How I Pay in Colombia Without a Card or Cash: Bre-B Transfers and QR, Day to Day

I am Vojta, co-founder of WanderWallet, and I live in Medellin. Since August 2026 I have paid for almost everything here through Bre-B, Colombia’s instant-payment system, from my phone, with no Colombian bank account, no cash and no foreign card. This is not a test week. It is how I pay for groceries, rent, coffee and deliveries, and I am writing it down because most visitors have no idea that half of it is possible.

TL;DR

• Direct transfers via Bre-B are the workhorse. I have not yet met anyone in Colombia who wanted to be paid by transfer and would not accept one. Rent, deliveries, small shops with no card machine: a couple of times a week, every week.
• The thing nobody tells you: major terminal providers support Bre-B QR payments across Colombia. I pay this way at Carulla, Jumbo, Exito and Farmatodo, and at restaurants and cafes. Say “quiero pagar con QR.” or use the self-checkout machine.
• The printed QR labels by the register work when they say Bre-B. Older ones do not, and the app shows an unsupported-code message; scanning alone never sends money.
• Every time, the app shows me who I am paying, the amount in pesos, and the final amount in dollars before I confirm. Bre-B itself does not add a separate fee for the sender or merchant in the flow described here. WanderWallet’s conversion and payment fees still apply and are shown before you confirm.

Why I Stopped Handing Over My Card

Short version: the dollars-or-pesos prompt. I had chosen pesos at a Carulla checkout, declined the conversion, and still been charged in dollars at a rate about 7% worse. More than once. The practical conclusion for me was simpler: stop putting a foreign card in the loop at all. In Colombia, in 2026, that turns out to be easy.

Direct Transfers: My Everyday Workhorse

This is the boring, reliable part, and it is most of how I pay. Bre-B lets anyone with a Colombian bank or wallet account receive money against a key, usually their phone number or, for businesses, their business ID number. I ask for it, type it into WanderWallet, check the name the app shows me, see the amount in pesos and what it costs me in dollars, and confirm. It lands instantly. They see it on their phone. Done.

What I actually pay this way: my rent. Deliveries that do not go through Rappi, the kind where someone brings something to your door and you settle up on the spot. Small stores that do not have a card terminal at all and would otherwise be cash-only. Anyone, really, who says “me haces la transferencia.” I have not yet met a single person who wanted a transfer and would not take a Bre-B transfer. That is what makes it the fallback for everything else in this article: if there is no QR, I ask for a registered Bre-B key.

For the exact taps in the app, the how-to guide has them. The one habit worth repeating: read the recipient name before you confirm.

The Stickers by Every Cash Register

This is what every foreigner in Colombia actually sees: a printed QR label next to the register, most often Bancolombia, sometimes Nequi, Daviplata or another bank. “Paga con QR.” Until recently those were locals-only, because paying one needed a Colombian account.

Here is the state of play as of September 2026. There are two generations of these labels. The older ones predate Bre-B and are not Bre-B QRs. The newer ones say Bre-B on the label, and those work with WanderWallet. The banks are swapping the old ones out for the new ones, and it is not just Bancolombia, every bank is pushing the new standard. When I walked through Medellin’s Centro at the end of August I saw more of the new labels than old ones, and the ratio keeps moving in the right direction.

So the rule is: look for the word Bre-B on the label. If it is there, scan it. If it is not, you can still scan it: scanning alone never sends money. WanderWallet tells you when a QR is unsupported, and a payment requires your separate confirmation. Then you ask for the key and pay by transfer. I pay printed labels a couple of times a week now, mostly at small places where I used to type a phone number.

The Unlock: The Card Terminal Can Show a QR

This is the part that replaced my card, especially at supermarkets, and it is the part I most want visitors to know, because if you come from a country where this is normal you take it for granted, and if you do not, you would never guess.

Major terminal providers support Bre-B QR payments across Colombia, including on machines you would otherwise tap a card on. Availability still depends on the merchant and terminal. You say “quiero pagar con QR,” a Bre-B QR appears on the terminal screen, you scan it with WanderWallet. If it is supported, the app shows the store name, the full amount in pesos and the final amount in dollars. You confirm, and you are done. No card, no prompt, no currency choice.

I do this regularly, not as an experiment. I have paid this way at Carulla, Jumbo, Exito and Farmatodo, and at restaurants and coffee shops whose terminals were Redeban or Bold. At the supermarkets I usually use the self-checkout, but that is only because I like to do it myself: the self-checkout and the cashier lanes run the same terminals, so either works.

One honest caveat on coverage. Colombia’s terminals belong mostly to two networks, Redeban and Credibanco, plus newer providers like Bold. In my experience the Redeban terminals reliably produce a QR that works. Credibanco terminals support it too, but fewer of them have it switched on so far. Scanning alone never sends money: if the QR is not supported, the app says so, and you fall back to the store’s key or, at a supermarket, simply a different terminal.

What I See Before I Pay

The same screen every time, transfer or QR: who I am paying, the amount in Colombian pesos, and the final amount in US dollars, fee included. That last number is the whole difference from a card. With a card in Colombia I found out what I had paid when the statement arrived, sometimes in the wrong currency. Through Bre-B I know before I tap confirm. Bre-B itself does not add a separate fee for the sender or merchant in the flow described here. WanderWallet’s conversion and payment fees still apply and are shown before you confirm.

After paying, the receipt is in the app and easy to share. Be ready to show or send it; some merchants like to see the confirmation, which is a normal part of paying by transfer here.

The Routine, If You Want to Copy It

Fund WanderWallet before you need it. At a supermarket, pharmacy, restaurant or cafe, say “quiero pagar con QR” and scan the terminal. At a small shop, scan the label if it says Bre-B. Anywhere else, ask for the key and pay by direct transfer. Read the name, read the final cost, confirm. Keep a card for the rare place with none of the above, and if you have to use it, pay in pesos.

That is it.

Related Guides

• How Dynamic Currency Conversion Works in Colombia – the dollars-or-pesos prompt explained.
• How to Pay in Colombia With WanderWallet – the step-by-step for both direct transfers and QR.
• What Is Bre-B? – the system behind it, and why Nequi, Daviplata and Bancolombia all connect to it.

Everything above is my own experience in Medellin, August and September 2026. Terminal coverage changes fast; if what you see differs, tell us.