There are a few red flags that make wero not -privacy friendly. It apparently uses a phone number as identifier, and Android users are required to have revent version with the Google Play Services badware.
It's good to have a local alternative to EMV, but privacy-wise those apps may be worse than EMV cards.
Honestly it still beats having to use Paypal.
Some weeks ago I could use it with the Volksbank app without Play Services.
That sounds great. It may be bank-specific then.
Understanding it as an alternative to PayPal and a convenience tool for wire transfers I see no bigger privacy issue.
You either state your bank account and name for a purchase with company or use this handle, to provide the exact same data.
Alternative to visa and Mastercard potentially as well not just PayPal.
Which you can't really escape anyway since one of those two is very likely the provider for your bank's debit card.
Yes but if the Point of Sale start using WERO that will be a drop in commission for them
Can't really get much better. The apps / platform are directly connected to the bank anyway, they know all the personal very detailed info of our lives already - physical address, copies of id cards, full names, parents names, phone numbers, place of employment, etc. if there's one thing we can't escape from is this. As long as things are compartmentalized enough and personal info doesn't leak... Digital money binding us to our owners...
Yesterday I paid online for something using the equivalent in my country (mybway) and less than 5min after I had a push notification in the phone asking if I wanted insurance for my pets (i bought something on a pet store).
I guess the good thing is that the set of people that want to send you money overlaps with the set of people that already know your phone number. To me it seems like a sane PayPal replacement.
It will be, when the merchants adopt it.
Regarding the phone. It looks as if you can perform transactions by phone, name or e-Mail. It was my banks decision to got with the phone as primary identifier. I guess QR-code transaction will be the most common way of transferring person 2 person, if they are within visible range.
Merchants will still take a while. From the website:
Starting in 2026, one simple integration will connect merchants like you to every Wero user across Europe
Merchants should contact their Payment service Providers first to integrate with Wero.
e-commerce will be rolled out this summer in Germany, with Belgium and France following in late 2025/early 2026.
Okay. Till the we need to ping pong our money. I’ll DM you with my account and you start 🙃
The linked article has a list of supporting banks as well - some adding support in the future (listed with future date)
Why is Revolut in the list with French banks, thought it was British? Also why only list Dutch banks behind others? Was the Netherlands too many letters? Thanks for the update though :))
Revolut has Estonian banking license. I do t think they have any banking license in uk.
They are a British company, they have a license there.
Still not finalized https://on.ft.com/4mjoNwq
But it is yet to gain authorisation to operate as a fully fledged bank in the UK.
After a three-year process, its application for a UK banking licence was approved last year, with restrictions imposed until it met conditions set by regulators. But, 12 months later, Revolut still faces restrictions on lending in the UK.
The licence approval triggered a “mobilisation” stage during which time Revolut’s banking division has been allowed to accept deposits of only £50,000 while the company builds out its IT infrastructure, risk controls, compliance functions and other systems.
Oh yeah looks like they finally got it a year ago https://www.ft.com/content/424c1323-d296-4f7b-8d5e-8b0dc6a5828a
Lithuanian actually
Thanks for the correction
Copied the first search result. Only edited a little bit. The info is inherently crappy, maybe the search engine spilled in some mindless AI f***
Apparently not all sparda banks are enabled
🥲
I was able to add a email address as an additional ID for wero, maybe your bank allows that as well.
Took a look, but no chance.
Coool thanks for the update. I just checked last week for my Bank and didnt find much and now its on your list, on their Website and already implemented in their app. :) wouldnt have noticed. Thanks!
When Italy?
If i understand it correctly it all depends on your bank. The country is not really relevant.
Well my bank supports it, but my smartphone with android 8 dont.
Does wero have a website to use it?
Wero is federated like the Fediverse. It all depends on your bank.
Doesn't seem so. Also my banking portal does not feature wero. Only their App.
Your bank might choose to keep it separated to mitigate dependency with their app & release.
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