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How do natives answer the question "How would you like to pay?" When I want to pay with my bank card, sometimes they ask credit or debit? Sometimes they ask Visa or Mastercard? So I now usually say "credit", or "Visa". Does that sound natural? Besides to what you think it's natural to say, what do you think about the following options?

1. Card?


2. Bank card?


3. By card?


4. With card?


5. On my/the card?


6. Credit/Debit (card)


7. Visa/Mastercard

Additionally, what if you want to pay with cash?

1. Cash?


2. By cash?

How would you like to pay?

In short, informal interactions, such as with a cashier, it's perfectly fine to respond with one word. Or, you don't need to use a proper sentence with a subject and a verb:

• Cash


• Card


• etc.

If you need to specify, again, you can be brief:

• Visa


• Mastercard


• Apple Pay


• Debit


• Credit


• etc.

If you want to use a preposition, you can use with. In my AmE opinion, you cannot use *by with cash or card:

• With cash


• With a/my card

This is generally short for I will pay with cash/my card, or in response to "Will you pay with cash or card?"

BrE users are saying "by card" works form them:

• By card (BrE)

It wasn't mentioned in the OP and I completely forgot, but @JeremyC points out that you can say by check/cheque:

• By check (AmE)


• By cheque (BrE)

I think on my card is okay in a few cases:

• You can charge it on my card.


• You can put it on my card.

I agree with @J.R. Charge it to my card sounds better to me.

The fewer words, the better: "Cash", "Credit", or "Debit". If they want more information, they'll ask. There was a time when they needed to know the type of card, (e.g., Visa or MasterCard), but that's rare today.

Honestly, I usually just hold up the card (if I’m going to use it and there’s a terminal I need to use it in), or hand them the card (if I don’t have a terminal) or the cash. No need to say anything, though as stated above, a single word of “card” or “cash” is generally sufficient, and if they need to know more (e.g. credit or debit), they’ll ask. [United States]

Depends on the context. People usually say "By card". The merchant also usually doesn't care^*, because they'll plug your card in a machine, that reads any of them.

^*Sometimes merchants may be unable to support a few cards, such as AMEX. In that case it might be useful to say if yours is a Visa/Mastercard/etc.

The correct answer depends on what question they asked, exactly.

If they ask "How would you like to pay?" you can say something like "cash", or "by credit card", or "debit card, please". Other answers talk about the exact choice of words to use here.

If they ask "Credit or debit?", then you have to use either the word "credit" or the word "debit". This will affect the way that the payment is processed, and the details are a little complicated. It's fine to say "credit" if it's a credit card and "debit" for debit cards. If you'd like more information, try doing a Google search for "Should I say credit or debit?"

Likewise, if they ask "Visa or MasterCard?" (or "What type of card is it?"), then you have to tell them who your card processor is: Visa or Mastercard (or Discover or American Express).

If you're paying by cash and they ask "credit or debit" or "Visa or MasterCard", you can say: "Oh, uh, I've got cash, is that all right?"

Generic Answers Are Usually Better

I will answer from my own perspective as both a consumer and a business owner in the United States. Here, the question is generally asked because the cashier needs to press the right key on a point-of-sale system to prepare the transaction for payment. The generic choices are typically:

• cash


• check


• debit


• credit

Any of these four are acceptable answers to a generic question from cashiers. However, some point-of-sale systems differentiate between different credit card systems and networks, or have separate readers, PIN pads, or other devices depending on the payment type. If it truly matters, the cashier may ask you “Visa or MasterCard?“, or ask other clarifying questions, so that they know which keys to press on the register. They may also need to know which of their various payment peripherals to present or direct you to.

The various examples you gave all seem like reasonable responses, but are possibly too detailed for most routine transactions. Answering a generic question with more detail is sometimes a polite way to ensure that a less widely-accepted payment method (e.g. American Express, Discover, or Google Pay) will be okay before presenting it, but this is neither required nor expected in most situations.