(I don’t know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)
So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that’s not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!
Now here’s the issue: I can’t use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn’t a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can’t use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.
I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn’t even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn’t support this. This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn’t really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.
Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.
I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain’t one of them.
I think it‘s inherently difficult to persuade thousands of banks in Europe (and potentially worldwide) to actively join Wero, or any other service for that matter.
In my opinion, Wero – to be a viable option for anyone – should make their service something that the people can and WANT to use. Maybe I’m naive but adding the option to connect a bank account via IBAN and SEPA mandate shouldn’t be too complicated, right?
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I get what you’re saying and agree that high transaction fees keep merchants from offering it as a payment option.
However, in my rant I’m merely talking about P2P money transfers, nothing B2C. And since most people are lazy and scrimpers, a service needs to have a very good offer for people to start using it. That’s where Wero could improve, in my opinion.
Plus, having a large user base would help them in the long run with convincing merchants to offer Wero as a payment option, wouldn’t it?
Came here to say that Switzerland somehow managed to introduce a competitor to Paypal that works flawlessly and EVERYBODY uses it. Twint is the first app I was told to install.
Portugal has a similar System (MBWay) with the interesting part that all ATMs are running the same software, so the app is optional and you can use the same features also at any ATM including things like paying your taxes or recharging you mobile phone (all carriers supported).
I am not from the banking business, but as this worked for PP, I would assume that such connection should easily doable for our banks, too.