@windozer,
That’s just a Dutchism. Basically everything except ‘pin’ (which is currently Maestro/V-Pay) is called a creditcard in Dutch (mostly because Mastercard debit cards are rare in Netherlands). The rates apply to Mastercard debit and credit cards.
You keep linking to interchange fees. Interchange fees are fees between banks, they are not the fees that merchants pay. Why do you care so much about interchange fees between banks? I am not a bank, most people in this thread are not a bank and my supermarket is not a bank either. Are you a bank? Revolut is a bank so they might care about interchange fees, but merchants typically don’t and neither do I.
You say they would have to charge the merchant the same for mastercard debit as Maestro. This is incorrect. As the merchant is not a bank, interchange caps don’t apply, and they can charge the merchant whatever they agreed with the merchant. Merchants are used to paying a 2-5 cents fixed fee per transaction and the largest supermarket (Albert Heijn) is rumored to pay nothing. You will not manage to get credit card issuers to accept that super low fee, and you will not manage to get Dutch merchants to accept the much higher Mastercard fees. So nothing will change there.
Btw, ‘that bank’ is the largest bank in the Netherlands. Similar rates apply for basically all other banks.
You may think all Dutch merchants are just stupid for not accepting Mastercard, but it’s just a fact of life. Please lets keep this thread about suggesting Maestro to Revolut. Converting all Dutch merchants to Mastercard is neither the topic of this thread nor possible.
And those fees I linked are the fees charged by mastercard to the merchants too,anything over that is capped over to a limit which is the same it being maestro or mastercard debit per law
Your link just agrees with me:
“In their contracts with retailers, acquiring banks will have to specify individually the different fees they will charge (merchant service charges, interchange fees, scheme fees) for each category and brand of payment cards.”
Do you understand the difference between Interchange Fees and Merchant Service Charges? Are you suggesting Merchant Service Charges are capped? If so please provide the exact section of the EU directive or Dutch law that caps Merchant Service Charges.
Do you agree that interchange fees don’t directly apply to merchants?
“1) Capping unreasonably high interchange fees (applicable since December 2015)
Interchange fees are indirectly paid by retailers, who subsequently pass the fee on to all consumers in the form of higher prices. Reducing unreasonably high interchange fees, should lower the costs to retailers for processing card payments, who would then be under pressure to pass on the savings to consumers through lower prices for goods and services.
The Regulation ensures that interchange fees are capped at a level such that retailers’ average costs are not higher for card than for cash payments. Therefore, the Regulation caps interchange fees for consumer debit cards to 0.2 % and consumer credit cards to 0.3 % of the value of the transaction.
The reduction of the interchange fees also makes it possible to abandon surcharging on consumer card payments (which is technically achieved in 2018 through the Payment Services Directive II).”
and
"4) More transparency on card transaction fees
Previously, interchange fees were hidden not only from the public eye but also unknown to retailers. They were not able to compare the fees they paid to banks for processing the transaction (the “Merchant Service Charge”) with the interchange fee paid by the bank. This lack of transparency likely resulted in higher merchant service charges that were ultimately passed on to consumers. The Regulation will address this including as follows:
No single “blended” fee (applicable since December 2015)
In addition, upon execution of eachindividual card-based payment transaction, retailers should receive, unless they decide otherwise, information describing the amount of the payment interested by the transaction andthe amount of any charge linked to the transactions, indicating separately the interchange fees paid by the bank and the Merchant Service Charge.
Clarity on charges in contracts (applicable since June 2016)
In their contracts with retailers, acquiring banks will have to specify individually the different fees they will charge (merchant service charges, interchange fees, scheme fees) for each category and brand of payment cards."
so if that contract doesn’t even specify what those 2.3% are for, something is wrong with it
I currently have the Fidor card. On newer devices you’re given the choice between Maestro & Mastercard. On older terminals one of the 2 should be used by default.
I haven’t paid outside the EU with it yet but I’ve read in their forum that it works in the US and that it should generally work everywhere where Mastercard or Maestro is accepted.
I was talking to a bank product manager who thought about introducing combined cards. He tested them privately and found them not reliable enough on trips.
Also, N26 argued back then against a combined card because of reliability issues and issued the Maestro card separately.
While application selection works easy with chip + PIN, it’s not really solved yet for contactless. That might change when banks start to combine more than one contactless payment app on cards. But it is not just a problem banks and card issuers have to figure out. POS terminals need to be enabled, app selection regulations implemented, merchants and card brands have to agree on pre-selection maybe, which is not easy (card brands favor more expensive schemes, merchants the cheaper ones, banks the ones they have better deals figured out for … )
Well, as long as we get a Maestro card in some form (combined or separately) that’s already a big plus.
There is one obvious upside to having separate cards that I cannot deny:
If one is broken you can still try to pay with the other one (if both cards are accepted).
Most terminals that support Maestro do support V- Pay as well (is my experience in NL). In Belgium it is the same but they do accept Visa and MC as well.