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by lxgr 3 hours ago
So you're really using credit cards as a proxy for a consumer-friendly (at least with regard to fraud/disputes) payments product.

Credit cards being more consumer friendly than bank transfers is usually an artifact of the concrete implementation, not the abstract concept. In many EU/SEPA countries, returning a direct debit is much easier than a chargeback in the US, for example. In some countries, people even consider credit cards as less secure because filing a chargeback takes marginally longer with most banks (and requires a letter as opposed to a single click in online banking).

If the digital euro is to succeed, it'll of course have to compete with cards on the usability side as well.

1 comments

It's not just the chargeback process; it is that fraud actually removes money your account potentially causing other payments, like your mortgage, to default. With a credit card you have a month to get things straightened out before a payment is due.
As long as you don't go too far below zero, payments will go through. This may differ a bit per country.
This differs a lot by country and customer. For example, in Germany, without a fixed income, you’ll usually not get access to an overdraft loan.

In the US, overdraft is generally considered a very bad thing (almost worse than the idea of credit to Germans!) and a failure of the accountholder to “balance their (figurative, today) checkbook”, and the idea of an overdraft limit as a line of credit with a defined interest rate does not exist at all.