Comment by Marsymars
2 months ago
Canada has something similar (Interac), but the transaction marketshare has been steadily eroding to credit cards. (Since credit cards offer credit + credit/cashback, and extra fees for paying by credit cards are very rare.)
Interac is a debit network in Canada, and the merchant fees are impressively low. They're generally under $0.10 as a flat fee, not a percentage (credit cards would cost the merchant around 2%). https://www.interac.ca/en/payments/business/understanding-fe... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac
One consequence of the flat fee is that at some retail stores, if you pay by debit, you can ask for "cash back". For example, if you buy $20 of groceries and ask for $100 cash back, the cashier will charge $120 to your debit card, you will have fully paid for your groceries, and the cashier will give you $100 in paper money as if he were an ATM.
Obviously, "cash back" is a terrible idea if the merchant allowed the customer to pay by credit card.
Cash back was/is a thing in Sweden for a long time, but I have not actually seen it used in ages, or mentioned. We simply don't use cash much these days.