← Back to context

Comment by MonkeyIsNull

17 days ago

Nothing in France takes Discover, and my bank decided to go with Discover about 6 months ago. "Great" decision, thanks.

17 comments

MonkeyIsNull

Reply
yardie  17 days ago

My wife found out her new card was Discover debit card right before her trip to France. Her bank sent her a new card unrequested. In an abundance of caution she activated the new card which automatically cancelled her debit Mastercard. Then when she landed in CDG found the new card didn't work anywhere.

  • netfortius  16 days ago

    For debit only she can use CIC or La Poste. They happily accept Discover, and they're everywhere in France.

  • Curiositiy  17 days ago

    This is what these peeps advocating for an "EU-based payment system" don't get, as they typically don't travel worldwide. VISA + Master just work. Have a debit plus credit for one each. (And no, Google / Apple pay won't do it, everyone who calls themselves a "hacker" should know that you too often can't even pay for transport using a rooted phone).

    • markvdb  17 days ago

      VISA + Master just work _for now_. Debanking Nicolas Guillou[0] was a financial Greenland.

      Short-term negative-sum transactionalists are governing the US. Even if November stabilises things somewhat, the cat is probably out of the bag.

      Trust comes on foot, but leaves on horseback. _That_ is why a well-integrated EU-based payment system is needed.

      [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Guillou

    • aveao  17 days ago

      We do actually. The German Girocards were, until Maestro ceased to exist, often co-issued as Maestro + Girocard, and global acceptance was pretty good under the Mastercard network.

      There are examples of other co-branded national payment systems out there (troy + Discover comes to mind).

      If a European payment system (with cards, at a store) is to exist, then visa/mc will still want a piece of the pie by at least playing along to remain as a co-brand and taking their cuts from international payments.

    • danelski  17 days ago

      Aside from what the other commenter said about the hybrid systems, you proudly state that you have 4 cards at minimum, but having a system that would work continent-wide for ~98% of all money you spend would not bootstrap if someone needed to be bothered with having a separate travel card, which would rest in the drawer or as second Apple/Google/Garmin Pay choice most of the time? Most adults I know have 2+ cards already, it's just that they were issued by Master Card or Visa. American Express and Discover still exist, despite definitely not having worldwide coverage.

    • tuetuopay  17 days ago

      The idea is for the US to not be able to shutdown CC transactions at points of sale in Europe on a whim. All cards in europe are dual-issued under Visa or Mastercard, and under a national card payment processor. In France, that's CB (Carte Bancaire). When you pay in europe, it uses the European network. Outside, it uses Visa/Mastercard.

      So sorry, we do definitely get what this entails :)

aveao  17 days ago

fwiw: Discover technically goes through amex network in EU, and amex acceptance varies from pretty good (e.g. germany) to pretty awful. Completely incomparable to visa and mc acceptance ofc.

netfortius  16 days ago

I thought the same, when my US bank (capital one) decided to change my debit card to their newly acquired Discover network. Sure enough, CIC and La Poste accept it for cash withdrawals, which preserves the advantage of great exchange rate, and no currency exchange fees (unlike wise, for example). Credit cards seem to stay on Mastercard (e.g. capital one) and visa (e.g. Chase), so still some life left with those, also. Wish the European solution will eventually have a rewards/points system, to bring it up to par with the US cards.

maest  17 days ago

Just use wise or revolut.

  • direwolf20  17 days ago

    "Just" get another bank account before travelling. Right...

    • maest  17 days ago

      I meant that as more of a long term solution. Even if your domestic bank supports overseas payments, they most likely screw you on the fx rates, so just get a specialised card like Wise or Revolut.

      It's free, their tech is great and their fx rates are more than fair.