Wero will become the replacement over time.
But for now, you're stuck with Visa and Mastercard if your country doesn't have a local alternative.
Just get the cheapest option.
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Wero will become the replacement over time.
But for now, you're stuck with Visa and Mastercard if your country doesn't have a local alternative.
Just get the cheapest option.
Wero flew by my radar, thanks for the hint. Three of my banks even support it already, awesome!
Wero can win if the banks offer it with no additional cost to stores and, and this ia crucial, it offers credit and the blocking of funds for stuff like car rentals.
It needs to be as easy a visa/MasterCard and cheaper / easier to run with the same features. I have hope, but that is a tough order.
Awesome! Did not know of this. Will investigate.
China has UnionPay, Japan has JCB, Russia has MIR. Europe should have its own credit card network
"EUROCARD"
Sounds nice as well
Make it blue with stars on it and the globe displaying a space picture of earth with europe
@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu let's make this happen, mkay?
Have you looked into American Express?
oh shit, nevermind.
A local debit card is your best bet
Maestro is part of MasterCard.
Maestro isn't a local system it's a limited debit card like electron for visa. Other comments are about national Credit cards. WERO is the only European network pushed by the ECB (and begrudgingly taken up by most major European banks). It piggy backs on the Free-of-charge instant wiring SEPA system.
TIL Maestro still exists
Those still go through the bank card system.
Use cash.
How do you pay cash online?
And I donโt think the banking system is evil and should be destroyed, I just want the EU to be strong and independant, have tech and finance sovreinty
In Canada we have Interac. Works great.
And the idea would be to have something even my grandma can use, not some nerdy solution, any thoughts?
Use cash
A sensible stopgap solution, but doesn't really work for big purchases or online shopping.
Bitcoin uses way to much energy to use as currency like that. gridcoin or any other one that uses proof of stake would be better if accepted but its a bit nicer if the energy put into it results in a useful product which gridcoin does.
This might not help you OP, but alternative to VISA and Mastercard is UPI. India and some south east asian countries use that for transactions rapidly. Also India also built Rupay (not the currency) to break visa and mastercards duopoly.
If you're in the Nordics I suggest Vipps/Mobilepay/Swish as payment methods.
Easy: iDEAL (which is a shitty system, but still..)
Doest that only work in NL?
iDEAL has been acquired by WERO which is an EU initiative for pan-European payment system. Wero is being rolled out by banks in France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg.
For any purchase made with a credit or debit cards and you give them 2-3% of your money.
I'm not sure I understand this. The stores would be the ones to pay this fee, no? Not you with your money. The price of some item doesn't change depending on whether you use cash or a debit or credit card. Not usually anyway, maybe a small local shop has done this to me once or twice in my life. Or maybe a fair stand or something.
If we wanted to stop giving Mastercard and Visa "our" money, we would have to all band together as a world community and boycott them. ๐ฌ
Please someone correct me if I'm wrong!
Edit: I mean, yes, of course the price of those small transactions are included in the price of the item. So we are all "paying" Mastercard and Visa money, even those who aren't using them. Which is still to my point that we need to all band together as a world community to boycott them, which seems futile in all honesty.
While the shop pays the fee, the fee is priced in and still the money ends up going to the card company based on your purchase.
We had this topic a lot with the tariffs recently. Yes technically the tariffs are paid by the importer or exporter. Doesn't change the fact that they end up being part of the consumer price (which is one of the purposes of tariffs)
Yes you're correct.
However, those costs are ultimately passed to you, as higher prices are the only 'trickle' that consumers will receive.
Indeed, and if you're not using MC/Visa, then the vendors just happily pocket the difference.
At least it stays in the EU in that case
You are absolutely correct
Now I just prefer my (or the store's money if you prefer) to recycle in the EU. We need it.
Technically you're right. The merchant pays the fee. But, those transactional costs are overall calculated into the prices. Like everything else e.g. transportation, packaging, wages, theft, breakage etc. So in the end it's the customer paying those 2-3% even though no price changes if you change payment.
As for the boycott: yes, sure. Voting with your wallet always works. The problem is how deeply they're burrowed into the system globally. The merchant doesn't care, it wants its money in whatever way. But if they don't offer an alternative, you can't boycott it (unless you erase that product from your life or find another merchant). And if you don't boycott it, they don't offer an alternative. Also most people simply don't care at all....
Contact the ECB and demand a digital Euro
Here in Portugal we have MB Way which is handled on a separate network. I understand that it might interoperate with Bancomat (Italy) and Bizum (Spain) also just since November, but I haven't tried yet. Almost everybody in Portugal (except non-integrating expats) seem to use it, though there are spots here and there that refuse for reasons that are unclear to me.
I'd like to know if something works for all of EU. Because that's the only reason for me to have Visa.
Everything in my own country can be handled with "Dankort" our national universally accepted debit card. We also have local Mobile pay which is also pretty universal here.
But those don't work for purchases outside Denmark.
Just use cash.
I get that it can be a hassle to carry around, but it's the only "real" alternative if you want to keep third party companies from profiling you based on your spending habits and selling that personal info to advertisers.
That's not an option for a lot of countries that are going cashless. In Netherlands (we have our own payment service) a lot of merchants are cashless.
"Going cashless" is a scam designed to rake in payment processing fees from an entire economy. Cash is the enemy to these companies because it's a form of payment they can't profit from.
If it isn't an option, then you should refuse to do business as much as possible. Take your money out of their hands.