Best credits cards & online payment options in the UK

After our extensive research of over 400 online shops in the UK, we have found the best online payment methods according to the online acceptance rates of each credit card or online payment form available in the UK. Our criteria for the best credit card or online payment option is how many shops accept the card as a payment option.

So, we have found out that the most acceptable credit cards in the UK are Visa, Mastercard and Maestro card. Solo debit card, Delta and Switch are accepted by more than half of the UK online shops. And American Express and Visa Electron cards are accepted by less than half of the online shops in the UK. JCB card, Diners, Eurocard, Paypal and Google Checkout seem to suffer from low level of acceptance online. We should also note that while there are millions of PayPal and Google Checkout shoppers and consumers in the UK, only 17% and 5% of online shops in the UK accept PayPal and Google Checkout.

Here are the results of our research:

Payment Method	Acceptance Rate	Application online
Visa card	100%	Apply for Visa card online
Mastercard	99%	Apply for Mastercard online
Maestro	76%	Apply for Maestro online
Solo	65%	Apply for Solo online
Delta	60%	Apply for Delta online
Switch	52%	Apply for Switch online
American Express	45%	Apply for American Express online
Visa Electron	42%	Apply for Visa Electron online
JCB	18%	Apply for JCB online
PayPal	17%	Apply for PayPal online
Diners	6%	Apply for Diners online
Eurocard	6%	Apply for Eurocard online
Google Checkout	5%	Apply for Google Checkout online