3 ms·

What I find really unfair in these situation is that the government is banning something but not really offering any alternative. There are plenty of transactio

What I find really unfair in these situation is that the government is banning something but not really offering any alternative. There are plenty of transactions where using large amounts of cash is perfectly legitimate and the best option. What is the Dutch government suggesting here? Personal Checks have the obvious issue that the issuer can just default on them long after they have received the good or service. Cashiers checks solve that problem but you have to pay a fee of a few dozens euros/dollars to get them and they are cumbersome to get (and you can't change the amount if you need to). Wire transfers suffer from the same problem basically. Credit/Debit cards are controlled by private entities and being able to receive payment from them is hard and costly to setup. So what's the alternative to cash for payments over 3k?

cwmma 3y ago
Europe has a working system of direct bank transfers that are used all the time by most everyone. Europeans basically never use checks. A lot of Americans here are really confused because America does not have this infrastructure but it exists in Europe and people already use it all the time.
- thmsths 3y ago
  I am European too and while we have better payment systems than in the US it's far from perfect. If you're referring to a SEPA transfer it is at least an order of magnitude more friction than handing over cash to someone.
  - gattilorenz 3y ago
    In NL the iDeal system and Tikkie have -according to me- less friction than cash, and surely not for any large amount if you are on the receiving side (no need to have any change, money won’t be fake, you won’t have to deposit it, you can request a specific amount or let it open for the other person). Here’s some info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Tikkie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Tikkie They’re used by people of all age, as far as I can tell; the only time I witnessed a problem with it, was when a ~50 year old man had to pay me 600€ for stuff he bought, and I ended up having to take cash. Worth noting that person who paid me is a house painter, a job with a great potential for being paid cash to evade taxes to begin with…
    - thmsths 3y ago
      I did not know about these systems, thanks for enlightening me. Now I am a bit jealous my own country (France) does not have anything like this (as far as I know).
      - gattilorenz 3y ago
        They were also impressive for me, having moved here; I’ve heard iDeal should become a EU-wide thing. I added in my original post links to wikipedia, if you want more details. The section “criticism” is quite funny: it works like cash money (no guarantees from the bank if you get scammed, it’s not a credit card), and there might be some downtime at some point (1 day/year in total).

cwmma 3y ago

Europe has a working system of direct bank transfers that are used all the time by most everyone. Europeans basically never use checks. A lot of Americans here are really confused because America does not have this infrastructure but it exists in Europe and people already use it all the time.

thmsths 3y ago
I am European too and while we have better payment systems than in the US it's far from perfect. If you're referring to a SEPA transfer it is at least an order of magnitude more friction than handing over cash to someone.
- gattilorenz 3y ago
  In NL the iDeal system and Tikkie have -according to me- less friction than cash, and surely not for any large amount if you are on the receiving side (no need to have any change, money won’t be fake, you won’t have to deposit it, you can request a specific amount or let it open for the other person). Here’s some info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Tikkie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Tikkie They’re used by people of all age, as far as I can tell; the only time I witnessed a problem with it, was when a ~50 year old man had to pay me 600€ for stuff he bought, and I ended up having to take cash. Worth noting that person who paid me is a house painter, a job with a great potential for being paid cash to evade taxes to begin with…
  - thmsths 3y ago
    I did not know about these systems, thanks for enlightening me. Now I am a bit jealous my own country (France) does not have anything like this (as far as I know).
    - gattilorenz 3y ago
      They were also impressive for me, having moved here; I’ve heard iDeal should become a EU-wide thing. I added in my original post links to wikipedia, if you want more details. The section “criticism” is quite funny: it works like cash money (no guarantees from the bank if you get scammed, it’s not a credit card), and there might be some downtime at some point (1 day/year in total).