• Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Just out of curiosity, what purchase taxes are you talking about ? Aside from the yearly fee and the occasional (quite steep though) tax when I withdraw money too many times from non-VISA ATMs I don’t think I have many extra fees with mine.

    • jafffacakelemmy@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      Maybe you dont have too many extra fees, but when you use your visa card or MasterCard to buy from a merchant, 3% of the purchase price is paid by the merchant to visa/MasterCard. In the long run that puts prices up because the vendor is passing on those costs to you, the buyer. Its a tricky issue because if you pay cash, the shop has to store, transport securely, and pay to deposit the cash into a business bank account. That might cost around 3% of their takings too. The feeling here is that if you buy 100 pounds worth of shopping, it doesn’t cost visa/MasterCard anything like 3 pounds to process that payment, more like a few pence. So perhaps we are being taken advantage of?

      • Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        7 hours ago

        I see, that makes sense. Y’all might be talking me into switching to Revolut. Though I’ve gotta say that Visa’s insurance saved my ass this very weekend by handling everything to bring me and my gf home after a visit to the ER that left us stranded 800 km from home (even though we are both on the cheapest visa cards available in our country), so I’ll have to see if they have similar stuff

  • Foreigner@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    If you’re in France there’s the Carte Bancaire.

    Edit: I’ve just looked into Revolut and they’re UK based with operations throughout Europe, so they might be an alternative for online payments across borders.

        • dieTasse@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Ok, but they were founded in Lithuania right? Its not really important all is Europe I just thought there is more to it than just EU liaison.

            • dieTasse@feddit.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              2 hours ago

              ok, thank you :) And I know I could have found it myself, but sometimes internet just takes fun out of conversations 😀 (I mean internet search and stuff, because lol this is also internet :)

  • njordomir@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    Yes,

    After World War II and through recent times (well after the DM to € switch), Germany was one of the most cash-happy countries. If you didn’t carry cash on you, there was a good chance you’d end up stuck and unable to pay for something. Even today, many businesses don’t take credit cards compared to the US.

    Using a card demands that you trust Visa, MC, etc. with your data as well as pay a fee.

    The last time I was there (Christmas time) I was horrified to see the inroads these bloodsucking leeches made into Germany. People around the world are selling themselves and future generations into economic servitude and making themselves targets for corporate surveillance based advertising at an alarming rate.

    Now would be a great time for a worldwide cash-based movement to spring up.

    I ran a cash-based business for a decade and it wasn’t so I could cheat on taxes (I paid those every year). It was so I could deny the CC companies their undeserved cut and remain congruent with my values.

    Convenience or Freedom

    Choose one.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      11 hours ago

      Some businesses in Germany only accept cards like giro and ec, so that’s another possibility. In Portugal some businesses only accept MB cards. In Denmark some places only use Mobile Pay. It’s definitely becoming more common for Mastercard and Visa to be accepted in all 3, but alternatives did exist.

  • renzhexiangjiao@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 day ago

    in Poland we have blik, and it’s really popular

    I make all my purchases online with blik, you can also use it in shops but it’s a bit less convenient than paying with card

    • sikoraig@szmer.info
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 day ago

      I switched to Blik recently, and it’s just slightly less convenient. Instead of just beeping a card, you need to enter the code from app and approve in the app. Takes 30sec more, but I’m happy for this to endorse Polish system.

  • Kualdir@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 day ago

    Currently there are only alternatives online like Klarna (and iDeal in the Netherlands). The only way to do it in store is paying cash sadly

    • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      11 hours ago

      What’s so “sadly” about it? It’s a solution to a problem, it’s easy, and it’s simple.

      • Kualdir@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Cash is insanely inconvenient, cannot be used at self checkout (which is the only reason I don’t despise doing groceries), is more risk carrying big amounts and not even accepted above a certain amount in most stores.

        We just need an actual Visa/Mastercard EU edition.

        • notfromhere@lemmy.one
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 hours ago

          If you are building a CC network, look at blockchain as the method, specifically Monero or XMR. It is anonymous and so far had been unbroken so is currently untraceable. If EU supports anonymous purchases then even better, just feed cash into the ATM to load your XMR-backed account.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          Cash (banknotes and coins) can be used at self-checkout in Germany, so it can be used at self-checkouts anywhere, assuming the shop hasn’t blocked that.

          Its super easy, even. You throw the coins in a kind of a bucket and the machine counts them very quickly. Then you get the change in a tray with a round bottom so it’s super easy scooping it all with one move.

          If cash becomes a big thing again, it will be usable at self-checkouts outside Germany as well. Shops don’t want to pay extra salary expenses just to avoid having a reasonably cheap device at their self-checkout counter.

          • Kualdir@feddit.nl
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            8 hours ago

            I’ve never seen cash accepted at self checkout in Belgium or the Netherlands and that still doesn’t take away at how inconvenient cash is overall.

            • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              8 hours ago

              Yup, I’ve only ever seen that in Germany. In Finland we also need to queue if we want to pay by cash. I don’t know why they want to pay for all those extra cashiers.

              • dieTasse@feddit.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                8 hours ago

                I think the point is that not everybody’s life revolve around thinking about more private options (mine does lol, gotta push those limits) or cash in this case. It sure is better, but it also is less convenient and that is a fact. People do have hardships in their lives and its good to have something easy instead of adding more to your plate. For people like me its fun, but for most its a chore.