Why we started

Pay Methods World began in 2019 when two former payment operations managers, Maya Chen and Daniel Okafor, kept running into the same problem: a US-based SaaS company wanted to accept local payment methods in Indonesia and Brazil, but the only information available was either outdated blog posts or vendor sales decks that glossed over settlement timelines and failure rates. They spent three weeks piecing together how bank transfers in Indonesia actually clear and why boleto payments in Brazil often fail at the point of sale. That research became a shared spreadsheet, then a public wiki, then a company.

We exist because cross-border payment decisions are still made on incomplete information. A merchant adding a new market needs to know which methods are dominant, what the real cost per transaction looks like after FX and intermediary fees, and how long funds actually take to arrive. Most sources either oversimplify or bury the details in a sales call. We publish the details upfront.

What we do

We maintain a reference database of payment methods across 120 countries, covering bank transfers, cards, digital wallets, cash-based networks, and real-time payment rails. Each entry includes the method's typical transaction flow, settlement window, common failure points, and the regulatory context that affects availability. We update entries when central banks change rules or when major providers alter their fee structures; the last full review cycle was September 2026.

Beyond the database, we write plain-language explainers for product and finance teams who need to evaluate a market without a payments specialist on staff. We do not process payments, hold funds, or earn commissions from providers. Our revenue comes from subscriptions to the database and from research reports that clients commission on specific corridors. That independence is deliberate: we can tell a client that a particular local wallet has a 12% failure rate on recurring charges without worrying about losing a referral fee.

Our approach and its limits

We prioritize primary sources: central bank publications, scheme rulebooks, and interviews with operations staff who handle these methods daily. When we cannot verify a detail, we say so in the entry rather than filling the gap with an estimate. This means some entries are thinner than others. Our coverage of cash-based methods in rural Africa, for example, relies on fewer direct sources than our coverage of European SEPA transfers, and we flag that gap openly.

We also do not cover every method. We focus on those with meaningful transaction volume or regulatory significance. If a method is not in our database, it is usually because it is niche, declining, or we have not yet completed verification. We would rather have a smaller, reliable set than a comprehensive list we cannot stand behind.

Who we are

Maya Chen spent eight years in payment operations at a cross-border payroll company, where she managed settlement across 30 countries. Daniel Okafor previously worked on payment infrastructure at a remittance provider, focusing on African and Southeast Asian corridors. Our research team includes three analysts with backgrounds in banking compliance and product management, and we contract with local payments specialists in six regions for on-the-ground verification. The team is small by design; every entry in the database is reviewed by someone who has handled that payment method in production.

How we work with readers

We answer reader questions directly. When a merchant asks why a card payment in Mexico settled three days later than expected, we trace it through the clearing process and publish the explanation if it is broadly useful. We also correct errors publicly: each database entry has a revision history, and we note when a correction changes a recommendation. Our editorial policy is simple: if we cannot explain a payment method's mechanics to a product manager in two paragraphs, we have not finished the research.

If you are evaluating a new market or troubleshooting a settlement delay, start with the database. If the answer is not there, write to us. The gaps in our coverage are often the most useful thing we learn about.