Poland’s digital payments market is among the most advanced not only in Europe but globally. Nearly all card payments in the country are made contactlessly, and an increasing number of consumers now prefer to pay with their phones or smartwatches.
According to Mastercard’s report “Polish Payments: The Power of Choice”, 45% of Poles consider mobile wallets one of their favorite payment methods for in-store purchases, while 22% use smartwatches or fitness bands. Reflecting this growing demand, Samsung has just launched its Samsung Pay service in Poland.
Poland: A Contactless Payments Leader
“According to data from the National Bank of Poland (NBP), 97% of all card transactions in the country are made contactlessly. More than 7 million Poles actively use digital wallets, which places Poland among the world’s most technologically advanced payment markets,”
says Marcin Garbarczyk, Vice President and Head of Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics Poland.
NBP’s report “Assessment of the Functioning of the Polish Payment System in the Second Half of 2024” confirms that contactless cards and payment infrastructure are now widespread across Poland. As of the end of 2024, there were 45.1 million contactless-enabled cards, accounting for 97.5% of all payment cards in circulation.
Digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and now Samsung Pay allow users to make NFC contactless payments in physical stores, as well as payments in mobile apps and online. According to NBP data, 13.3 million cards were registered in such services by the end of 2024, and users performed 1.5 billion transactions in just six months — 1.4 billion of which were contactless in retail and service locations.
The Rise of BLIK and Digital Payment Habits
Another sign of Poland’s digital maturity is the continued surge in BLIK transactions, a Polish mobile payment system integrated with most domestic banks. Consumers are increasingly using BLIK not only online but also in brick-and-mortar stores.
Between January and June 2025, BLIK users completed 338.1 million transactions at payment terminals — up 31% year-on-year.
“Poland is far ahead of many so-called ‘old Europe’ countries in digital payments. Take Germany, for example — it has a much lower adoption rate for mobile payments and a more complex banking ecosystem,”
notes Garbarczyk.
According to the Deutsche Bundesbank report “Payment Behaviour in Germany 2023”, mobile payments accounted for just 6% of transactions in Germany. By contrast, a 2023 study by the Polska Bezgotówkowa Foundation found that in Poland, 16% of all POS transactions were made via mobile NFC, 3% via BLIK, and 4% through apps and online sales platforms.
The Future of Payments: Wearables and Beyond
“Mobile payments will continue to evolve toward wearable devices. We already see a growing share of transactions made with smartwatches. From day one, Samsung Pay has supported smartwatch payments, and we expect other wearables to enable payments soon — this is the next step beyond smartphones,”
says Garbarczyk.
Samsung’s new Samsung Pay service, launched this week in Poland, allows users to add Visa or Mastercard cards to their Samsung Wallet and make contactless or online payments. The service is available to roughly 65% of the Polish market from launch day.
“Samsung Pay expands our existing Samsung Wallet service, which has already gained over half a million active users in Poland. They use it to store loyalty cards, boarding passes, and digital car keys. Now, with Samsung Pay integration, the Wallet app becomes fully functional — users can pay with both smartphones and smartwatches, without reaching for their wallets or phones,”
Garbarczyk explains.
A Secure and Scalable Platform
Samsung Pay operates through the Samsung Knox security platform, which provides multi-layer protection across both hardware and software. Knox isolates sensitive data in a dedicated secure environment that handles payments, biometric authentication, and encryption.
All transaction data are encrypted throughout communication between the device and the bank and stored locally on the user’s device, not on external servers. Even if intercepted, the information remains impossible to decode.
“We expect the number of users to grow rapidly. Our goal is to reach 1 million active users in the first year, and we’re confident we can achieve that,”
says Garbarczyk.
“Poland is the 32nd market where we’re launching Samsung Pay. We’re entering with extensive experience from other countries — and given Poland’s advanced payment culture, the timing couldn’t be better.”
