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by krn 2554 days ago
They could have just got a banking license in Ireland. I believe they still need to apply for one in the US.

At least in terms of the population, the EU market is 60% larger than the US, and Europeans are already used to paying for everything with debit cards.

Also, in many EU countries people rarely do chargebacks or expect them to succeed, which makes supporting them much easier.
1 comments
wastedhours 2554 days ago
> the EU market is 60% larger than the US, and Europeans are already used to paying for everything with debit cards.

I'd argue the other side and say the EU isn't a single market when it comes to payment and banking culture. I'd also argue that there are large swathes of Europe that still don't have a card culture.

My personal anecdata on chargebacks corroborates yours, but my own assumption is that the market for a fintech company is much larger in the States than in continental Europe.

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Jhsto 2554 days ago
I've needed cash more often in San Francisco than I've needed anywhere in Europe in the last 5 years.

To my experience, even the smallest shops in most of Europe accept contactless payments, whereas in the States the smaller ones did not accept card payments for purchases under 2 (or sometimes even 20) dollars. I'd agree that the market for a fintech company in the States is much larger, but this is solely because its current state is so bad.

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martinald 2554 days ago
Depends where you are. UK/France/Spain, yes, Germany absolutely not. Even mid range restaurants are 50/50 if they'll take card. Not really sure what you are meant to do if they don't take card and you are settling a large table which costs more than your daily ATM limit...
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wastedhours 2554 days ago
Yep, similar experience in Germany, and more than 50/50 if you travel further east in Europe (and that's not even counting those who look actively pissed off if you want to pay by card even if they have the facilities to take it[0]).

[0] this is a bigger thing than you'd expect and goes back to my point on culture - unless you want to feel like a tourist standing out, there's plenty of places in Europe still where cash is very definitely implied to be preferred. And don't even try if you're not in a major metro area.

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