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

  • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
    77·
    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
      151·
      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
        23·
        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
          5·
          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.