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How to get rid of Mastercard and Visa? (feddit.org)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by minilemmy@feddit.org to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

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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

(page 2) 35 comments

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[-] jagermo@feddit.org 6 points 5 days ago

Contact the ECB and demand a digital Euro

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 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.

[-] pmtriste@lemmy.world 5 points 5 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.

[-] AlexisFR@jlai.lu 5 points 5 days ago

Use the Carte Bancaire network in France,we have that at least.

[-] minilemmy@feddit.org 4 points 5 days ago

You mean Carte Bleue? Yes but unfortunately i'm not in France

[-] Wrongdoer1@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Many EU countries have their system but we need to make a European common system. It's been a project from EPI (European payment initiative) and I understand Wero is kind of the first step.

[-] Blaze@feddit.nl 4 points 5 days ago

It's in progress https://wero-wallet.eu/

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[-] Eiri@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

Debit card maybe?

[-] minilemmy@feddit.org 7 points 5 days ago

my debit card is mastercard...

[-] Eiri@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 days ago

Dang it. I had forgotten that most debit cards now have partnerships like that.

However, remember that debit card transaction fees are typically quite a bit lower (no exact numbers to support my claim, but for instance my hairdresser only takes credit for larger payments; small ones she only accepts debit, or she would just lose too much to the credit card company).

So you wouldn't NOT support MasterCard/Visa, but they WOULD receive less money.

As for non-American credit cards, someone asked a similar question on Reddit and got technically valid but unsatisfying responses.

For instance:

https://www.reddit.com/r/amexcanada/comments/1j31ir0/comment/mfwmz5y/

Like, when they say "don't encourage the US" people don't typically mean jumping to Chinese companies instead. Not to mention UnionPay is definitely not as widely supported as Visa or MasterCard.

And while Japan isn't exactly notorious for its human rights violations these days, I kinda doubt JCB cards would be very widely supported. And could you even get one if you're not Japanese?

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this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025

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