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German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

reuters.com

21–30 of 107 posts

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#21
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

Many European countries have secure quick payment solutions which interface with the banking system without giving away sensitive information. All that I've used require you to use your phone or an OTP device/printed card to authenticate.

The downside is that it's not as fast as having username and password filled in like you can do with PayPal, and that these only work for the specific country.

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#22
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

Not Germany, but here in The Netherlands the banks just developed an online payment system together 18 years ago, and everyone uses that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL

Germany did that too, multiple times and nobody used them. So they all died. The only really successful system was the EC-Card, which for decades was as popular as Credit Cards in other countries. But it will be dead in some months for reasons, probably because it's too old school?

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#23
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

SEPA, Google/Apple Pay, Klarna, a Debit Card from Visa/Master Card, the multiple Paypal-Clones which died one after another...in Germany you have many options. Just depends on the Shop which are actually offered and are working.

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#24
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

Not Germany, but here in The Netherlands the banks just developed an online payment system together 18 years ago, and everyone uses that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL

And Belgian have their own system too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bancontact_Payconiq_Company

Which means that everyone uses PayPal since it's the solution that you know is going to be accepted everywhere instead of having to juggle between 10 different services.

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#25
post #12
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

There’s PayDirekt, the would-be homegrown PayPal alternative. Only nobody cares.

Thank you, I will check it.

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not Germany, but here in The Netherlands the banks just developed an online payment system together 18 years ago, and everyone uses that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL

The Dutch are pathologically practical. Love it. Every time I need to send mail I’m jealous of that whole “write 9 digits in a grid to serve as a stamp” system.

writting a code replaceming stamps do exist in Germany as well :P

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#28
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

I feel like we need to make a big overview map of what payment is like around the world.

Because I believe you. But I also have only ever experienced PayPal as an entirely unnecessary middleman. So I think there may be regional differences in play.

I can’t remember the last time I typed in a credit card number. Giving it to PayPal seems like a less secure option, given how free from consequences companies are. And the credit card company is completely on your side. Though maybe that’s because of local laws? Getting a chargeback through PayPal is pulling teeth and their fees are ridiculous.

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#29
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dutch are pathologically practical. Love it. Every time I need to send mail I’m jealous of that whole “write 9 digits in a grid to serve as a stamp” system.

writting a code replaceming stamps do exist in Germany as well :P

Oh I have no doubt the US is uniquely behind several countries on this sort of quality of life innovation!

Re: German cartel office initiates proceedings against PayPal

#30
post #6

I love PayPal. It might be another be-evil type corporation. But it is just sooo convenient. I am just curious if there is some alternative to it in Germany. I don’t want to give my bank account number to every random online shop. Credit card yes, but I am too lazy for entering the numbers every time. Edit: I am not kenn on saving my credit card number somewhere digitally. Browser, password manager or a text file are…

SEPA, Google/Apple Pay, Klarna, a Debit Card from Visa/Master Card, the multiple Paypal-Clones which died one after another...in Germany you have many options. Just depends on the Shop which are actually offered and are working.

In Poland also:

- Blik: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blik (similar to payconiq in Lux, and I assume there are similar systems in the other countries)

- Pay by link: was very popular since forever in Poland. Seems quite safe, and lower fees than CC/paypall (I don't have a good wikipedia link in English, maybe it's called differently in different countries. The payment gateway asks you to log it to the bank—it redirects to the bank webpage, it's not scraping—and bank then asks you to confirm via app/sms and issues an instantaneous transfer). PayU is quite a popular gateway for that https://corporate.payu.com

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