I wish that it would soon be possible to choose between card types in all countries. I would like a MasterCard and a VISA. Honestly, I have little use for my physical, virtual, and disposable cards all being MasterCard, if that store does not accept MasterCard. It’s just filler in my wallet and in Google Pay.
Also, I would like to suggest time-limited debit cards with local BINs for holiday travel.
We have an extensive use of (semi-)national card types in European countries. Not only would it be cool, it would seriously add local legitimacy to Revolut to offer national debit cards.
For example, as a tourist in Germany, I would love to be able to add a virtual EC-card, or a Maestro, to Google Pay just for the duration of that trip. Because German stores do not accept MasterCard and VISA most places in my experience.
The time-limited cards should preferably have a BIN local to that country (does not really matter in the EU, but in future markets, Australia, USA, etc., it could matter).
A trader shall not, within the range of means of payment accepted by the trader, apply, for reasons related to a customer’s nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, the location of the payment account, the place of establishment of the payment service provider or the place of issue of the payment instrument within the Union, different conditions for a payment transaction
Germany is mainly Girocard dual branded Maestro for international compatibility, shops that people think only accept Maestro actually only accept Giroard
This is a direct consequence of the expensive fees the card network charges, or in the eu used to charge, for credit card transactions versus debit cards like Maestro.
Historically, Europe did not have MasterCard or Visa cards as the Debit cards, like the US has it for decades. This type of card was labelled Maestro by MasterCard to be followed by V-Pay from Visa. There are currently strong trends to abandon these two brands and go for the debit version of MC and Visa to replace them. But this will take time.
And even then it might still be the case that some merchants only accept debit cards and not credit cards.
Local networks add on top of this, as these are often still cheaper as any other card for the merchants.
France is still using “carte bleue” which operate on a close network and you still find places where your MasterCard or visa doesn’t work because not issued by french bank … But that’s not an issue, you can pay by check … Oh wait … No you don’t because you’re not living anymore in 19th century …
Fortunately there’s less and less of shops that still have old payment terminal and the relatively new ones (I don’t mean contactless enable ones, but 8yo ones) accept all type of card.
I know this is not the average experience, but I was staying in New York lately, and we were having drinks and food at local, less touristy bars in Brooklyn, around Bushwick and Williamsburg. 3 out of 5 places were cash only. Who would have guessed that. In New York.
It’s actually not that random that you can see “cash only” or “debit only” in the US in rural areas with small businesses.
I concur. I have been to many rural areas in the US (backpacking). In many places they have a (quite high) minimum amount before they allow payment with a card. Because otherwise the fees would exceed the actual payment amount, and they do not have enough customers to justify/balance that out.