I was talking about offline processing. But the 14-day return (and other consumer protections) hinge on the vendor playing along. If they don’t, your bank just says “you authorized the transaction, SOL”.
This is the reality with SEPA transactions even in cases of blatant fraud. Your bank tells you to sue the recipient in court, they won’t do a thing for you.
Wero doesn’t really have offline processing either yet. And when it will, it will be dependent on your phone, so good luck if it’s out of battery or doesn’t pass Google Play Integrity on an unlocked device.
This is why I keep saying we need actual European payment cards, not just a PayPal replacement.
But the 14-day return (and other consumer protections) hinge on the vendor playing along
Your bank tells you to sue the recipient in court, they won’t do a thing for you.
That’s what consumer protection agencies and small claims courts are for. In my country, any time a vendor has a case with those it’ll be shown forever publicly too, so it’s a very quick way to lose reputation. Of course you can still get scammed by ordering from a company that was only made to scam people, but with reputable vendors it’s almost impossible because they have too much to lose.
Also for Wero, right now the consumer protections are “planned” so I’m not 100% sure they exist already.
When Wero is actually ready, it looks like it’ll cover 90% of use cases. I’m happy it’s being done. But till we have an EU based payment card that’s useable across the entire union (and preferably worldwide), I’ll still have to have visa or mastercard or cash as an emergency backup and I don’t like carrying too much cash with me (particularly when traveling), even if my physical size and shape is in the “eh easier to mug someone else” territory. And if I want to switch away from American smartphone operating systems and get a Linux phone, Wero won’t even be an option for me, since it needs an app. My bank cards don’t need an app (though it’s convenient obviously).
The biggest part for me is online payment and that’s where it matters most that multiple countries share a system. I already used the predecessor service, but I hope this could lead to wider adoption on the vendor side. So far it looks worse than the previous system. If they don’t change that I need an app to pay online, it’s useless.
This also by no means covers or plan to cover all of EU. It’s just Germany, France and BENELUX
I hope they’ll try to bring the Girocard to more countries next. Right now it only works in other countries because of visa/mastercard co-branding.
Fair enough. Clearly I’m not that in the loop on the details, and I agree there should be a way to use it without relying on smartphones. I don’t use a banking nor paypal app today either.
But Visa and Mastercard are making a big play to shift the European market towards the US model where their credit cards are used for everything, so time is of the essence. For that reason I’m okay with some drawbacks, because there’s at least a chance they will be addressed down the line. Also combating the payment duopoly and circumventing US-based systems are major wins for consumers already. I further hope it would hopefully over time see adoption in other countries as well as a real alternative to CCs when travelling.
I was talking about offline processing. But the 14-day return (and other consumer protections) hinge on the vendor playing along. If they don’t, your bank just says “you authorized the transaction, SOL”.
This is the reality with SEPA transactions even in cases of blatant fraud. Your bank tells you to sue the recipient in court, they won’t do a thing for you.
Wero doesn’t really have offline processing either yet. And when it will, it will be dependent on your phone, so good luck if it’s out of battery or doesn’t pass Google Play Integrity on an unlocked device.
This is why I keep saying we need actual European payment cards, not just a PayPal replacement.
That’s what consumer protection agencies and small claims courts are for. In my country, any time a vendor has a case with those it’ll be shown forever publicly too, so it’s a very quick way to lose reputation. Of course you can still get scammed by ordering from a company that was only made to scam people, but with reputable vendors it’s almost impossible because they have too much to lose.
Also for Wero, right now the consumer protections are “planned” so I’m not 100% sure they exist already.
When Wero is actually ready, it looks like it’ll cover 90% of use cases. I’m happy it’s being done. But till we have an EU based payment card that’s useable across the entire union (and preferably worldwide), I’ll still have to have visa or mastercard or cash as an emergency backup and I don’t like carrying too much cash with me (particularly when traveling), even if my physical size and shape is in the “eh easier to mug someone else” territory. And if I want to switch away from American smartphone operating systems and get a Linux phone, Wero won’t even be an option for me, since it needs an app. My bank cards don’t need an app (though it’s convenient obviously).
The biggest part for me is online payment and that’s where it matters most that multiple countries share a system. I already used the predecessor service, but I hope this could lead to wider adoption on the vendor side. So far it looks worse than the previous system. If they don’t change that I need an app to pay online, it’s useless.
This also by no means covers or plan to cover all of EU. It’s just Germany, France and BENELUX
I hope they’ll try to bring the Girocard to more countries next. Right now it only works in other countries because of visa/mastercard co-branding.
Fair enough. Clearly I’m not that in the loop on the details, and I agree there should be a way to use it without relying on smartphones. I don’t use a banking nor paypal app today either.
But Visa and Mastercard are making a big play to shift the European market towards the US model where their credit cards are used for everything, so time is of the essence. For that reason I’m okay with some drawbacks, because there’s at least a chance they will be addressed down the line. Also combating the payment duopoly and circumventing US-based systems are major wins for consumers already. I further hope it would hopefully over time see adoption in other countries as well as a real alternative to CCs when travelling.
Visa and Mastercard also have debit card systems. You can’t easily escape their duopoloy, but you don’t have to own a credit card in Europe.