Annual number of POS terminals in Belgium 2000-2023

How many POS terminals are there in Belgium? In 2023, there were approximately 263,000 payment devices located in Belgium, a decrease of around 60,000 from the previous year. By comparison, the number of active POS terminals in the Netherlands increased by roughly three percent in 2018 to a total number of around 378,000.

Belgium uses less cash money than other countries

According to a 2017 survey, cash payments at points of sale (POS, such as shops, restaurants, petrol stations and street merchants) made up 63 percent of all transactions. This was lower than in many other European countries, such as Germany where this percentage was said to be 80 percent. The frequency of cash money use in Belgium was also lower than the European average, according to another 2017 survey.

Which card payments are common in Belgium?

Bancontact was the leading payment card scheme in the country, with a market share of 82 percent in 2017. This payment scheme only exists in Belgium and uses debit cards from the country’s banks (such as the big banks BNP Paribas Fortis, Belfius and KBC) to pay for goods purchased either online or in a brick-and-mortar store. Contactless payments, or NFC, are less common in Belgium however: these made up four percent of all payment transactions in the country. This was among the lowest percentages reached in the EU-28.