08-28-2023, 12:01 PM
(08-28-2023, 11:33 AM)tomh009 Wrote:(08-03-2023, 04:51 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Travelling can definitely put one in the "unbanked" category based on how prevalent visa/MC is in the country you're travelling to. While the Netherlands is heavily digitized for banking (some checkouts don't accept cash, I think self checkouts also only accept cards, and some entire stores also only accept cards, no cash at all) Visa is not ubiquitous. Many restaurants, stores, and even the entire major grocery chain Albert Heijn accepts only Maestro, the equivalent of Interac.
Similar, but not quite the same as Interac: Maestro is a proprietary (and old) debit card system. Mastercard has now discontinued it everywhere in Europe, and all Maestro cardholders are getting MasterCard debit cards. Apparently even Albert Hejn is now accepting MasterCard (and I think Visa) debit cards. Credit apparently not yet, but all stores are supposed to accept that by the end of 2024.
Fair enough...I'm not certain what the actual debit card payment protocol is here, it's possible the few people I've heard say it have called it Maestro for historical reasons. All I know is that we have a debit card with no Visa or Mastercard branding that works at these places.
Perhaps a more interesting question is who runs these payment systems, Interact is a collaboration of all the banks in Canada. I'd be curious if other places have created similar co-operative organizations, and how far they reach (all of Canada is pretty small, and in Europe, it would be pointlessly small). That's the one advantage of Visa is utterly massive reach--albeit not yet into AH.