Digital euro clears key hurdle as EU seeks to break free from U.S. credit cards

Post by jbverschoor » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

xxpor wrote: post #24

FooBarWidget wrote: post #7

??? Doesn't Europe already have Wero (iDEAL in Netherlands)? That's a system for making online payments. Money gets directly debited from your bank account. I've always found credit cards stupid. You just want to pay for something, and then suddenly you have a debt. You shouldn't be in debt when you can clearly pay with money you have. Credit card companies advertise with "super easy payments" and "buy now pay later"…

Europeans being so scared of debt is so funny. Just pay off your card every month. The liability model is completely different in the US from Europe w.r.t. merchant vs bank. The interchange fees are much much higher in the US, which is what pays for the rewards. Europe has an artificial cap.

Post by croes » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #6

I hope that they don't fall into the same trap that a lot of EU projects fall in to: only solving one problem. My VISA card is not only a convenient payment method, it also forces ATM operators to give me cash without any extra fees. In Germany the EC card used to be THE way of paying with a card but you had to go to the ATMs of your bank, otherwise there would be sometimes pretty ridiculous fees. The kicker was that…

Post by cloudie78 » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

Post by ricardobayes » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

xxpor wrote: post #24

FooBarWidget wrote: post #7

??? Doesn't Europe already have Wero (iDEAL in Netherlands)? That's a system for making online payments. Money gets directly debited from your bank account. I've always found credit cards stupid. You just want to pay for something, and then suddenly you have a debt. You shouldn't be in debt when you can clearly pay with money you have. Credit card companies advertise with "super easy payments" and "buy now pay later"…

Europeans being so scared of debt is so funny. Just pay off your card every month. The liability model is completely different in the US from Europe w.r.t. merchant vs bank. The interchange fees are much much higher in the US, which is what pays for the rewards. Europe has an artificial cap.

Post by drstewart » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 5:17 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #26

freediddy wrote: post #23

How does digital euro replace credit cards? That's basically the same as direct debit. It doesn't address the reason why I use credit cards. I use credit cards as a proxy for my bank accounts. I know that my issuing bank will protect me from all fraud so I don't have to worry about losing money if I buy something from a fraudulent merchant. I also know I can do things like chargebacks if I have to. None of this is ad…

It’s fancy instant payments, which most of the developed world already has. The question is which unnecessary intermediaries do you continue to remove as you refactor legacy financial infra. Credit card rails are expensive legacy rails, that part of the stack is the target to disrupt in this context. In the context of the digital euro, you can think of it as a demand deposit account backed by the central bank (as mos…