Wero will become the replacement over time.
But for now, you're stuck with Visa and Mastercard if your country doesn't have a local alternative.
Just get the cheapest option.
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
181 points (98.4% liked)
Buy European
4950 readers
1376 users here now
Overview:
The community to discuss buying European goods and services.
Rules:
-
Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.
-
Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:
-
Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.
-
No russian suggestions.
Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:
- No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia
- No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies
- No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users
- Do not share intentionally false or misleading information
- Do not spam or abuse network features.
- Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
Benefits of Buying Local:
local investment, job creation, innovation, increased competition, more redundancy.
European Instances
Lemmy:
-
Basque Country: https://lemmy.eus/
-
๐ง๐ช Belgium: https://0d.gs/
-
๐ง๐ฌ Bulgaria: https://feddit.bg/
-
Catalonia: https://lemmy.cat/
-
๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark, including Greenland (for now): https://feddit.dk/
-
๐ช๐บ Europe: https://europe.pub/
-
๐ซ๐ท๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ญ France, Belgium, Switzerland: https://jlai.lu/
-
๐ฉ๐ช๐ฆ๐น๐จ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฎ Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein: https://feddit.org/
-
๐ซ๐ฎ Finland: https://sopuli.xyz/ & https://suppo.fi/
-
๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland: https://feddit.is/
-
๐ฎ๐น Italy: https://feddit.it/
-
๐ฑ๐น Lithuania: https://group.lt/
-
๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands: https://feddit.nl/
-
๐ต๐ฑ Poland: https://fedit.pl/ & https://szmer.info/
-
๐ต๐น Portugal: https://lemmy.pt/
-
๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia: https://gregtech.eu/
-
๐ธ๐ช Sweden: https://feddit.nu/
-
๐น๐ท Turkey: https://lemmy.com.tr/
-
๐ฌ๐ง UK: https://feddit.uk/
Matrix:
-
๐ฌ๐ง UK: matrix.org & glasgow.social
-
๐ซ๐ท France: tendomium & imagisphe.re & hadoly.fr
-
๐ฉ๐ช Germany: tchncs.de, catgirl.cloud, pub.solar, yatrix.org, digitalprivacy.diy, oblak.be, nope.chat, envs.net, hot-chilli.im, synod.im & rollenspiel.chat
-
๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands: bark.lgbt
-
๐ฆ๐น Austria: gemeinsam.jetzt & private.coffee
-
๐ซ๐ฎ Finland: pikaviestin.fi
Related Communities:
Buy Local:
Continents:
European
Buying and Selling:
Boycott:
Countries:
Companies:
Stop Publisher Kill Switch in Games Practice:
Banner credits: BYTEAlliance
founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
Wero flew by my radar, thanks for the hint. Three of my banks even support it already, awesome!
Wero can win if the banks offer it with no additional cost to stores and, and this ia crucial, it offers credit and the blocking of funds for stuff like car rentals.
It needs to be as easy a visa/MasterCard and cheaper / easier to run with the same features. I have hope, but that is a tough order.
load more comments
(1 replies)
China has UnionPay, Japan has JCB, Russia has MIR. Europe should have its own credit card network
"EUROCARD"
Sounds nice as well
Make it blue with stars on it and the globe displaying a space picture of earth with europe
@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu let's make this happen, mkay?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Have you looked into American Express?
oh shit, nevermind.
Clearly Discover is the solution. Oh wait, that's not an option either.
Discover network is up for sale. Capital One is trying to grab it. But if that doesnโt go through, a Canadian or European bank could try bidding for it.
A local debit card is your best bet
Maestro is part of MasterCard.
Maestro isn't a local system it's a limited debit card like electron for visa. Other comments are about national Credit cards. WERO is the only European network pushed by the ECB (and begrudgingly taken up by most major European banks). It piggy backs on the Free-of-charge instant wiring SEPA system.
TIL Maestro still exists
Those still go through the bank card system.
Use cash.
How do you pay cash online?
And I donโt think the banking system is evil and should be destroyed, I just want the EU to be strong and independant, have tech and finance sovreinty
load more comments
(4 replies)
And the idea would be to have something even my grandma can use, not some nerdy solution, any thoughts?
Use cash
A sensible stopgap solution, but doesn't really work for big purchases or online shopping.
load more comments
(1 replies)
In Canada we have Interac. Works great.
Bitcoin uses way to much energy to use as currency like that. gridcoin or any other one that uses proof of stake would be better if accepted but its a bit nicer if the energy put into it results in a useful product which gridcoin does.
load more comments
(2 replies)
This might not help you OP, but alternative to VISA and Mastercard is UPI. India and some south east asian countries use that for transactions rapidly. Also India also built Rupay (not the currency) to break visa and mastercards duopoly.
load more comments
(1 replies)
If you're in the Nordics I suggest Vipps/Mobilepay/Swish as payment methods.
load more comments
(3 replies)
For any purchase made with a credit or debit cards and you give them 2-3% of your money.
I'm not sure I understand this. The stores would be the ones to pay this fee, no? Not you with your money. The price of some item doesn't change depending on whether you use cash or a debit or credit card. Not usually anyway, maybe a small local shop has done this to me once or twice in my life. Or maybe a fair stand or something.
If we wanted to stop giving Mastercard and Visa "our" money, we would have to all band together as a world community and boycott them. ๐ฌ
Please someone correct me if I'm wrong!
Edit: I mean, yes, of course the price of those small transactions are included in the price of the item. So we are all "paying" Mastercard and Visa money, even those who aren't using them. Which is still to my point that we need to all band together as a world community to boycott them, which seems futile in all honesty.
While the shop pays the fee, the fee is priced in and still the money ends up going to the card company based on your purchase.
We had this topic a lot with the tariffs recently. Yes technically the tariffs are paid by the importer or exporter. Doesn't change the fact that they end up being part of the consumer price (which is one of the purposes of tariffs)
Yes you're correct.
However, those costs are ultimately passed to you, as higher prices are the only 'trickle' that consumers will receive.
load more comments
(3 replies)
You are absolutely correct
Now I just prefer my (or the store's money if you prefer) to recycle in the EU. We need it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Easy: iDEAL (which is a shitty system, but still..)
Doest that only work in NL?
iDEAL has been acquired by WERO which is an EU initiative for pan-European payment system. Wero is being rolled out by banks in France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I'd like to know if something works for all of EU. Because that's the only reason for me to have Visa.
Everything in my own country can be handled with "Dankort" our national universally accepted debit card. We also have local Mobile pay which is also pretty universal here.
But those don't work for purchases outside Denmark.
Here in Portugal we have MB Way which is handled on a separate network. I understand that it might interoperate with Bancomat (Italy) and Bizum (Spain) also just since November, but I haven't tried yet. Almost everybody in Portugal (except non-integrating expats) seem to use it, though there are spots here and there that refuse for reasons that are unclear to me.
Contact the ECB and demand a digital Euro
view more: next โบ