By Vassos Angeletou In Athens, the board of directors of the European Central Bank will meet on October 26 in order to announce its crucial decisions, not only for the interest rates of the euro, but also for a historic project in the history of the Eurozone – the digital euro. It has been known… Continue reading From Athens, the...
The whole society always has to pay for transactions as they require work. You either pay with increased prices, by using other services from the banks that cost something or by leeching off of other people paying for the transaction system. The idea of the digital euro could be to decrease this work by introducing a more efficient system.
The actual work behind a private banktransfer is fractions of cents, including power. Technically you’re correct, but in the real world, if you paid the real cost of all your private banktransfers, you could probably cover a years worth with a few nickel (if that).
I truly don’t see the benefit of this for countries that already have a good banking system. Every benefit mentioned for this system has been available for years or decades in the Netherlands, or has a functionally identical equivalent.
But I see lots of advantages for people who don’t have access to a cheap, good and easy banking system.
But aren’t the current fees some nickel per transaction, e. g., if you pay with a credit card? Why are the fees so high currently? I do not think that the banks have such a high margin.
Credit cards are expensive, because their security measures can be circumvented by a moderately good photograph of one. You’re paying for all the fraud getting compensated.
But a regular (first-party) bank transfer has no such overhead.
The system in the Netherlands is shit for foreigners. E.g. if you want a personalized OV-Chipkaart you can only pay with iDEAL, for which you need a Dutch Bank account.
___You can use public transportation directly with any V-pay, maestro, visa or MasterCard debit- or credit card, or Apple or Google pay nowadays.
If you absolutely must have a chipkaart, you can get one from any ticket machine at a station. No Dutch bank account required.
No I can’t get a personalized OV-Chipkaart this way, which is necessary for certain subscriptions and OV-Fiets. Only anonymous chip kaarts are sold via ticket machines