Germany also doesn't really take credit cards.

Well, didn't.

The EU limited fees for credit cards to 0.125% recently, and while EC (now bought by MasterCard and called Maestro for SEPA) is still cheaper, credit cards start being affordable for merchants. But almost none support it yet.

And Google still hasn't launched Android Pay, despite every ALDI having NFC. I'd prefer if there was a local NFC payment option actually.

Germany's aversion to credit cards is somewhat cultural, isn't it? Datenschutz, Datensicherheit, etc.

Well, it’s a few things.

Germany already had a well-working giro system by the time credit cards were invented – almost instant, free transfers between bank accounts were common.

Then, credit cards were obscenely expensive (and still are in some cases, many credit cards cost a hundred euros or more per year for the owner, and taking credit cards often costs 6-7% of sale price + 60€/month for the merchant, and merchants can’t ask credit card users to pay more, so merchants would go bankrupt if they’d do that).

And this is because credit cards in the US are only free and have bonuses because they’re basically a tax on the less educated, with high fees and interest. Germany, which traditionally has a culture where having debt means being guilty (literally, that’s the same word), obviously is far more cautious, so far less profitable.

And then the EC cards happened, which introduced the EMV chip, were safer, faster, and had far lower fees, so they were supported everywhere.

And then there’s privacy.

And the fact that the US – especially MasterCard, VISA and PayPal – love stealing customers money in legal transactions inside of Germany just because it violates US law (which, fyi, does not apply in Germany, although the US pretends it does), as [1] and [2] show.

All in all, credit cards are a horribly insecure implementation of a ridiculous system that only works when it can scam enough people, interferes with local law, and doesn’t fit the strict privacy morals of Germany.

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[1] https://cphpost.dk/news/international/us-snubs-out-legal-cig...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/ka26b/paypal_bl...

Yes this supposedly "consumer friendly" change lost me about £20 a month in cashback but the retailers will just pocket the difference and not pass it on to the end consumer

I very much doubt that, considering how fierce the competition between retailers is, often fighting over single cents.

Even if that were true (I could write a book about how wrong this is), this isn't something retailers can compete on. If I get 2 extra cents, why would I give it back to the consumer, if my competitor could just do the same (and now both my competitor and I have lost those 2 cents)?

You should take a look at ALDI and LIDL’s retail strategy.

They’ve been in an eternal race for lower prices since they started competing.

Yes, I read that article too. I already told you why it doesn't apply.

Which article?

Also, it literally applies here – since the fees for credit cards were reduced, ALDI and LIDL introduced payment with credit card (which wasn’t possible before at all at them). Same with REWE and coop.

How can you say it doesn’t apply if it literally happened.

That's not at all what you were talking about earlier. If you can't understand the difference, it's not worth explaining anything to you.

Don't take this the wrong way but in the real world when regulation like this happens its not the end consumer that benefits.

The EU reduces your transaction costs by 2% for all retailers there's no way they will pass this on to the consumer eg my morning Starbucks did not get cheaper