r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Getatbay • 10d ago

Video EU has created a system that bypasses payment processing services like visa or mastercard

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u/rampant-ninja 10d ago edited 10d ago

This is how it used to be to be fair, Visa and Mastercard bought up local solutions and muscled their way into local markets.

Thank you stranger for the award.

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u/cam-san 10d ago

But it's not a monopoly!!! There are TWO whole companies!!!

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u/turtleship_2006 10d ago

If only there were terms to describe a few companies having almost total control of a market that was different to "monopoly"

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u/-_one_-1 10d ago

FWIW, I usually call it a “shared monopoly.”

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u/monirom 8d ago

Also known as a duopoly.

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u/-_one_-1 7d ago

Yeah, my term was a bit more general, as it can be used for three, four, or any small number of companies that somehow coordinate to protect their exclusivity.

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u/Acceptable_Wealth500 6d ago

aka "antitrust lawsuit defendants"

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u/Thick-Flounder-8663 10d ago

I call them Swingers

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u/Aethrin1 9d ago

Swingers imply more than two. That's just a couple.

A wierd, narcissistic, ugly couple that everyone else hates, no less.

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u/SenanDK 10d ago

There is, and it's called duopoly. The classic example is Pepsi & Coke companies.

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u/turtleship_2006 10d ago

I know, I was being sarcastic lol

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u/Ahri 9d ago

Ahh the Internet 🙄

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u/r_special_ 9d ago

Close your mouth!!! Don’t say “Ahh” the internet might get in your mouth and it’s got lots of viruses 🦠

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u/sir_ale 9d ago

Oligopoly

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u/AgonizingFury 9d ago

Looking for a better deal? you can oligoble down our balls....

For the uninitiated https://youtu.be/0ilMx7k7mso?

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u/HualtaHuyte 6d ago

Oligopoly has a nice ring to it. I wonder if they're using it for anything else.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 10d ago

Cartel sounds to druggy

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u/Aethrin1 9d ago

The US Cartel is the Health Insurance industry.

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u/Haru1st 9d ago

Not at all

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u/rajrdajr 9d ago

terms to describe a few companies having almost total control of a market 

Yep. As you suggest, "duopoly" is the term and the behavior of duopolists is clear across many industries:

  • Airplanes: Boeing and Airbus
  • Soft-drinks: Coca Cola and Pepsi
  • USA politics: Democrat and GOP parties
  • World politics: Democracy and Autocracy
  • Online ads: Meta and Google
  • Smartphones: Apple and Samsung

The key behavior is to fiercely defend the duopoly. New comers must be crushed at all costs so that artificially high pricing can be maintained.

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u/WillOrph 10d ago

We should come up with a term for this. Something to define this duo by 🤔

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u/abitlazy 10d ago

You're right! I declare this Two-opoly!

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u/CroScorpiuS 10d ago

Sounds good, and when there are more than 2 then we can call it a "polypoly"

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u/St34thdr1v3R 9d ago

I will call it morepoly though

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u/Deadlynitro 10d ago

Duopoly

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u/StockMarketCasino 10d ago

Biopoly

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u/totallyhumanhonest 10d ago

Edna Krabappoly.

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u/hoggineer 10d ago

I saw the baby and it winked at me!

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u/Max-Phallus 10d ago

Ambipoly?

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u/TenshiS 10d ago

Woosh

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u/AncientPicklePhysics 10d ago

Nah, that can’t be it

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u/hackingdreams 10d ago

Buzzed the tower huh?

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u/Suggondeezenutz_-_ 10d ago

Is it Deux-opoly?

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u/cwx149 10d ago

Even if you count amex and discover it's still only 4 that must make most of the cards unless there are foreign brands that are gigantic I've never heard of

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u/simonjp 10d ago

I think you're looking just through an American lens. Visa and MasterCard are big, but Discover is primarily in the USA;it's rarely accepted elsewhere. Interestingly it has partnered with others like JCB and RuPay, huge in their native markets but less-known elsewhere.

UnionPay is the largest in the world by transaction count.

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u/hackingdreams 10d ago

Discover isn't even well accepted in the US.

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u/bobnla14 10d ago

Disagree. Now accepted at 98% of places that take Visa and MasterCard. But it certainly used to be much lower several years ago.

Some like Costco only accept visa.

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u/CKRatKing 10d ago

I never heard that about Costco. Kind of crazy. Apparently they will take MasterCard if it's a debit/atm card but not if it's a credit card.

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u/SaugaCity 9d ago

Canadian Costcos only accept Mastercard. They make exclusive agreements in different regions

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u/cwx149 9d ago

When I was a kid us Costco was mastercard then amex and is now visa

My parents just alwasy paid with their debit card because they didn't want to deal with all that

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u/Zip668 9d ago

Costco only accepts Visa because there's a Costco Visa card. Before that, they only accepted Amex because there was a Costco Amex card.

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u/FirebertNY 10d ago

This feels like a prime example of the kind of business that has serious benefits to everyone to have a unified solution for...which means it should probably be nationalized . 

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u/El_Badassio 10d ago

There are more. Amex and Diners club for example are their own networks. Then all the Asian ones that are now accepted broadly (Alipay, etc). But yeah it’s still a low number

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u/Clear-Bee4118 9d ago

Thankfully it’s only this one area of commerce and we can’t find the same thing in every other industry, like telecoms, food/drinks, household products, toiletries, pharma. /s

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u/Haru1st 9d ago

So it’s a cartel

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u/AirTrue6195 9d ago

Yes but they do the bidding of the US government. Try being a judge on the ICC and you get all your cards frozen can't book a hotel or flight. It's fine to have them as commercial entities but when they are weapinised by nations you need an alternative

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u/morpheousmorty 9d ago

Capital One crying in Discover.

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u/WolfTohsaka 10d ago

3 with amex that makes it an oligopoly

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u/VTOLfreak 10d ago

Correct, just a few years back a lot of European countries had their own debit card systems. All of those got replaced by VISA and Mastercard. It does have some advantages because they are also recognized as credit cards and not just debit cards, making online payments easier. It also works better when travelling outside the EU as more ATMs will recognize the cards. But in the process, they made themself dependent on payment providers outside the EU.

Good thing they finally woke up and are coming up with an alternative. I'm still keeping my credit card in addition to my debit card. It will be a while before any new system is widely accepted, especially outside the EU.

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u/Ylja83 10d ago

I don't think "all". Denmark still has Dankort, first launched in early 80ies. Not sure if others survived..

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u/Icy_Object_5844 10d ago

Germany still has Girocard

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u/AidenTai 10d ago edited 9d ago

Shame they're exceptions. Would be nice if some of the other regional networks had stuck around.

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u/CKRatKing 10d ago

They are responding to a comment that said they all got replaced by pointing out that they did not in fact all get replaced. It's very obvious they are pointing out exceptions that are still around.

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u/JMJimmy 9d ago

Nice thing is the new system will work in Canada and vice versa

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u/tomtomclubthumb 9d ago

French version, carte bleue, was bought by visa in 2010

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u/Akenatwn 10d ago

Well Visa now also issues debit cards, so there goes the benefit of being recognised as credit cards.

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u/VTOLfreak 10d ago edited 10d ago

Not sure what you mean as it still works? I have a Mastercard debit card and when I select credit card as payment method and put in the card number, it just works. Depending on the payment provider, I do get a popup for verification, on other sites like Steam it goes through like a normal credit card.

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u/Akenatwn 10d ago edited 10d ago

For online payments, there is no real difference, no. But for renting a car a debit card doesn't work for the guarantee. There you need a real credit card, which is pretty annoying.

Edit: Here a link where Europcar UK says that in general debit cards are not accepted for the deposit: https://www.europcar.co.uk/en-gb/faq?question=what-payment-methods-are-accepted. So it depends probably on the country.

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u/Polmax2312 10d ago

I remember renting a lot of cards with both Mastercard and Visa debit card in 2014-2019, they just freeze part of the balance, and that’s all. Why would credit card make any difference on the backend?

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u/Akenatwn 10d ago

I have tried it and it didn't work. Also I checked the T&C's of some different rental car providers and they were explicitly saying that debit cards will not be accepted.

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u/Polmax2312 10d ago

Are you in US? Because in Europe it is quite ubiquitous to rent with debit or even cash, since credit cards culture is far less developed than over the pond. My last rent was fiat 500 in Italy from Europcar and while I gave debit card for deposit, I paid rent itself and options with cash.

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u/Akenatwn 10d ago

No, I live in Europe. I checked Europcar as an example and in the UK site it says that generally debit cards are not accepted for the deposit, but it depends on the country: https://www.europcar.co.uk/en-gb/faq?question=what-payment-methods-are-accepted. I think it was in Bosnia where it didn't work for me, but don't remember what provider it was.

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u/Mewselbert 10d ago

I've seen this disclaimer many times in many EU countries and with various companies (small independent ones, sixt, hertz and others), and still my debit card always works. One guy even told me my debit card wouldn't work and I told him to just try it if he's so sure. He did and it worked. Anecdotal evidence vs anecdotal evidence.

Edit: Bosnia isn't in the EU, so maybe there is the problem

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u/genericusernamedG 10d ago

It works you just don't understand the difference between debit and credit cards. If you use a debit card for a guarantee the money isn't "held" it's debited from your account. While with a credit card that amount is "held" against your available credit limit.

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u/Akenatwn 10d ago

Well, I have tried it and it didn't work. They also mention it in their T& C's.

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u/XAMdG 10d ago

Nah, let's be honest. Most countries payment processing solutions were not great when Visa and Mastercard started to gain dominance. It's a pretty modern thing that they have outlived most of their usefulness. Bix, UPI, and similar payment processing services took decades to develop and be accepted. It also has taken state intervention to make it a monopoly in most cases, because private companies all can't /don't want to coordinate, so coordination and interoperability has to be thrusted upon them.

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u/intelhb 8d ago

Not everywhere