this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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I know Wero is still in its infancy and the digital Euro is still a few years away, even if you believe there'll be no delays. But depending on where you live you can already do a lot for EU financial independence.

  • Use cash (very easy but not ideal in many situations/online)
  • Use a national payment providers:
    • Germany ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช: Girocard
    • Netherlands ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ: iDEAL
    • France ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท: Cartes Bancaires
    • Poland ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ: BLIK
    • Italy ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น:Bancomat/PagoBancomat
    • Many other options, check for your country
  • Use SEPA direct debit mandate or wire money directly if you can
  • Sign up to a european crypto exchange and use it for direct purchases. although I get if you don't like crypto but this is just for direct purchases

Otherwise American Payment providers usually get at least 1% and if you use card payment a lot over time that can really add up. This also mostly makes sense when buying from a european company. For US companies it really doesn't matter much. I've been trying to replace Amazon with Otto and I use SEPA direct debit mandate to avoid fees.

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[โ€“] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The problem is that the vast majority of payment cards being issued nowadays are either Visa or MasterCards (both physical and virtual). This makes it very difficult to avoid US companies when it comes to cashless payments. My current bank gives me a Visa Debit Card for free, but would charge me fees for a Girocard. I avoid PayPal as much as I can.

[โ€“] timestatic@feddit.org 1 points 29 minutes ago

Wait thats crazy. For my banks it was always standard to issue Girocard for free and then Debit/Credit Card on demand