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
    54·
    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
      11·
      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
    49·
    12 days ago

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

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
        5·
        10 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.

    • TwigletSparkleEnglish
      9·
      10 days ago

      A sensible stopgap solution, but doesn’t really work for big purchases or online shopping.

      • petrescatraian@libranet.de
        3·
        10 days ago

        For big purchases it doesn’t, indeed. But for online shopping, would it work if you select payment on delivery at checkout, maybe?

      • minilemmy@feddit.orgOP
        9·
        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

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
          3·
          12 days ago

          Some online stores have the option to pay by check or money order, but that only solves half the problem.

          The banking system is just a symptom. Money itself is evil and should be destroyed.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          2·
          10 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.

            • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
              2·
              10 days ago

              On working days before 16 o’clock bank transfers inside EU are instantaneous. After that, next working day. If the shop has the same bank as the customer, it’s always instantaneous.

              But, the shop receives immediate confirmation that the money has been successfully taken from the customer’s account and will arrive soon.

              …which is actually how it works with card payments as well. With card payments, the shop receives the money about a week later, but gets an immediate confirmation that the money is on the way.

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    15·
    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.

      • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        10 days ago

        creation of physical cash’s cost are not inflated and get changed based on cost and necessity. Using cheaper materials to reduce cost but adding advanced elements which increase cost. Again though it does not have an artificial inflation mechanic causing it to use more energy over time and is just based on method and materials. A big thing in this is how long it functions. coins cost more than paper mostly but one thing people don’t take into account is how long they last versus paper. So you typically see things about a penny costing more than a penny but whats not taken into account is that it is least lasting coin at 25 years while most paper under 50s last less than 10 years but longer lasting denominations are usually used less. It comes down to how much value physical money gets in its lifetime vs its cost to make. So you add up every transaction and average out the value for a particular currency type. Movement is done in the real world so its a bit apples to oranges. It does not require anything necessarily. If all computers and electricity. So its going to vary greatly if I give my brother a fiver for grabbing his oj than if I go deposit it at a bank to if I buy from a retalier to if I foolishly mailed it directly. I don’t think physical money can be compared to much of any electronic equivalents honestly. That is in the realm of folks that believe in cashless system to ones who want some ability to have the physical ability.

  • Sequence5666@lemmy.world
    12·
    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
    11·
    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.

    • Saleh@feddit.org
      24·
      12 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
      10·
      12 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
      7·
      12 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
        2·
        11 days ago

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

  • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
    10·
    12 days ago

    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.

    • cocolowlander@feddit.nlEnglish
      14·
      12 days ago

      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.

      • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
        12·
        12 days ago

        “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.

      • huppakee@lemm.ee
        1·
        12 days ago

        In store transactions via nfc and card almost always involves US companies (mainly Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay), all Dutch banks gave up on their own NFC interface. Online is a different story luckily for us.

  • harc@szmer.infoEnglish
    10·
    12 days ago

    In Poland we have a local system called Blik, based on codes similar to the 2FA ones. There’s also promising projects like GNU Taler, but I don’t thinks that’s even starting to be used already.

  • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    12 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
      14·
      12 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
        2·
        12 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
          5·
          12 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.