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Comment by zyb09 | Hacker News Reader

They need to add other payment options then CreditCards to Google Checkout. Nobody uses CreditCards in Europe and it's kinda stupid that I can't even buy Apps on the Marketplace and have see if the vendor support direct purchase form their website via PayPal or something.

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> Nobody uses CreditCards in Europe

I'm a European and I use a credit card. And I'm pretty sure it's a billion dollar industry in my country alone.

> Nobody uses CreditCards in Europe

WTF are you talking about?

Credit Cards are a part of everyday in Europe just like everywhere else. And yes, I live in Europe too.

They're talking about debit cards - I know in the UK and Germany many people do not own credit cards, certainly in the young twenties sector in the UK debit cards are the norm.

What payment options would you suggest? Apple only accepts credit / debit cards too (well and gift cards which are also primarily purchased with credit cards).

Bank wire transfers, that's what everybody here does including Apple, Amazon etc.

Interesting. What country is this?

Okay I realize I shouldn't have said 'Europe', because it seems to differ quite a bit from country to country. I myself are from Germany and while its relativly easy to get a credit card from your bank, only a small minority owns one. The plastic cards, that we get from our banks are called EC-cards (for "eletronic cash") and are completly different than credit cards. They are tied to your bank account, work just like debit cards, and you can pay at every store with them. At online shops you would usually just enter your bank account number and it's directly withdrawn. So the additional monthly fee of owning a credit card is not worth it for the majority of people.

Belgium, maybe. They use bank transfers a lot (definitely not France, where bank transfers are very rare but debit cards are everywhere)

If not credit cards, then what do Europeans use?

In France at least, credit card are far more often used than wired transfer etc.

Sane wire transfers, direct debit, and a multitude of other things. Credit cards are on the rise though.

On the other hand, even debit cards are usually called credit cards, at least in france (either that or "carte bleue" which is the french standard for these things).

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