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Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by epanchin on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @10:45AM (#17021229)
Do you have figures to back up this claim?

I understand for regular procurement the importance of cost saving. But in product development paying everything with bank transfers rather than with corporate cards sounds like a ballache.

Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by Cenk on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @10:49AM (#17021258)
Even consumers hardly use credit cards in Germany. Only about 18% of payments are made with credit cards (https://qz.com/262595/why-germans-pay-cash-for-almost-everyt...)
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by overcast on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:13AM (#17021445)
Do German credit cards not have cashback programs? When every transaction I make gives me back 1-6%, that adds up significantly over time. It's essentially subtracting tax off of groceries and gas for me.
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by the-dude on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:15AM (#17021469)
No cashbacks in Western Europe as far as I am aware.

How do feel about shafting all your suppliers? Because that is about the sentiment here.

Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by graeme on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @12:20PM (#17022100)
I really wish they would pass a law in North America allowing merchants to charge percentages based on card used.

Credit cards have some great features:

* buyer protection in case of fraud * delayed payment helps buyer cashflow * instant payment for merchant * no overhead fees compared to handling cash

But, the extra percentage added for cashback is pure externality.

Right now merchants' only option is declining a card type entirely, like some do for AMEX.

Europe's economy is effectively saving perhaps 2% over North America's. I'm assuming here that 0.7% is the useful part credit cards do.

Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by dumbfounder on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @12:44PM (#17022358)
Why do we need a law to allow this? If there is a law that disallows it we would need to repeal that law. I am not aware of such a law though. I thought that merchants choose not to do this because it is seen as nickle-and-diming people, and they don't want the negative sentiment. Taking credit cards is just a cost of doing business. That said, lots of gas stations offer discounts for cash.
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by graeme on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @01:14PM (#17022623)
Here's a case in Canada: https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/business/merchants-may-soon-as...

Badically, credit card processing agreements prohibited fees. But as a matter of public interest a lawsuit was brought and fees were allowed. This is still quite recent so we haven't seen any effects.

"Just a cost of doing business" is the point. Europe saves 2% annually compared to our system. A 2% private tax is very large.

Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by dumbfounder on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @03:21PM (#17023928)
And, because they don't spend money they don't have, they spend less. But less spending means shrinkage in the economy (or so I'm told), but means poor people are less poor. And it means that rich people are less rich (that interest that poor people pay doesn't go to other poor people). Today I realized that credit card companies are the root of all evil. Save us, Bitcoin!
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by mattmanser on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:55AM (#17021900)
This is wrong, there are cash back cards in the UK, for example. American express operates over here:

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/platinum-cas...

For the grandparent, cash back cards work by charging a higher percentage to the retailer and they haven't seen much traction or support in many European countries. Effectively in the long term they simply raise prices and give a greater cut to the card processor, theoretically they're overall a bad thing for consumers.

Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by samb1729 on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @01:10PM (#17022591)
18% of payments are made with cards, not necessarily of the credit variety. Given the attitude to debt suggested by that article, I'd bet the majority of those card payments are debit card payments.
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by _rknLA on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:09AM (#17021422)
It is dramatically easier to send someone a bank transfer in Europe (and I'd imagine, the rest of the world) than it is in the US. All you need is the recipient's IBAN (and sometimes BIC, which is usually already in the IBAN), and boom, you can initiate a transfer from your bank to theirs, for free. It blows my mind that banks in the US still haven't figure out how to do this.
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by true_religion on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @01:17PM (#17022649)
Do you really just need one number to initiate transfers in Europe?

US banks do have IBANs, but you still need an account number in order to finish up the process.

Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by nik736 on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @02:32PM (#17023425)
In my online banking account I type in a name, the IBAN, the amount and optionally a description. That's it.
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by louisswiss on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @12:30PM (#17022223)
It blows my mind that you think it's a matter of "can't" over "don't want to"...
Re:Ready-made Stripe Checkout for freelancers by the-dude on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @11:13AM (#17021446)
Regular business transfers with trusted partners is almost 100% done by regular bank transfer in Western Europe ( I am talking about NL, but I am pretty sure it applies for DE/DK etc as well ).

You order a bunch of X, get the invoice, pay the invoice within its term ( usually 30 days ).

It is not even cost-saving : we had to conduct businesses before creditcards were widely available.