Let’s tell you What is Bizum Pay and how does it work? This application created to be able to pay with Bizum in stores. The Spanish application arrives to compete with the American Visa, Mastercard, Apple or Google trying to take over our mobile payments.
We will start by explaining what Bizum Pay exactly is and how it works, so that you know how to differentiate it from normal Bizum. Then, we will tell you how to install and configure the app on your mobile. Of course, I am already warning you that being able to configure it will depend on whether your bank has already implemented the service.
What is Bizum Pay
Bizum Pay is an application that works like Google Pay or Apple Pay, and is used to pay in card machines using your mobile. Thus, instead of carrying a physical card with which to pay, you can do so using your mobile phone, and with the extra layer of security provided by biometric identification, confirm the payment with your face or fingerprint.
The operation of the application is the same as that of other paid apps. You launch it, and when you have unlocked it, you bring the mobile phone closer to the dataphone. Both will connect and you will make the payment.
The difference between a normal Bizum and Bizum Pay is that the normal Bizum is made to send money to other people using your mobile number. Meanwhile, Bizum Pay is created to be used in card machines and pay in establishments, replacing your physical cards and other American payment apps.
How Bizum Pay works
There is a fundamental difference between Bizum Pay and other payment systems. You are not going to link a card but your bank account. All mobile payment applications work by linking a physical card to use from the device, but in Bizum Pay you use your account.
Therefore, it is not a virtual card that you are going to use, but when you pay with this system you make an immediate transfer between accounts. The money leaves your bank account and goes to the establishment’s account configured in its contactless payment infrastructure.
This makes sense, because Bizum itself is a service for making transfers directly from the bank account where you have set it up to someone else’s. The difference is that with Bizum Pay you no longer need to use phone numbers to send moneyand everything is done through the establishments’ dataphone.
Bizum Pay also allows you to store tickets or passes, just like Apple Pay or Google Pay. Additionally, in the app you can see all the payments you have made, saving these “tickets” to consult them whenever you want.
The Bizum system has the same security guarantees as the rest of the mobile payment options. You’ll have to unlock your device to pay, so it’s safer than paying with a card that others can use. Bizum currently has 39 participating banking entitiesamong them the most important banks in Spain, but also many neobanks.
How to configure Bizum Pay
To configure Bizum Pay, you have to download the application on your mobile. You have it available on Google Play for Android and in the App Store of iPhones. You install it like any other app.
When you open the app for the first time, you will be taken to a screen where how it works is explained. You will have to slide, and in the end you will have to write the phone number to which you have Bizum linked. You know, that number that you configured in your bank app, and that is the one that your friends use to send you money through this system.
This will take you to the activation of Bizum Pay in your bank’s appthe one where you have Bizum configured. When the bank app opens, you can confirm the activation of the payment app.
Your bank may not yet support Bizum Pay. This will depend on each bank, and you may have to wait a few weeks until you can use the application. But the activation is as we have explained to you.
When you activate Bizum Pay you will have to configure it as your default mobile payment app. The steps to follow depend on your mobile:
- On Android: Settings > Connected devices > NFC > Contactless payments
- On iOS: Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Contactless App
If you get involved, use Android or use an iPhone, the best thing is use the settings search and search for terms such as “payments” or “contactless”, so that the option automatically appears. When you enter this screen you will have the mobile payment app that you usually use configured, and you will be able to change it to Bizum Pay, although only when you already have the app activated.
In Xataka Basics | Bizum in 2026: everything that changes (and what does not) in transfers with this system
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings