Switzerland pays with TWINT

You can make convenient payments with TWINT at cash registers, vending machines and parking meters as well as in online and app shops. Acceptance points can be identified by the TWINT logo.

Selection of acceptance locations

Cash register with terminal

At the cash register, ask whether TWINT payments are supported. If they are, open the TWINT app and tap “Pay” at the bottom of the screen (iOS users can also use the widget for this purpose). Point your smartphone camera at the QR code displayed on the terminal. After the payment has been successfully made, you will see a confirmation in the app. In addition, you can also have a push notification provide details about your payment. To do so, open your TWINT prepaid app, tap on the 3 dots or lines in the top-right or top-left corner of the screen and then tap “General settings” > “Push notifications”.

Cash register with a QR code sticker

Open the TWINT app and tap “Pay” at the bottom of the screen (iOS users can also use the widget for this purpose). Point your smartphone camera at the QR code sticker and confirm the payment. You may be asked by the merchant to enter some information (e.g. the payment purpose). With a QR code sticker with a variable amount, you must enter the amount you wish to pay before confirming the payment. With a QR code sticker with a variable amount, you must enter the amount you wish to pay before confirming the payment. After the payment has been successfully made, you will see a confirmation in the app. If asked to do so, show the merchant the confirmation screen and then close the app.

According to a recent study carried out by ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, approximately 77% of bricks and mortar retailers and 76% of online shops in Switzerland now offer TWINT as a payment method.

The TWINT prepaid app as well as the TWINT apps from numerous banks provide iOS users with a widget for their phone’s lock screen and the home screen. This means that certain functions within the TWINT app, such as payment at the cash register, can be launched directly from your smartphone’s lock screen without the app having to be opened beforehand. Further information on the solution for Android users is available here.

Visit the Apple website to find out how to add a widget to your iPhone.

TWINT offers the following 4 widgets: “Pay”, “Send money”, “Request money” and “Parking”. Tap on “Parking” to pay your parking fee with TWINT without having to go to a meter or pay point.

To use the “Pay” widget, for example, from your lock screen, please proceed as follows:

• Tap the TWINT “Pay” widget on your lock screen
• In one action, unlock your iPhone and your TWINT app at the same time
• The QR code scanner in the TWINT app is now automatically opened
• Scan the QR code as you normally would

Please note that this widget may not be available in every TWINT app. Should you not be able to find the TWINT widget in your app, please contact the Customer Service team for your TWINT app.

As Android does not permit lockscreen widgets as standard and this option is only offered by individual manufacturers of Android smartphones, the TWINT widget is not available for Android.

There are other useful tricks to help you pay quicker using TWINT on an Android device.

Tiles for paying and parking – even on the lockscreen

The procedure for adding tiles varies depending on the Android device you are using. If you decide to add a TWINT pay tile to the quick settings, you can swipe down from the top of the screen directly from the lock screen and tap the TWINT pay tile. On some Android phones, you can place tiles directly on the lock screen for even faster access to TWINT features.

You can also add a tile for parking without having to go to the meter or pay point.

Please note that this feature may not be available in all TWINT apps. If you cannot find this option in your app, please contact the customer service of your TWINT app.

Shortcuts for payments, sending money, requesting money and splitting payments

• Look for the icon for your TWINT app on your smartphone’s home screen.
• Tap and hold the icon for your TWINT app for a few seconds.
• Depending on the issuer of your TWINT app, you will now see different TWINT functions.
• Tap the function that you want to use to access it directly, for example the QR code scanner (or, depending on the app, the “Pay” option).
• Alternatively, you can also press and hold your finger on the function and then drag it onto the home screen of your smartphone, thus creating a shortcut with its own app icon. This means that you can, for example, drag the QR code scanner directly onto your home screen and tap this icon to open the QR code scanner directly.

Increasing the limits for automatic approval

You can also determine whether you would like to automatically approve payments of up to a certain amount made on terminals via your TWINT app. This means that payments up to the selected amount can be executed without needing to be confirmed. To find out how easy it is to do this, click here.

You can, of course, also use TWINT to pay larger amounts.

Please note that in the TWINT app there is a difference between the Payment function in which money is set to a merchant and and sending, receiving and splitting payments which are used with your family and friends.

First of all, the credit in your account or in the TWINT prepaid app is key to how much you can spend with TWINT.

When making purchases with a merchant, there are daily and monthly limits (similar to with a debit card) for each TWINT app. These can vary from one TWINT app to the next and can also be adjusted by the user in some TWINT apps. In the TWINT prepaid app, there is no maximum limit for purchases made from a merchant. However, there are account balance and top-up limits in place for the TWINT prepaid app, which affect how much you can spend. For information on the spending limits in force in the other TWINT apps, please contact the issuer of your TWINT app directly.

The maximum limit for payment with a QR code sticker stands at CHF 5000.

There are maximum limits for sending and receiving money, but these vary from one TWINT app to the next. For further information on this, please contact the issuer of your TWINT app directly. The limits for the TWINT prepaid app are available here.

Yes. To do so, open the home screen of your TWINT app and tap “Transactions” and then “Display all” (the process may differ from what is described here depending on the TWINT app you are using). Here, you can view all of your payments at any time. Tap a transaction for further details about the individual transaction. Information on how to search for specific transactions is available here.

TWINT does not have any detailed data relating to your purchases. Therefore, we can only display the transaction time, the place of purchase and the amount spent. Unfortunately, we cannot display what you purchased.