I find most European cities are cashless, and accept MasterCard and Visa as well as the local country issuer for payments, attached to a local bank account.
You might have been running into the fact credit cards have much higher merchant fees, even if it's probably a violation of their EMV merchant agreement to refuse to accept these cards.
I see zero meaningful advancement of payments in the U.S. over Europe, to the contrary. There are more cash only restaurants in the U.S. especially if you're not in a big city, it's quite common. I think your opinion is based on a very limited experience across the U.S. and Europe.
And EFT payments in the U.S. are incredibly slow compared to their European counterparts. The fastest bank to bank transfer is Fedfunds wire, and that costs money, upwards of $30 for each party. It's cheap or free in Scandanavian and European cities.
I really have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to American innovation in this area... I see it as yet another example of American pay more to get less sort of classist mantra. Oh but if you have more money, and pay more fees, agree to give away more personal data in the EULA, you can get better services!
You might have been running into the fact credit cards have much higher merchant fees, even if it's probably a violation of their EMV merchant agreement to refuse to accept these cards.
I see zero meaningful advancement of payments in the U.S. over Europe, to the contrary. There are more cash only restaurants in the U.S. especially if you're not in a big city, it's quite common. I think your opinion is based on a very limited experience across the U.S. and Europe.
And EFT payments in the U.S. are incredibly slow compared to their European counterparts. The fastest bank to bank transfer is Fedfunds wire, and that costs money, upwards of $30 for each party. It's cheap or free in Scandanavian and European cities.
I really have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to American innovation in this area... I see it as yet another example of American pay more to get less sort of classist mantra. Oh but if you have more money, and pay more fees, agree to give away more personal data in the EULA, you can get better services!