Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?

3 pointsvednig23 comments

i'm interested to know more about the international payment system but most of the data online is looking more and more biased so I'm here to do recon

i'd love to know what's your preferred payment method for digital payments and why, any story you share would be great too

ps: please start with your country like

"US: <response>", it'll help me categorise better

thank u, in advance

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Apple Pay. Why would I use anything else? I used it in four countries last year outside of the US - Costa Rica, Canada, UK and France without a problem.

Even my barber takes Apple Pay right from his Android Phone by tapping.

The only difference is outside of the US and the UK, Amex isn’t frequently accepted.

It's such a broad question... are you a consumer or a merchant? Are you doing a card-present payment (eg swiping at a store POS) or a card-not-present payment (eg entering your credit card number on an ecommerce site)? Are you buying/selling a high-risk item? How much do you care about privacy? How much do you care about rewards (if you're a consumer) or processing fees (if you're a merchant)?

let's wind it down

of-course, it's seemingly a card not present payment, because it's digital payments infra unless you keep a card reader present to convert it to, your processor via bank to complete txn.

yeah, it is different for all and a lot of things come into account payer can be anyone consumer or merchant, anyone who would like to do a txn.

but what has been your pattern, i'm curious?

US: I use whatever method the party I'm paying is requiring, unless it's cryptocurrency. I don't do cryptocurrency.

so, if you'd have to choose between Bank/Card, Venmo, Klarna or Paypal you'd say ?

I'm familiar with Venmo and Paypal, so I'd pick either of those just because they're known to me. I'm not opposed to Klarna, but I know nothing about it and so would avoid the learning curve and account creation if I had another option. I'd go with a card if I had to, but that's higher friction because I'd need to set up a temporary throwaway card to do that.

appreciate it thanks

DK: mobilepay. It's easier to use than debit/credit cards. A site only needs to know my phone number. One screen popup with all information on my phone and I paid (uses card in the background). The site recognizes this and continues to sending me mail about the purchase.

SEPA

- costs next to nothing - i have an standartised api for end users via FINTS and businesses via EBICS

do you find Stripe or Paypal checkout experience faster and better ?

What are you referring to when you say SEPA? Like Direct Debit / Credit Transfers initiated over FINTS or EBICS?

Both

US: apple pay.

It knows address, only requires face id check. Adds shipping tracking. Works on every device I use. Every time shop allows apple pay I pick it. When not available I usually pick credit card.

TransferWise

do you find yourself to often use the card or wallet ? also, do you also use wise for domestic txns?

Zelle or Venmo for dollar P2P transfers, Wise for international (both P2P or using local payment rails if possible, SEPA in Europe for example). App whenever possible vs wallet or card. Failing all of that, a US credit card or cash. My optimization is lowest cost possible between me and target entity receiving value transfer.

The ideal is an app that gets you as close to Pix [1], UPI [2], and SEPA [3] as you can for low or no cost value movement on instant payment rails [4].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pix_(payment_system)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_payment

> optimization is lowest cost possible between me and target entity receiving value transfer

it's definitely an interesting perspective as a consumer

Payment cost inflates product and service costs, and is a tax on those who pay cash and don't receive cash back rebates. You have to cut out the middlemen who are skimming the economy for little to no value. You can move up to $10M in value in the US on FedNow instant payment rails for a few pennies, instantly (~20 second SLA 24/7/365), for example [1].

Now, with regards to your specific inquiry, your unsophisticated consumer probably cares more about points and cash back. How do you disincentivize that? As a merchant, you offer free instant payment options and surcharge the customer to use more expensive payment rails (credit cards, for example). At least in the US, we're on our way in that regard (Walmart is offering pay by bank using instant payment rails to avoid billions in interchange costs [2]).

You might find this latest CFPB report helpful [3], as well as this McKinsey report on payments [4] for further reading. I'd also recommend the Fintech Takes mailing list [5].

[1] FedNow Service will raise transaction limit to $10 million to meet increased demand, unlocking higher-value use cases - https://www.frbservices.org/news/fed360/issues/091625/fednow... - September 16th, 2025

[2] Walmart Plans Instant Bank Payments, Cutting Out Card Networks - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41593450 - September 2024

[3] CFPB: The Consumer Credit Card Market Report to Congress - https://web.archive.org/web/20250601000000*/https://files.co... - December 2025

[4] The 2025 McKinsey Global Payments Report: Competing systems, contested outcomes - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-i... - September 26th, 2025

[5] https://fintechtakes.com/

Cash transactions have real costs including employee theft and risk of being robbed both holding it and transportation.

https://sbecouncil.org/2024/07/01/the-cost-of-cash/

People also spend more when using credit cards where it is a net benefit to merchants.

NL: iDEAL

iDEAL is great from a usability perspective, but sadly offers no consumer protection at all. It’ll be interesting to see how WERO will take over from iDEAL and what extra features we’ll get.

..: Instant QR-based Account-to-Account (A2A) Payment System

Apple Pay by a mile

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