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A comment on Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a car. Parent comment

Re:Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a... by kuschku on Monday November 14, 2016 @07:06AM (#12949256)
Thwy accept German EC cards, which is an entirely seperate network from MasterCard and Visa (and it's the E in EMV).

Mostly because their fees are even 10 times lower than MasterCard's debit card fees.

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Re:Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a... by germanier on Monday November 14, 2016 @12:47PM (#12951653)
The "E" in EMV is for Eurocard which is something different (and now merged with MasterCard).

The fees for the German Girocard system (which is what colloquially is still called EC) are lower than MasterCard's fees but not by that much anymore nowadays. MasterCard debit should not be 50% more expensive than Girocard considering all fees (which of course still is more) if you shop around a bit. Even Aldi takes them now and they try to save money wherever they can.

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Re:Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a... by kuschku on Monday November 14, 2016 @02:10PM (#12952391)
> Even Aldi takes them now

Well, Aldi only takes some type of MasterCard debit - only the Chip + PIN edition Maestro cards, not any of the actual MasterCard network, nor mixed credit/debit cards.

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Re:Poor people pay for parking even when they can’t afford a... by germanier on Monday November 14, 2016 @02:35PM (#12952550)
They take all MasterCards, including credit cards. I paid with one just this Saturday in Germany.

Things have changed considerably in the last two years and whatever one knows about cards, acceptance, and fees from before 2015 can safely be forgotten.

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