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
    381·
    4 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.

    • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
      16·
      4 days ago

      Wero flew by my radar, thanks for the hint. Three of my banks even support it already, awesome!

    • jagermo@feddit.org
      6·
      4 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.

  • Sequence5666@lemmy.world
    9·
    4 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
    83·
    4 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.

    • Saleh@feddit.org
      141·
      4 days ago

      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)

    • miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      Yes you’re correct.
      However, those costs are ultimately passed to you, as higher prices are the only ‘trickle’ that consumers will receive.

    • minilemmy@feddit.orgOP
      5·
      4 days ago

      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.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 days ago

        We do indeed. Although not gonna lie, Americans are also cash strapped. But Mastercard and Visa definitely don’t need more money!

    • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
      2·
      4 days ago

      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…

  • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
    63·
    4 days ago

    If you don’t need a credit card, don’t get one.

    If you have one, cancel it and use a bank card. If you can’t do that, pay off your debts then do that.

    A lot of people suck with money because the idea of going into debt, taking loans, and paying interest is normal and sometimes good to them but really It’s weird and should be avoided for the sake of harmony.

    • minilemmy@feddit.orgOP
      11·
      4 days ago

      it’s not about credit cards at all debit cards are also made by visa and mastercard

      my point is: everytime you pay with something else than cash, you give money to the USA (arround 2% of your purchase)

      • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
        22·
        4 days ago

        Huh. As an American I think you mean give money to billionaires because I don’t see shit from your 2% personally besides douchebags flexing.

        • Patch@feddit.uk
          4·
          4 days ago

          Visa employs about 15,000 people in the US. MasterCard presumably similar.

          MasterCard pays about $150m in corporation taxes in the US each year. Visa presumably similar.

          These are the benefits that these companies bring to the US.

  • pmtriste@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 days ago

    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.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    31·
    4 days ago

    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.

  • Comment105@lemm.ee
    21·
    4 days ago

    I don’t know, but from a cursory search Revolut looks like a credit/debit card option based in the UK? I’m not personally familiar.

    I also thought Re:Member would be an option, but that seems to be Mastercard with a mustache and sunglasses.