Hey guys!

Visa and Mastercard are the 8th and 15th biggest companies in the world, worth more than 1.1T USD (!!!).

For any purchase made with a credit or debit cards and you give them 2-3% of your money.

That’s one the biggest waste of money from EU you can imagine.

I’m trying to find viable alternatives but except paying cash it seem there is no real alternative. Even in where I live there is an alternate payment service but they take the money from my mastercard, duh…

And the idea would be to have something even my grandma can use, not some nerdy solution, any thoughts?

Edit: Bitcoin would be a solution if widely adopted, but more realistic would be something accepted by every cashier machine, and if possible using the NFC of your phone, a kind of “Apple/Google” Pay, that goes directly from your bank to the bank’s shop. Where I live all debit cards are either visa or mastercard…

Edit2: There is an EU initiative that seem to be starting with WERO, never heard of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Payments_Initiative

Edit3: It seem that Paysafecard and Skrill are EU solutions and sometimes proposed in the payment method, but not with STRIPE payment solutions

  • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    2·
    12 days ago

    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.

    • jagermo@feddit.org
      1·
      12 days ago

      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.

  • alfredon996@feddit.it
    1·
    12 days ago

    China has UnionPay, Japan has JCB, Russia has MIR. Europe should have its own credit card network

  • Victor@lemmy.world
    1·
    12 days ago

    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. 😬

    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.

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    12 days ago

    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.

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
        1·
        11 days ago

        Discover network is up for sale. Capital One is trying to grab it. But if that doesn’t go through, a Canadian or European bank could try bidding for it.

  • Sequence5666@lemmy.world
    1·
    12 days ago

    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.

            • Victor@lemmy.world
              1·
              7 days ago

              I’m not so sure Mediamarkt (now renamed to POWER, here) does cash on delivery where I live. I guess our country has largely moved away from cash payments these days.

              • oldfart@lemm.ee
                2·
                7 days ago

                Probably, since you’ve never heard of this mode of delivery, and it’s almost always among payment choices here. In current times you can also pay with card to the delivery worker.

                Privacy and everything else aside, it’s a good option when you buy from a shady / unknown shop, you risk nothing in case they don’t fulfil the order.

                • Victor@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  7 days ago

                  you risk nothing in case they don’t fulfil the order.

                  Not gonna lie, that does sound pretty darn useful. 👌

      • minilemmy@feddit.orgOP
        1·
        12 days ago

        How do you pay cash online?

        And I don’t 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

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          11 days ago

          Online you pay by bank transfer. Instead of “credit card”, I choose “online bank”, click my bank’s name, enter my online banking login and password, give one of the single-use codes and press “transfer”. A bank transfer from my account to the bank account number defined by the shop is made, no money goes to USA.

      • Renohren@lemmy.today
        1·
        12 days ago

        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.