this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025

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182

How to get rid of Mastercard and Visa? (feddit.org)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

96 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey guys!

Visa and Mastercard are the 8th and 15th biggest companies in the world, worth more than 1.1T USD (!!!).

For any purchase made with a credit or debit cards and you give them 2-3% of your money.

That's one the biggest waste of money from EU you can imagine.

I'm trying to find viable alternatives but except paying cash it seem there is no real alternative. Even in where I live there is an alternate payment service but they take the money from my mastercard, duh...

And the idea would be to have something even my grandma can use, not some nerdy solution, any thoughts?

Edit: Bitcoin would be a solution if widely adopted, but more realistic would be something accepted by every cashier machine, and if possible using the NFC of your phone, a kind of "Apple/Google" Pay, that goes directly from your bank to the bank's shop. Where I live all debit cards are either visa or mastercard...

Edit2: There is an EU initiative that seem to be starting with WERO, never heard of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Payments_Initiative

Edit3: It seem that Paysafecard and Skrill are EU solutions and sometimes proposed in the payment method, but not with STRIPE payment solutions

(page 2) 46 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Contact the ECB and demand a digital Euro

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Just use cash.

I get that it can be a hassle to carry around, but it's the only "real" alternative if you want to keep third party companies from profiling you based on your spending habits and selling that personal info to advertisers.

load more comments (8 replies)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I don't know, ~~but from a cursory search Revolut looks like a credit/debit card option based in the UK?~~ I'm not personally familiar.

I also thought Re:Member would be an option, but that seems to be Mastercard with a mustache and sunglasses.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (5 children)

If you don’t need a credit card, don’t get one.

If you have one, cancel it and use a bank card. If you can’t do that, pay off your debts then do that.

A lot of people suck with money because the idea of going into debt, taking loans, and paying interest is normal and sometimes good to them but really It’s weird and should be avoided for the sake of harmony.