I wonder, then, who pays? Do the Dutch banks pay MasterCard (provider of the Maestro service)? 
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And additionally, might this be considered anti-competitive? Only taking Dutch Maestro cards because of a NL-specific arrangement for no processing fee seems like itād fall foul of some kind of EU regulation, if nothing else, because even aside from Visa/MasterCard āproperā, it puts VPay at a disadvantage within the Dutch market.
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Thereās not really much MasterCard can do at this point. They could threaten to pull out of the country all together (including Maestro) but theyād probably be hit by the regulator for doing so.
To be fair Canada does also have some merchants that accept only Interac Debit cards (all domestic debit cards run on the Interac network although some cards are cobranded with Visa/MC for use outside of the country) or cheques (no cash or credit cards) but these are usually for government services (drivers licence renewal etc.), so not really a problem for a visitor.
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That being said, Visa could certainly push for some kind of action to be taken, since the local banks cozying up to Maestro with that kind of arrangement to the exclusion of VPay puts VPay at a disadvantage.
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That would probably be the angle to take - Visa to create a fuss that Maestro-only merchants are anti-competitive. The EU would probably side with Visa on that.
Youād think but the EU seem to have it out for Visa and MasterCard. Even more so now that they are developing their own card network.
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Where can I read more about this, please?
Iām curious too. I can see an effort to unite or at least link up the various national debit card networks in countries that have them (Dankort in Denmark, Bancontact in Belgium, Multibanco in Portugal, etc), but if you mean creating an entirely new network, consider my eyebrows raised.
They will probably look to subsume the national networks in to a new pan-European network, like they did with the introduction of IBANs for pan-SEPA transfers.
It would probably be bad news for everybody outside the EU as it would just increase the occasions where only an EU network was accepted and everyone else would probably have acceptance issues more frequently. As already happens sometimes in places like the Netherlands where often only Maestro is accepted and if you donāt have one you are stuck!
As @CanadianSpruce says, the EU is naturally inclined to be anti Visa and Mastercard, probably because 1) they dislike that they effectively have a worldwide duopoly from a competition perspective and 2) it peeves them that neither Visa nor Mastercard are European.
It will still be interesting to watch how the new card network might develop, but I wouldnāt expect it to get too much traction. Itās probably going to be similar in popularity to something like V-Pay.
Itās also going to be a pain for places like the UK where BACS and faster payments are used over SEPA due to SEPA only supporting transactions denominated in euro. (this was before we left the EU) Now no chance.
So european cards useless here, UK Visa/MC cards become the Discover card of europe. (Whats discover?)
Surprisingly Discover/Diners Club (they are the same payment network, just a different brand, with Discover being used in the US and Ecuador) are actually widely accepted in Europe (including the UK). Itās usually one of the standard payment networks along with Visa/MC a merchant accepts. A lot of merchants donāt know they actually accept it though haha.
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I think there is a technical reason for this, I believe itās because the Discover network is technically quite similar to Mastercard - so it may be easy to add support?
Yes, probably!
But the EU are just being a pain with the plan to establish a new card network in the first place. The ship had already sailed and it would be far better if they just got on board with proper Visa and Mastercard support in the EU countries!
Honestly never seen a discover logo outside of mcdonalds here.
Knowing american friends who have said that they tried inserting the card here and it just doesnt recconise it at all or you get card not accepted. (even at tesco)
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Yeah most machines donāt support the chip on discover cards in the UK, you usually have to swipe. Anyone using global payment, Barclaycard or Evalon terminals in the UK supports Diners/Discover.
The Diners Club brand is the preferred brand in Europe, so youāll rarely see the Discover brand. Discover cards also carry the Diners Club logo on the back of the card.
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Not really. Diners Club cards used to run on the MasterCard network when being used in North America (before Discover bought them) and Diners Club cards issued in Canada and the US still run on the MasterCard network (and are run by the Bank of Montreal). So that might be what youāre thinking of.
Diners Club/Discover just partnered with most major card merchant providers in Europe, so itās just automatically accepted everywhere.
I think this is what I was thinking of!
I must have read about it somewhere before.
Yeah and iām guessing getting a UK merchant to process magstripe is next to impossable.
Most shop staff under the age of 35 would have no clue on how to process it. (If they did the signiture would definatly be checked)
Cool fact all discover cards have a LINK atm application for the UK on their chip. (More for discover debit cards but also on credit)
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Itās not that bad. The terminal will just prompt you to swipe the card after inserting it if the terminal doesnāt support the chip and given most card machines are customer facing these days you can just do it yourself. I had a UK issued Diners Club card a few years ago (a commercial/business card) and never had much of an issue.
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Yep, Iāve tried to use my Discover credit card a few times in the UK and the responses I got varied from āwe donāt accept thatā to (upon seeing the logo on the back) āDinerās Club? Havenāt seen one of those in years!ā while I had a much easier time in Austria where most places accepted it (but I only used it at stores I wasnāt getting bonus rewards on any of my other cards).
If only this was of any use; for whatever reason, Discover Bank (the main issuer of Discover debit cards these days) geo-restricts use of their debit cards to North America.
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