The article uses the term credit card for apparently no reason, because Visa and Mastercard also support debit cards. The EU is probably more concerned about Visa and Mastercard payment networks being under the control of American leaders.

In EU most people use direct debit. The term "credit card" is almost synonymous with debit. Chargebacks theoretically exists but they are more complicated, I don't know anyone who ever did that.

I was wondering about this. I wonder if there are insurance products to close this gap? Or maybe some banks offer accounts with different kinds of purchase protection.

I'm with you. While I'm no fan of the risk involved with missing a CC payment, there's a mountain of difference between credit and debit when it comes to fraud. It's literally you trying to get your money back (debit) versus some giant corporation trying to get _its_ money back (credit).

We just don't have that much fraud instead.

For a lot of Americans the credit card system is another tax on being poor:

People with stable jobs and good credit qualify for no-fee credit cards with rewards / cashback. As a consumer you benefit financially from having a credit card. Those elsewhere in the thread worried about "debt" - you just set to auto-withdrawl the entire balance of the card every month from your bank account. Now you have free money. I can't think of a reason not to take advantage of this system in some way.

But people with unstable jobs and poor credit help subsidize these "higher-end" credit cards when they pay high interest rates on their because they missed payments or hold a balance over multiple months. For those people credit cards could help with monthly cashflow issues but are essentially a scam and not much better than payday loans.

Yet another system that American consumers are kind of forced to participate in that's a sort of tragedy of the commons (high-reward cards wouldn't exist without the exploitation of other people not savvy enough to avoid high interest and fees)

It’s fancy instant payments, which most of the developed world already has. The question is which unnecessary intermediaries do you continue to remove as you refactor legacy financial infra.

Credit card rails are expensive legacy rails, that part of the stack is the target to disrupt in this context. In the context of the digital euro, you can think of it as a demand deposit account backed by the central bank (as most fiat deposit accounts are in some way) that is portable between banks, like you’d move a US investment account that can hold securities between brokers with ACATS at the clearinghouse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415854 (recent subthread with some related context)

Global instant payment system map: https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/PYMNTS-Rea... [pdf]

They are, it’s called Wero. It is a stopgap, and sits on top of SEPA.

Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48207004 - May 2026 (777 comments)

Wero – Digital payment wallet, made in Europe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038965 - February 2026 (132 comments)

Europe's Banks Launch Wero Payments to Dislodge Visa, Mastercard - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41666833 - September 2024 (88 comments)

Unofficial Wero Adoption Tracker - https://www.werotracker.eu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

This tells me you are likely from North America?

Credit Card usage is really different between those regions. While I lived in EU, I rarely used credit cards (even paying online works with debit cards). But in Canada/US, I almost exclusively pay with credit cards now when shopping. Although in fairness it took me a few years to get in the habit of using credit cards and 'collecting points'.

it's about the payment processors, not the card type, though the article makes it confusing by mentioning credit cards as it's really not about that at all

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/faqs/html/ecb.fa...

Read the FAQ, it's about no longer relying on US payment processors for handling transactions in a different country that may not support your country's payment system

A vast majority of card transactions in the EU are done via debit card. Credit card accounts for only around 25% vs debit. And the only place I've swiped my card was once, in the US, about 15 years ago.

It's centralized right now, digital or not, around the two major US payment processors (Visa and MasterCard).

I assume you never really interacted with the credit card world? E.g. most banks in Germany will give you a credit card that automatically deducts the outstanding debt at the end of the month, you can't really collect debt over time.

In addition I can deposit money on my credit card, so effectively I never have to be in debt if I don't want to. I just have to charge it up which is done in like 3 seconds in the banking app. It can even be automated.

Lastly credit cards with bonus programs definitely exist in Europe. Cashback variations are the most common ones, but all kinds of programs exist. E.g. Eurowings has one https://www.eurowings.com/de/ihre-vorteile/kreditkarten/uebe...

Credit cards serve the same purpose as loans: they allow you to make a purchase in advance of expected income. There’s a reasonable civic argument that this kind of loan should be tightly regulated to stop people from ruining themselves, but the basic economics work fine for millions of Americans who pay their credit cards on time (or otherwise consider a balance acceptable given their purchasing plans).

(I don’t think the fraud distinction you’re making is as stark in practice: in the US, you’re less exposed to fraud with credit since it’s the creditor’s money, not yours. Reversing a debit transaction in the US is somewhat more involved, albeit for not-good reasons concerning the US’s aging financial infrastructure.)

At least in France, most of what people call "credit cards" are actually debit cards.

The way I understand it the Digital Euro doesn't compete with Wero. It's a way for the European Central Bank to emit money in digital form. In theory that doesn't require bank accounts, and can support offline transactions. It's a pretty different concept, more like a new form of money.

Wero, SEPA, and the digital euro are complementing each others

Europeans being so scared of debt is so funny. Just pay off your card every month.

The liability model is completely different in the US from Europe w.r.t. merchant vs bank.

The interchange fees are much much higher in the US, which is what pays for the rewards. Europe has an artificial cap.

Paying with credit card gives you at least some leverage when a merchant doesn't hold their end of the deal. Good luck getting your money back with iDEAL (it's not possible right now).

That's a clear case of perfect being the enemy of good. Are CBDC privacy friendly? No, but it's better than 100% of the credit cards currently being used in Europe being part of the network of two big US companies.

There is no bank account that isn't linked to your id already.

You don't have to use it. you can continue to use your bank account (which is linked to your id, obviously)

Aren't your transactions with your bank already hooked up to your identity?

>> This is just another shitcoin no one asked for.

Giving Europe independence from US payments processors is a huge deal and very necessary.

CDBC doesn't necessarily imply blockchain. It can be just another payments system.

What’s bad on replaceable or long living batteries?

what's bad about an interoperable standard for charging?

EU is very good, most of the time.

Besides this GDPR Website thing, usb-c is great, energy standards are great, etc.

You put the money in your bank account and use that to pay, or you buy the other currency. The same way you would with physical coins and notes.

Or, if the UK/USA/China set up their own pseudo-cryptocurrency, you can probably exchange digital euros for digital dollars or digital yuans.

you do standard FX... what are you trying to say?

> My VISA card is not only a convenient payment method, it also forces ATM operators to give me cash without any extra fees.

And that has absolutely nothing to do with Visa, but everything to do with your local banks.

I'm in Germany and haven't paid ATM fees since years. I also pretty much never use ATM since Covid

As far as i know, your Visa provider pays for the bank ATM fee and they do this with the motivation that you pay with your Credit Card which then basically makes the merchents pay it through the credit card transaction fee which at the end you pay anyway.

I do use my credit card everywere and i'm sure ingdiba is also saving money due to not having offices/ATMs everywhere, but i wouldn't mind if something in the background changes and we can replace Visa/Mastercard with something from the EU.

What does your visa card do to force them to not charge fees?

I still see atm fees over here in the us, so it can't just be being visa. I would guess some regulation but you could get that applied to the digital euro too probably?

It is indeed ridiculous. In the UK all bank cash machines are free no matter which bank you're from. My Girocard charges me 7€ for out of house withdrawals.

I think ATM fees are unrelated to the card type.

My Danish bank imposed a fee on using an ATM from another bank, until my income was high enough to make me a "premium" customer, then these fees were removed. The card didn't change.

Using a credit card generally forces you to pay fees and higher interest.

Try buying something with your card that VISA or the US government doesn’t like.

I'd rather they didn't waste time worrying about ATM's. I have used one once in the last 5 years. Almost everywhere I visit regularly doesn't even take cash now. The problem being every requirement you add to something like this is probably years of development time given it's the government(s) involved.