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Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

wero-wallet.eu

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Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#131

Post by hocuspocus »

wolvoleo wrote: post #130
hocuspocus wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EPI initially wanted to become a card scheme but quickly gave up. Plastic cards are yesterday's battle, many national schemes exist in large European countries (CB in France, Girocard in Germany, ...) and would be hard to overhaul. Focusing on mobile payments makes sense. Once a critical mass is reached (Austria, Benelux, France, Germany) there's a clear incentive for other players to work on interoperability, even i…

Plastic cards no but they are also the underlying layer of digital PoS payments of course. They also use credit card numbers and infrastructure. This is the problem. Every time I buy something in a shop it goes through an American company.

That's the thing, if you pay with a French payment card (plastic or through Apple/Google Pay) in France, it's processed by the domestic network CB. This is also true in other European countries with their respective networks. EPI tried to bring a new pan-European card scheme that would have superseded those, it didn't work out.

On the other hand, there's a significant chunk of the population that just pays using their mobile phone. They don't care about cards, numbers (which are going to disappear anyway), or the legacy infrastructure behind that.

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#132

Post by hocuspocus »

ninalanyon wrote: post #129
uxhacker wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taler is cool but different. Wero is about moving money from your bank account to someone else’s bank account using a phone number to identify the recipient. It is very similar to many other mobile money systems. What make it different is that it is pan European Taler is about moving money without necessarily using a bank account

Wero is a long way from pan-European. It operates in three countries so far. We already have a similar thing in the Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland) called Vipps that uses one's phone number. You can also use it to pay in shops much as one uses Google Wallet or Apple. It's been in operation in Norway for over ten years.

Vipps MobilePay is already part of EPI's initiative towards pan-European cooperation, as well as Bancomat (Italy), Bizum (Spain), SIBS (Portugal).

Once Wero becomes usable in Austria, France, Germany, Benelux, and interoperable with those, the few remaining players will have a strong incentive to join.

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#134

Post by amarant »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #126
amarant wrote: post #43

At first glance this seems similar to swish, but for a different part of Europe. Is it? I wonder if there will be interoperability between them, that would be pretty sweet

The goal here is to provide a payments system that works across all of the EU. Right now, it's not there but hopefully it will get there eventually. Basically it's a swish/ideal etc equivalent for the entire EU.

Oh that's even better! Sweet!

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#135

Post by sph »

jasonvorhe wrote: post #117

If you moved sats (you know, Satoshis, smaller unit of Bitcoin) using Lightning within seconds without a bank account, this is nothing but a joke. KYC, proprietary, part of a broader strategy of having Europeans rely more on banks and digital id: https://epicompany.eu/ I'll pass.

It's good to have an alternative to fall back on when inevitably cash will be outlawed in Europe and we will need to solve the problem of paying for illegal stuff (drugs, bribes, etc.)

Lightning will come to the rescue.

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#136

Post by bahmboo »

bramhaag wrote: post #32
bahmboo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link is broken for me. I would like clarity if they support AOSP devices. That would be a meaningful departure from the status quo.

This one works for me https://support.wero-wallet.eu/hc/en-us/articles/25599074240...

Thanks. Android 9 is the lowest they go version wise (which is ancient, 2018) but they don't say anything about Google requirements which is the real barrier.

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#137

Post by nicbou »

tefkah wrote: post #124
nicbou wrote: post #10

Every once in a while, I check it out, and every time I am confused or disappointed. Don't we already have SEPA transfers? What benefits would this add? Why are they completely unable to pitch it to someone who's curious and receptive to the idea?

Since the other guy wasn't particularly helpful, i'll try to add some context (mostly through my knowledge of iDeal, the Dutch payment system which Wero is based on). You're right that it's a bit confusing, as Wero's marketing is mostly focused on P2P transfer usecases, ie like US's Venmo/Cashapp, which as you note we can already do with SEPA transfers. Wero does have a small benefit in that case, as it's slightly mo…

That was super helpful, thanks! Germany is just starting to accept credit cards. I hope that this enables digital payments for small transactions where cash is still king.

I hope it works well for visitors and recent immigrants. It can be surprisingly hard to open a bank account in your first few months in Germany, and I hope it won't leave people out of that new infrastructure.

Let's see how it goes!

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#139

Post by vanviegen »

andor wrote: post #122
vanviegen wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most/many banks had their own nfc tap-to-pay solution before Google/Apple Pay came along. Any idea why the banks chose to give that up?

On Smartcards yes, maybe Android, but certainly not on iPhones. On iOS, it's only been possible to implement alternatives to Apple Pay since 17.4 (2024), and only in Europe (EEA).

Ah, I didn't realize the landscape was different on the Apple side of things.

Re: Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe

#140

Post by pepa65 »

holgerschurig wrote: post #52
dadoum wrote: post #18

Can anyone explain me exactly why it is a suitable alternative to VISA and Mastercard (and why people were waiting for it). I am trying to understand the full picture here, so multiple things come to my mind. First, SEPA instant payments already exist and are really instant up to a certain amount, and I am guessing that Wero builds on top of that a sort of identity layer, to sidestep the whole IBAN thing. But it is l…

Well, Visa and Mastercard are expensive and suck. The shop always has to pay them some percentage for a transaction. That adds up. For decades, european countries like Netherlands or German had cheaper alternatives, e.g. in Germany the old "EC Card" and now "girocard". That costs a shop just a fixed amount of cent... and a very low amount. (That is BTW one of THE reasons why US travellers won't see "Credit cards acce…

I am sure they have no direct transfer because of the credit card lobby... Just trying to keep screwing their customers as usual.
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