Dutch payment processor iDeal to become European standard | Hacker News Reader

Dutch payment processor iDeal to become European standard

nltimes.nl

16 pointsbelter15 comments

To clarify the title...

1- It is not European Standard as in European Union Standard, more as standard as in mainstream commercial adoption...Eventually...

2- What is happening is that EPI [1], a private consortium from some Dutch, Belgium,Luxembourg and a few French and German banks probably realized they are unable to develop a solution of their own. They have seen the initiatives of Apple and Google and realized they have to keep moving. So they will try to market the iDEAL-based standard, in France and Germany, because there is not a comparable offer there, and are reporting this as an acquisition. iDeal is run by Currence after being conceived by the then major banks in the Netherlands: ABN Amro, ING Bank, Postbank N.V. and Rabobank.

3- iDEAL transactions are considered cash payments between customers and suppliers, to which the bank is no party and offers no insurance. This means that iDEAL payments cannot be reversed if a online merchant fails to deliver.[4]

   [1] https://www.epicompany.eu/
   [2] https://www.currence.nl/nieuws/overname-ideal-door-european-payments-initiative-epi/
   [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL
   [4] https://www.ideal.nl/en/consumers/frequently-asked-questions/

For those unfamiliar with iDeal, it works largely like you'd expect an OAuth flow to work:

- you click pay now on the merchants website

- you get redirected to your banks website

- you login to your account, usually involves 2FA and whatnot

- you get shown the transaction details and you confirm

- you get redirected back to the merchant who gets a signed token proving you've paid

Over in the Netherlands it's pretty much an universal standard. All banks support it, and very nearly all webshops.

>Over in the Netherlands it's pretty much an universal standard. All banks support it, and very nearly all webshops.

Not just Dutch webshops, also Aliexpress, Amazon and Steam. If you're gonna sell stuff in the Netherlands you have to support iDeal almost no one is willing to deal with other solutions.

Oh for sure, the internationals are catching on slowly but surely. The main reason no one wants to bother with anything but iDeal of course is because iDeal works so well. The convenience factor is incredible.

That window between the last two steps is a killer. PayPal Checkout supports iDeal, and I get complaints about how PayPal took their money, but their account (on my system) was never setup...because I never got the money/notification from PayPal! It drives me nuts.

PayPal seems to refund them after a certain period of time automatically, but it takes a while. Naturally, the customer is anxious and mad at me, and not likely to risk checking out again.

A proper iDeal integration doesn't break in that scenario. I'm not entirely sure as to how it's implemented technically, but if you do iDeal right it works even if you never click the "back to merchant" button.

E.g. when working with stripe to integrate iDeal you'll want to listen for payment complete webhooks, in addition to dealing with the user coming back from the iDeal page.

This is the online demo: https://www.ideal.nl/demo/en/

Plenty of companies offering this in Poland. I want to say I was paying this way at least 10 years ago? https://tpay.com is one recent example.

I can’t use my Visa Mastercard in most shops in Holland. PIA as a tourist visiting from the UK, having to pay with cash instead.

Hopefully this improves with news like this.

These news will do nothing for you, although the problem you have is very likely the same or worst in Germany.

On 23-01-2023 - "The Netherlands now widely accepts Visa and Mastercard debit cards" [1]: The Dutch Payments Association has completed the Debit Card Acceptance (DCA) project enabling Dutch cardholders and foreign visitors to pay with Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard payment cards.

[1] https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/the-netherlands-now-...

Thank god, I have had to withdraw cash from ATM machines every time I'm shopping groceries at Albert Hein, Jumbo etc, which is a pain when staying for longer periods of time in NL with only a VISA card.

This is very interesting, I thought that with PSD2 this would lead to banks developing their own solution which more than a few did. I can see what this really offers in a post PSD2 world other than a brand. I don't see Mastercard of Visa being to worried for the moment either but if I'm Klarna I'd be looking to integrate with this ASAP and you've got a serious bemoth.

As a Dutch person, this excites me.

To respond to another person.. Klarna already works with iDEAL.. so soon Klarna can access a much greater market.

yes, it excites me as well

the psp fees for ideal payments are the lowest, and the apis are convenient (e.g. Mollie)

the problem for me was that it's only used in my country, but if it's used throughout the eu that would be slick

Reply on news.ycombinator.com