this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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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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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago

I hold my card in front of the scanner.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

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....
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

TWINT offers a Prepaid Option for foreigners, and WERO is open to all banks that want to participate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

How about with your phone, will that be Wero?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 49 minutes ago

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

We need a European alternative to MasterCard and Visa. Two American companies own basically the non-cash market. The digital euro can't come soon enough

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

We should collect all national offerings (we have satispay In Italy) and then create a bridge among them.

Too easy? Too many high-castle heads to cut off?

https://chat.mistral.ai/chat/0ecf1bd4-40b1-476b-ba5a-a888daf6bfa1

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Federate them and build on top of a digital euro.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 35 minutes ago

1...2...3...done

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Switzerland already has twint and I don't see them switching to a new system. Maybe that's where it will lead to: multiple regional services. Not great, but also not a giant corporation.

What we really need are alternatives to US credit card systems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

It's shit, I've lived in Austria for a few months last year and the only German Bank they've supported was N26

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That's not the case any more. I could add my german bank, which is not n26.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Ok, they seem to offer a more restricted subset in their jö&Go Partnership with REWE.

Their support is indeed a bit better, but I don't get why they offer only a few selected Sparkasse and Volksbanks when PSD2 exists and Klarna manages to support all of them

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

It's still in early access so it not working as well as the more established alternatives isn't all that surprising. That'll change if it manages to take off.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

I think Wero will be more successful. But we'll see. Nothing wrong with multiple European competing systems

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

This sounds interesting, thanks for sharing. Have now read through the page and FAQ. Is my understand correctly, that this app is only for paying in offline world, not for online purchases like e.g. PayPal?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Yes, it's only for payments in offline shops at the moment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Are there any Places accepting this besides the Austrian Stores of the REWE Group? I've only seen this at BILLA (Plus), PENNY and BIPA, and heavily pushed by them through the jö-App

The high number of Acceptance Places on the Websites seems to come from their Roaming Agreement with AliPay which is sadly even more common in Europe than Bluecode

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for clarifying. It is impressive how many shops they have participating.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Don't be fooled, it's thanks to the AliPay-Roaming. So not very European

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

In belgium Klarna is an option that is growing more and more custom with online-payments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Klarna is probably going to implode due to mismanagement. Their CEO thinks he can replace software engineers with AI, got a rid of way too many of them and the ones that are left are overworked just trying to keep the lights on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Oh i see, let's hope they replace the CEO before he send the whole company down the drain

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

I see Klarna all the time too, online.