Paying on Steam in pounds
A UK Steam account is priced in pounds sterling, and the checkout shows the payment options open to your account at the moment you pay. For UK accounts the usual options are:
- Debit or credit card. Visa and Mastercard are the everyday choices, and American Express is accepted too. Your bank may ask you to confirm the payment in its app.
- PayPal. Steam narrowed the currencies it takes PayPal in, and the British pound is one of those still supported. You can link PayPal once in your account and choose it at checkout.
- Steam Wallet balance. Money already in your Steam account, topped up from a card or PayPal, or added by redeeming a Steam gift card or digital code.
Steam does not charge a fee for paying by card or PayPal, and in the UK it could not: surcharges on consumer card and PayPal payments have been banned since 13 January 2018 under the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012.
Steam Wallet and gift cards
Wallet balance is handy for setting a budget: load a fixed sum and the account cannot spend past it. Two things to know. Wallet money cannot be withdrawn back to a bank, and a refund on something bought with Wallet balance goes back to the Wallet.
Physical Steam gift cards are sold in UK shops and supermarkets, and digital ones from Steam itself. Buy them from the shop's own till or website. Never buy a code from someone who messages you, and never read a code out to anyone who calls or texts asking for one. Gift-card requests are a common scam; report one to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or at actionfraud.police.uk.
Keys from other shops
Several shops sell Steam keys for fighting games, and the authorised ones buy them from the publisher. If a key price looks far below every other store, the seller is often a marketplace where individuals resell keys, and the key can be revoked later if it was bought with a stolen card. We link only to Steam and to publishers' own pages.
Pay later and credit
Steam itself does not offer pay-later at checkout. Some shops that sell games or gift cards do. Since 15 July 2026, buy-now-pay-later deals of this kind are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so the lender has to check affordability and you can take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. Spreading a £35 game over three months is still borrowing, and missed payments can show on your credit file.
Setting limits for a younger player
Several games on our card are rated PEGI 16 or PEGI 18, and each review shows the rating. If a younger player in the house uses Steam, Steam Family settings let an adult approve purchases and choose which games a child account can see, and a Wallet with a set balance caps spending.