Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

finance.yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 386 posts

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

#131

Post by Rexxar »

larkost wrote: post #88
Hikikomori wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just don't have that much fraud instead.

I don't have numbers for you, but I do know that every European I know is much more worried about card fraud than the Americans I know. One quick example is that the Europeans get very nervous when the waiter takes the credit card away from the table in the U.S.. This is just not done in Europe because there is a (at least perceived) history of skimming in much of Europe. One big difference is that in the U.S. cardho…

It's seem completely crazy to me to give your card to a waiter.

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

#132

Post by sunshine-o »

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…

> 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.

Exactly, it is just their latest marketing move to have people accept it.

I was in a meeting at the ECB 6 years ago, the digital euro was high priority and we were supposed to see the first pilot 5 years ago.

The project is actually older and I saw schematic of the system and screenshot and the management interface 6 years ago. It was developed by a German company.

I am not sure why we are not using it right now... it can either be:

- the urgency, like upcoming financial collapse, disappeared,

- the bank lobbied so hard they killed the previous design,

- the EU is just insanely incompetent.

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

#133

Post by lxgr »

larkost wrote: post #88
Hikikomori wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just don't have that much fraud instead.

I don't have numbers for you, but I do know that every European I know is much more worried about card fraud than the Americans I know. One quick example is that the Europeans get very nervous when the waiter takes the credit card away from the table in the U.S.. This is just not done in Europe because there is a (at least perceived) history of skimming in much of Europe. One big difference is that in the U.S. cardho…

Yes, because handing over your card to a stranger is considered a fairly crazy thing to do in most countries other than the US, as cards require PIN entry for most transactions (which actually does meaningfully prevent in-person card fraud).

In the US, you simply have no choice if you want to eat in a restaurant, so people are used to it. I'd expect total skimming rates to be higher in the US, since magnetic stripe transactions have been phased out in effectively all other countries. People don't care because they don't directly pay for the resulting fraud out of pocket. As a society, of course everybody still pays for it.

> Largely it is the merchants who have to prove that there was no fraud

No, in-store, it's the issuing bank that's liable, even in the US (unless the card is PIN-preferring, which is usually only true for foreign cards).

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

#135

Post by __rito__ »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #98
__rito__ wrote: post #95

Can someone tell me why the EU doesn’t develop something like RuPay? Indian UPI gets mentioned a lot, but when Visa, Mastercard didn't agree with data sovereignty rules among other rules, India quickly developed RuPay [0]. Now most debit cards in India are RuPay. CCs stand at 18% share. They also integrate seamlessly to UPI. Why doesn’t the EU consider something like that? They want to jump direct to digital currenci…

They are, it’s called Wero. It is a stopgap, and sits on top of SEPA. Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48207004 - May 2026 (777 comments) Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038965 - February 2026 (132 comments) Europe's Banks Launch Wero Payments to Dislodge Visa, Mastercard - https://n…

Is Wero something you can hold in your hands?

RuPay is just like Visa/Mastercard in the sense you get physical cards that you can use at ATMs, use at ecomm sites, etc.

Wero doesn’t seem to be that. Am I missing something? Does making a new direct alternative to Visa/MC doesn’t make sense for the EU? If so, why?

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

#136

Post by lxgr »

epolanski wrote: post #114
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…

Your transactions aren't tied to some provider in New York blocking you over night?

Which provider in New York are you referring to?

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

#137

Post by peterspath »

vrganj wrote: post #129
peterspath wrote: post #126

Also clears the way to control how the digital euros can be spent. No thanks. Ideal/Wero is good. Use my credit cards for larger online payments. Mainly because it has insurance and makes it easy to dispute something. Last year a large Swedish clothing brand didn’t deliver 400 euros worth of clothing. They said they did. I have nothing. Customer service unhelpful. I disputed it with the bank where I have the credit c…

I'd rather have a democratically elected government in control than an unelected company that actively uses its power to censor things it doesnt like. [0] [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/29/mastercard-vis...

Except that parts of the union are not democratic at all.

And in this specific case I kinda of agree with what they banned. And they are definitely not the only ones. Lots of financial institutions block these kind of things.

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

#138

Post by fidotron »

peterspath wrote: post #126

Also clears the way to control how the digital euros can be spent. No thanks. Ideal/Wero is good. Use my credit cards for larger online payments. Mainly because it has insurance and makes it easy to dispute something. Last year a large Swedish clothing brand didn’t deliver 400 euros worth of clothing. They said they did. I have nothing. Customer service unhelpful. I disputed it with the bank where I have the credit c…

This has been de facto true for a while, not that it improves the situation. Various EU countries have legal limits for the size of cash transactions, requiring you to do it via a bank.

The idea that people have private property does seem to be something governments are incredibly keen to erode.

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

#139

Post by vrganj »

peterspath wrote: post #137
vrganj wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather have a democratically elected government in control than an unelected company that actively uses its power to censor things it doesnt like. [0] [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/29/mastercard-vis...

Except that parts of the union are not democratic at all. And in this specific case I kinda of agree with what they banned. And they are definitely not the only ones. Lots of financial institutions block these kind of things.

That seems like a rather big statement to make without anything to back it up.

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

#140

Post by Muromec »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #63

> The approval of draft rules by the economic committee of the European Parliament comes after three years of wrangling between the ECB and banks, which have been concerned about deposit outflows and lost revenues and sought to limit the scope of the project. This kind of thing is why I'm optimistic both about Bitcoin and fiat currencies in third world countries like Brazil and India.

Still faster than increasing the block size limit in bitcoin
Post reply on HN