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In Denmark, we've had a special national card since the 1980s, called 'Dankort'. The fee for any transaction is 0.50 DKK, regardless of the transaction's size.
by Svip 10y ago
In Denmark, we've had a special national card since the 1980s, called 'Dankort'. The fee for any transaction is 0.50 DKK, regardless of the transaction's size. This means that Dankort is almost always cheaper to use than Visa or Mastercard.
As such, almost every store in Denmark accepts Dankort. But - like every other place - they are not allowed to pass that charge onto consumers directly. So it mostly happens indirectly, i.e. the prices in the stores. It is important to note, that until a few years ago, there was no transaction fee on Dankort transactions. It was practically a public subsidised credit card system.
And it worked great.
Now the EU is requiring that bundled cards get a choice. You see, one disadvantage of the Dankort was that it only worked in Denmark. So they made a deal with Visa to make a bundled card, called 'Visa/Dankort'. In Denmark, it would use the Dankort part and abroad it would use the Visa part.
But now consumers are required to make a choice for each transaction whether they want to use the Visa or Dankort part. It might seem great that you get a choice, but there is really no reason to pick the Visa part in Denmark. But since stores aren't allowed to pass the costs directly onto the consumers who pick Visa, prices are likely to go up, even if just 1% of every transaction is suddenly a Visa transaction.
I assume these rules are part of the capping of fees in the rest of the EU, and many Danish observers also suggest that these rules probably work great in the rest of the EU, just not that beneficial in Denmark.
- germanier 10y agoAre you sure they are not allowed to pass on the cost? In that case almost every store was violating that half a year ago when I took this photo: http://i.imgur.com/MA7VqnL.jpg http://i.imgur.com/MA7VqnL.jpg Anyway, the same regulation that introduced the application choice also stopped the schemes from prohibiting surcharges.
- Symbiote 10y agoI don't know any better than you, but I have been charged for using Dankort a few times, mostly online, and charged more when I used a foreign credit card in supermarkets. Ticketmaster charge 0.66kr, for example: http://www.ticketmaster.dk/help/gebyrer.html?language=en-us http://www.ticketmaster.dk/help/gebyrer.html?language=en-us
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- skrause 10y agoThe choice part doesn't seem to be required by EU regulations. The German Girocards basically all include VPay or Maestro as well, but you don't need to choose (and in fact you can't even choose) which payment system to use because in Germany it will be most likely be Girocard by default. So either the Danish implemented regulations they didn't actually need to implement or the Germans are not following the regulations.
- seszett 10y agoIt's the same in France. You can't choose whether you want to pay with CB or Visa/Mastercard. Actually, CB (for "Carte Bleue") looks so close to the generic "carte bancaire" word for "bank card", that few people even know that it's just a national card thing. I don't know if stores are allowed to charge customers differently for different payment means, but I guess not since I have never seen it. However some stores only take cards for a minimum amount. The largest chains though don't have any limit, and I've actually already paid amounts less than 1€ with my card.
- germanier 10y agoIs there really still a separate Carte Bleue payment network? The brand was sold to Visa Europe in 2010 and there are no mentions anymore on the websites. I would be surprised to learn that they still operate a different network.
- seszett 10y agoLooks like I mixed things up myself. Carte Bleue was apparently something related to Visa, and CB (for "carte bancaire") is the national network. But people actually still often say "carte bleue" to refer to any kind of payment card (even a Mastercard one). Apparently just because it was the name of the first payment card in France. So yeah, you have to swap carte bleue and carte bancaire in my previous post, I guess.
- germanier 10y agoIt's required by the regulation and now also the contracts of MasterCard, Visa and even Girocard. It's just almost all German merchants that don't care following that.
- kakoni 10y agoI'm surprised to learn that Denmark (And especially Germany and France) still have their national cards. In Finland our local national system was shutdown (due to sepa) and now all the cards issued are either visa or mastercard (debit / credit cards). Interestingly it also seems that credit card theft has risen to a whole new level.
- pasiaj 10y agoI was wondering about the same thing. Is this one more example of Finnish over-compliance with European regulation?
- reitanqild 10y agoThink Norway still has Bankaxxept (or something like that)
- bosse 10y agoBankAxept, and yes, my debit cards still has the logo, but it's been demoted from the front to the back of the card in recent years. In the same timeframe, VISA and Mastercard have seen a surge in merchants participating in the system, like grocery stores that used to accept BankAxept cards only. This might have something to do with people changing their preference to credit cards with benefits like airline miles, but also to allow travelers access to what's more and more becoming like a cashless society.
- boona 10y ago>there was no transaction fee on Dankort transactions. It was practically a public subsidised credit card system. i.e. You and non-participating parties were paying for it through taxes. So the transaction fee was hidden by layers of bureaucracy but was still existent.