Rant about Wero (European PayPal competitor)
-
There are some initiatives to allow routing transfers with aliases like email address or phone number, but unfortunately they are fragmented and depend on banks joining the initiatives.
Isn't that money laundering?
-
(I don't know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)
So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that's not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!
Now here's the issue: I can't use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn't a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can't use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.
I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn't even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn't support this.
This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn't really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.
I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain't one of them.
I think you are to pessimistic about wero. just give it time. The reason why here in the netherlands paypal, mastercard and visa are not a significant factor in the dutch online payments is because we have a payment system called ideal ( initiated by the main dutch banks and open to any bank wanting to support it), since 6 months wero is the owner of ideal and and without a dount wero will replace ideal in future but only if it is functional equivalent.
-
(I don't know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)
So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that's not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!
Now here's the issue: I can't use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn't a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can't use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.
I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn't even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn't support this.
This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn't really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.
I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain't one of them.
What's your opinion on UPI ?
(It's not from EU but India) they might make it available to EU -
I hope we someday get some proper payment solution like GNU Taler
Seems the GLS Bank is at itSo GNU-Taler is getting some recognition ?
Oh this is great -
Isn't that money laundering?
Why would it be? The banks and consequently the tax offices know who owns the accounts.
-
(I don't know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)
So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that's not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!
Now here's the issue: I can't use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn't a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can't use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.
I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn't even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn't support this.
This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn't really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.
I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain't one of them.
From 09.10.2025 on, you can send money from one account to any other in Europe in an instant and without additional costs. My bank and many other already offer this insta payment-upgrade. I hope we don't need any other additional service by then.
Getting people to use anything but PayPal is already a challenge, as they are not used to working with their IBANs. -
So GNU-Taler is getting some recognition ?
Oh this is greatI think it's still a very academic project. It'll take some time. But I really don't get why banks leave large parts of their market to third parties. I mean all the transactions which are handled by Stripe, PayPal... or Apple and Google Pay at the supermarket... I think most purchases I do with my bank card, generate some transaction fees which go to some large payment provider. That's all money banks could earn themselves?! And I suppose they like money, so I really don't get why they leave that to someone else.
-
So GNU-Taler is getting some recognition ?
Oh this is greatThere is a 5 million Euro support program by the EU right now. Not much and things are moving slowly, but at least there is a small hope that Taler will see some uptake later this year.
-
Came here to say that Switzerland somehow managed to introduce a competitor to Paypal that works flawlessly and EVERYBODY uses it. Twint is the first app I was told to install.
Portugal has a similar System (MBWay) with the interesting part that all ATMs are running the same software, so the app is optional and you can use the same features also at any ATM including things like paying your taxes or recharging you mobile phone (all carriers supported).
-
(I don't know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)
So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that's not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!
Now here's the issue: I can't use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn't a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can't use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.
I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn't even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn't support this.
This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn't really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.
I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain't one of them.
The main issue I see with Wero is that it offers very little benefit and has pretty much the same privacy issues like paypal or credit cards.
In addition many (smaller) EU countries already have better local solutions in place for some years.
For me to consider such a system it would need to have substancial privacy benefits over existing solutions, and there pretty much only GNU Taler qualifies.
-
(I don't know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)
So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that's not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!
Now here's the issue: I can't use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn't a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can't use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.
I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn't even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn't support this.
This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn't really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.
I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain't one of them.
Wero relies on instant bank transfers which are not supported by DKB yet but will be mandatory later this year. I am pretty sure DKB will start supporting wero at that point. Wero itself is not feature complete yet though so it will be a few more years until it can replace PayPal and credit cards.
-
System shared this topic on
