BLIK Recurring Payments - What They Are and Why They're the Future of Subscriptions in Poland

In my first post I promised a dedicated piece on the technology that sits at the heart of Zevio. Time to deliver. Fair warning - this one's a bit longer.

When people hear "BLIK", most think of the same thing: a six-digit code, a quick payment or ATM withdrawal, done. And rightly so - BLIK in its basic form has revolutionised mobile payments in Poland. Today, practically every mobile banking user in the country has access to it. It's one of the biggest fintech success stories in our part of Europe.

But there's something that gets talked about far less. BLIK has a second, younger - and in my view, far more interesting - face. It's called BLIK Recurring Payments. And it's the foundation on which we built Zevio.

How does it work?

The idea is simple: instead of entering a BLIK code with every payment, you give your consent once for recurring charges - and that's it. Subsequent transactions happen automatically or after your confirmation in your banking app, with no card details to enter, no redirects, no unnecessary steps.

The technology works across three models, each differing in level of automation and flexibility. Model A is the classic subscription - a fixed amount at a fixed frequency, collected automatically by the bank with no action required from the user. Perfect for a magazine subscription or a fixed monthly plan. Model M offers more flexibility - the amount and frequency can vary, but the user confirms each transaction in their banking app within 72 hours. Useful where billing isn't identical every month, such as utility bills. Model O is the most advanced option - variable amount, variable frequency, fully automated with no need to approve each payment, up to a limit of 2,000 PLN per transaction.

All three models share one principle: the user always gives informed consent upfront, can see all active payments in their banking app, and can cancel at any time. Full control - on the customer's side.

Why does this matter?

Credit and debit cards have a problem that's well known in the industry but rarely spoken about directly: they're the natural enemy of subscriptions. Cards expire, get lost, blocked, replaced. Every card change is a potential lost subscriber - not because they wanted to leave, but because the payment simply didn't go through.

BLIK Recurring Payments doesn't have this problem, or it's minimal at worst. The consent is tied to a bank account, not a piece of plastic. As long as the customer has an account, the subscription works.

On top of that, there's something harder to measure but very real: trust. BLIK is a Polish brand, Polish technology - something Poles know and like. When a user sees the familiar BLIK logo at the point of subscribing, the barrier to entry is lower than when entering card details on an unfamiliar service.

We saw this very clearly with the Tygodnik Powszechny implementation - over 90% of readers chose the BLIK option over a free trial week with a card. That wasn't a coincidence.

Why is this still new?

BLIK as a platform has been running since 9 February 2015. But Recurring Payments is a much younger technology - developed in stages, with the first production deployments only in recent years. PKO Bank Polski was the first to make it available. Today, eight banks support the technology: PKO Bank Polski, Bank Millennium, Santander, ING, Nest Bank, Alior Bank, Crédit Agricole, and the SGB cooperative banks - meaning BLIK Recurring Payments are now available to over 70% of mobile banking users in Poland. mBank is expected to join around September 2026, and Pekao SA is in preparation - likely in 2027. In other words: before long, virtually every Pole using a banking app will have this technology at their fingertips. On the payment processor side, full support for all three models is offered by PayU, Autopay and Tpay - and it's Tpay that Zevio works with as its technology partner.

We are at the beginning of the adoption curve. The infrastructure is ready, banks are rolling it out one by one, and the market is just maturing. We're here from the start.

What does this mean for businesses?

For any business that wants to offer subscriptions or recurring plans to Polish customers, BLIK Recurring Payments is today the most natural path. It doesn't require customers to enter card details, generates no friction at renewal, and eliminates the risk of losing a subscriber due to a card change.

Zevio was built precisely so that any business - a publisher, school, gym, or online service - can take advantage of this technology without building their own technical infrastructure. You sign up, integrate, and start accepting payments. We handle the rest.

This is just the beginning. But I'm convinced that in a few years, we'll talk about BLIK Recurring Payments the same way we talk about basic BLIK today - as something obvious, something it's hard to imagine daily life without.

You can read more about BLIK Recurring Payments here.