Multibanco: The most popular payment method in Portugal

April 6, 2018

Learn more about the most used payment tool in Portugal and maximize your chances to boost your online business.

Portugal is one of Europe’s e-commerce hotspots with great internet, a strategic location and excellent mobile and broadband networks. This effervescent market is on track to reach 9 million internet users by 2020 (as we described in our blog) and international players are getting excited about its e-commerce business potential. In order to maximize and reach all online users in Portugal, it´s important to learn about Multibanco, a unique Portuguese payment method.

Run by SIBS (Sociedade Interbancária de Serviços S.A.), Multibanco started in 1985 with only 12 ATM machines in Lisbon and Porto cities. Today, Multibanco is available at 11,000 machines spread across the country in strategic spots such as supermarkets, airports, museums, stations, banks and malls. It’s become a centerpiece of society and made life easier for Portuguese citizens, as one can pay licenses, taxes, and almost anything you can think of by just going to your nearest bank or ATM.

Besides different ways to pay Multibanco (ATM, Bank Deposit or Online Banking), cash deposits, order checks and making bank transfers, Multibanco can help with day to day activities such as buying cinema tickets and topping up mobile phone credit. Some say that Multibanco is the most useful and complete payment system in Europe with more than 60 functionalities, allowing operations that another European systems don´t support.

Multibanco services include:

Pay utility bills (electricity, gas and water);
Pay services and purchases;
Buy tickets for concerts and shows;
Buy cinema tickets;
Make cash withdrawals;
Deposit checks (in some machines);
Order checks (in some machines);
Deposit cash;
Make transfers from one account to another within the same bank;
Get a balance statement;
Get an instant statement of movements;
Pay social security contributions;
Pay income tax;
Pay value-added tax;
Recharge mobile phone credit;
Make miscellaneous payments to the state.

These services are supported by all banks in Portugal, so all shoppers can be reached by online merchants. This tool allied with BoaCompra’s strong relationship with local players enables and facilitates the operations of international companies. “With us, any business can accept local payments in Portugal with no need of a local bank account with a single integration offering 100% of the payments available online”, concludes BoaCompra´s Payments Director, Fernando Estevez.

What does Multibanco look like?

With four main features, the document is organized by:

Entidade – the number assigned for a specific company charging for its service or product;
Referência – the code that identifies the service or product that needs to be paid;
Data Limite – this payment method gives the buyer 24 hours to pay the bill. This time range allows a better product stock control, however, there are exceptions for this deadline to be extended in special cases;
Total – the final price to be paid.

By partnering with BoaCompra, international companies can work with these payments methods in Portugal: