Payment Explorer

Digital Wallet

How does €100 go through a digital wallet (e.g. PayPal, Apple Pay) from France to a German merchant?

A €100 third party digital wallet checkout (PayPal, Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat Pay): the merchant sees a PSP or a card token — not an A2A overlay. Funding may hit a card scheme, bank account, or wallet balance; the merchant is paid later by transfer.

Scheme Digital Wallet (PayPal, Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat Pay)

Read the numbered story first. The switches change the situation. When a step is clear, open a technical trace to see the messages banks send.

Payer country

Where the payer’s account is. Cut-off times and the usual network can change.

How it ends

The money arrives, the other bank refuses, nobody answers in time, or a bank later asks to reverse a credit (recall).

Actor labels

Plain names (Payer / Beneficiary), ops shorthand (Orig / Bene), or ISO account sides (Dbtr / Cdtr). On SDD the creditor is Orig.

Compare with

Same €100, other scheme — see which hops differ.

What this country changes for the payer’s bank.

Cut-off

SCT batch cut-offs follow your bank’s STEP2 submission window (often late afternoon on TARGET days). Instant is 24/7.

Reachability

Euro SCT / SCT Inst reachability is near-universal in SEPA. French ASPSPs are widely on TIPS and/or RT1.

Local notes

STET PSD2 API is common for PISP initiation in France; clearing remains EPC ISO 20022.

  1. 01

    Payer→Merchant

    €100t+0

    The payer chooses a digital wallet (e.g. PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay) at checkout for €100.

    Wallet checkout — merchant has not seen a card PAN yet

  2. 02

    Payer→Scheme

    The payer authenticates at the wallet provider (SCA) and confirms.

    Wallet customer authentication / SCA (e.g. PayPal, Apple Pay)

  3. 03

    Scheme→Payer’s bank

    The wallet takes €100 from a linked card, bank account, or internal balance (e.g. PayPal balance).

    Funding: card-scheme auth on linked PAN, SEPA direct debit, or e-money ledger

  4. 04

    Scheme→Merchant

    The wallet tells the merchant the order is paid. The merchant never sees the card.

    Capture / webhook notification — wallet provider is acquirer of record

  5. 05

    Scheme→Beneficiary’s bank

    D+1 or batch

    Later, the wallet provider pays the merchant — often via SEPA credit transfer.

    Merchant settlement; often SCT pacs.008 from wallet provider bank

Try in live showcase