Hacker News Reader

Comment by jorisw | Hacker News Reader

Understood. But even then it couldn't be easier than the contactless direct debit we already have.

It could be cheaper though and it also reduces the reliance on an untrustworthy former ally.

The payer couldn't care less about how much the store pays for the transaction. He or she just wants to tap with their phone, and the default here are Visa/MC cards. In addition to the transaction price not being an argument for the payer, Wero also afaik does not have as much consumer protection as (certainly some) credit cards offer. I also bet the average person doesn't understand or care about the whole political dispute either. Again, they just want to pay easily and safely.

I don't think Wero can "win" this from just the merchants side. It's got to be better for the customer's side.

In addition, this only starts in 13 countries. There are 27 EU members. So there is a lot of big ambitions but not followed by actions. Which is what we are sadly used to.

So when I from Slovakia want to buy something in a French eshop, I'm out of luck. And when on a vacation, can't use this system either, while a French person on a vacation in Slovakia can't use it either. My guess is people will mostly continue to use credit/debit cards.

Doesn't Slovakia already have its own instant QR payment system?

Edit: oh, sorry, just realized you talking about international not domestic payments

The whole SEPA area has instant SEPA payments. You can stick that into QRs or whatever. Some merchants take payments by SEPA, instant or not, but we need something else if we want to replace both online and in-person card payments throughout the whole EU, and at this point I doubt the Wero will be the replacement.

Not everyone is in eurozone, there are countries with instant QR payments that are not SEPA. It is nowdays quite common to get a QR with your invoice, online or in person, it might not be just SEPA. But for now cards are still more accepted, and work even if I leave my phone at home or it rans out of battery. Not sure how Wero or QR going to solve that, SEPA or not, but still useful for a lot of cases, online payments etc, even if it does not solve every edge case.

Every EU country even outside of Eurozone is in SEPA. But SEPA payments can have their own issues - I believe they were not free in all countries some time ago, not sure what the status is currently.

There might be other instant QR payment systems out there though - I digress but on our recent visit to China we had to use Alipay as the cards are not accepted at most places and of course it works through scanning QRs, either you scan the vendor's code or they scan yours, and then you enter or confirm the amount and that's it. But the issue I have with these systems is the same as yours - we are fully dependent on our phones with no backup.

The merchant could offer a discount for using it.

I agree this could be a difficult battle and we effectively need some alternative to existing card issuers if they are to be displaced.

Current contactless payments are easy, secure and allow disputes etc.

"Hey buddy, I give you a tiny tiny discount if you pay without fraud protection..."

I mean, some places do that. But for the consumer there is no advantage. It's probably fine at cafés, restaurants and such. But why would you as a consumer want it for any more important purchase? As you mention.

Yes I think the article is vastly overstating the importance of this payment system, but do not underestimate the importance of the sentiment behind it.

The US is done as a global power, all their soft influence is gone, and the EU sees them as an adversary now.

will depend on how it's implemented, you could end up paying via a QR code, contact less NFC, a phone number, the web. I think it could open up a lot of innovation

We have a similar system in Norway and it works with contactless payment already using the phone.

Why would you think that contactless payment would require Visa or Mastercard?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com