Bluecode as European mobile payment alternative
Bluecode as European mobile payment alternative
Mobile payment with Bluecode: contactless, secure and can be used worldwide. Pay by NFC, QR code or barcode - always in accordance with European standards.
This is an Austrian company that offers mobile payments with barcode/qr-code in shops in Austria and Germany, as well as in a few places in Italy and Luxembourg.
I use it since one year. It works fine, but it could definitely use more attention, so that more shops start to accept it. What are your thoughts on that?
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The problem in Europe is exactly the fragmentation of payment systems. For most you can only use them if you are a resident and have a bank account on that country.
• Wero: Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands • MB WAY: Portugal • Twint: Switzerland • Swish: Sweden • MobilePay: Denmark, Finland • iDEAL: Netherlands • Bancontact: Belgium • BLIK: Poland • Satispay: Italy • Vipps: Norway • Giropay: Germany • Sofort: Germany • Cartes Bancaires: France - Etc....These really annoy me. I used to spend a lot of time in Sweden so I tried pretty hard to get an account set up to let me pay by swish. I gave up. If you’re not a resident you can’t get a person number so you can’t get a bank ID so you can’t use swish.
What is frustrating is that lots of places I went required swish and wouldn’t take cash or card, so I ended up having to get other people to pay for me.
I bet many other systems in other countries are similar
On one hand, I want the convenience of a unified system. On the other hand, I don’t want another monopoly with a dangerously wealthy CEO at the helm.
at least the swish system is set up as a collaboration between banks. it's not its own entity. assuming most of the others work this way too, since transferring between banks takes so long.
Maybe a payment system that would only be responsible for EU transfers would be the solution? In addition to the established solutions.
I don’t have a great understanding of economics and business, but I think what we need ultimately is to start cooperatives that compete with the megacorps. It seems to distribute wealth more fairly, instead of weaponising wealth.
@professionalspooner funny I have never heard of wero in Germany 😅
I don't think Wero is comparable to the others, they didn't have the scope, ambition and backing Wero and the European Payments Initiative have ? It's limited right now but it just launched, I'm sure more banks will progressively join.
Wero is the successor of Giropay which kinda went semi-obsolete with SEPA instant transfers. The original use case was telling shops that a regular SEPA transfer was guaranteed to arrive by the bank sending that information via giropay and the actual money then using regular channels. Sofort dug deeper into that market because it's the only business they have, while giropay is little more than a thin wrapper around banks agreeing on a particular interface. Online all you really need, today, is a way for a shop to send you over to your bank with a SEPA transfer template pre-filled with the right data. That's not a business, it's barely even a website.
The good news, indeed, with the EPI is that the rest of Europe is finally adopting the same standards-setting procedure that Germany had for ages because we have 1400 banks over here, most of which only serve a local customer base, they need to interoperate, insular solutions just don't make sense or you couldn't go to an ATM the next town over. And they do have a habit of not inventing pointless intermediaries, much less intermediaries handling actual money both sender and recipients already have bank accounts why get a third bank involved.
TWINT offers a Prepaid Option for foreigners, and WERO is open to all banks that want to participate.
Exactly. Even the most inclusive are hard to use when compared with using the Visa/Mastercard networks which are integrated with most banks and merchants.
In Germany you have a better acceptance with Girocard (and guess that's true for most other national systems up there too), and all the popular national systems within the European Payments Initiative will probably convert into Wero (At least that seems to be the plan).
So they will start with a big initial acceptance and cards in circulation. Usually they are cobadged with MC/Visa, so customers won't probably even won't notice that they will paying with Wero in Europe
How about with your phone, will that be Wero?
Yes, that will also come with QR Codes when they roll out the payment phase. Right now it's just instant free money transfers between users via phone number
MobilePay (Denmark and Finland) and Vipps (Norway) is the same company now, and can be used between each country. Works great when I have friends visiting from Norway in Denmark.
I think iDEAL and Bancontact are already/will be soon phased out/incorporated into Wero. Source (towards the bottom): https://wero-wallet.eu/news/epi-launches-wero-its-innovative-digital-payment-wallet-in-belgium