment presented cross-border carries a foreign country code, often a foreign currency, and a merchant the issuer has no history with, and conservative risk rules decline a share of perfectly legitimate purchases. Presenting the transaction through a local acquirer in the customer's market is the usual remedy.
Should we settle in local currency or our own?
Settling locally keeps the FX decision with you: you can hold the balance, hedge it, or convert when the rate suits, and the customer is charged in their own currency without an issuer conversion. Settling in your home currency is simpler and hands the spread to whoever converts. Below a certain volume the simplicity is worth more than the spread, above it, rarely.
What is PSD2 strong customer authentication, and does it apply to us?
It is the European requirement that payments be authenticated with two independent factors, normally through 3-D Secure. It applies where both the merchant's and the cardholder's payment providers are in the European Economic Area, so a business selling into Europe through a European acquirer is in scope. Transactions that should have been authenticated and were not can be refused outright.
Do we need local payment methods, or is card enough?
It depends entirely on the market. In some countries cards are the default and card-only checkout costs little. In the Netherlands, much of the euro area, and across Asia, bank transfer, direct debit and domestic wallets carry a large share of online spend, and omitting them loses those customers before authorisation. Check the three markets you are actually entering rather than counting the methods a vendor supports globally.
What is a merchant of record, and when is one worth it?
A merchant of record becomes the legal seller, taking on registration and remittance of consumption taxes such as VAT, and usually the chargeback liability with it. It costs a visibly higher percentage than a plain gateway. It is often worth it for a business entering several tax jurisdictions at once without finance headcount to spare, and rarely worth it for an established seller in one or two markets.
How much does international payment processing cost?
The headline rate is only part of it. Expect a transaction percentage plus a fixed fee, a cross-border surcharge where the transaction is not acquired locally, an FX spread wherever conversion happens, and scheme fees that vary by card type and region. A merchant of record bundles these into one higher percentage. Compare the total cost on a representative basket in each market rather than comparing advertised rates.
How long does settlement take from a foreign market?
Longer than domestic, commonly by several days, and it varies by acquirer and market. That gap is a working-capital question rather than a technical one, and it is worth confirming in writing during evaluation because it rarely appears on a pricing page.
Can we use more than one gateway?
Yes, and at scale it is common: one provider for the home market and another with strong local acquiring for a region, or a primary with a fallback for failed authorisations. The cost is operational: two reconciliation processes, two sets of dispute handling, and a routing decision to maintain. That is why it usually follows evidence that one provider is underperforming in a specific market rather than preceding it.
How do chargebacks differ across borders?
The dispute windows and evidence requirements vary by scheme and region, and the process generally takes longer than a domestic dispute. The practical consequence is that representment needs better documentation and more patience, and that a provider's dispute tooling matters more once a meaningful share of revenue is foreign.
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About the author
Written by Stephen Beer Stephen Beer is a Content Writer at Clarity Ventures and has written about various tech industries for nearly a decade. He is determined to demystify HIPAA, integration, enterpise SEO features, and eCommerce with easy-to-read, easy-to-understand articles to help businesses make the best decisions.
Clarity connects the gateways you choose to the systems that have to reconcile them.
Choosing a gateway is the visible half of going international. The half that takes the time is making orders, settlements, refunds and FX differences land correctly in the ERP and the ledger, in every currency you now sell in. That integration work is what we have been doing since 2007. Tell us which markets you are opening and what you run behind the checkout.