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EU: “You cannot be charged a fee for paying by card, but you can be charged a fee for paying in cash.” No worries about marginlising Americans who face discrimination by banks. (www.fiserv.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [M] to c/cash@slrpnk.net
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According to the linked leaflet, the EU’s payment services directive ensures that “You can no longer be charged extra costs by a merchant when you pay using a card issued in the EU.” But they neglect to extend reciprocity to cash payers.

Incidentally, this exacerbates adversely discriminatory treatment of Americans who face uniquely poor treatment by banks. Cash is the sole notable refuge from shitty banks.

Upcharging cash payers violates human rights. This is not only attributed to banks discriminating on the basis of nationality. We have a human right to:

  • self-determinism
  • autonomy
  • consumer protection
  • privacy

Penalising cash payers is an assault on any consumer who exercises their self-deterministic right to live autonomous and independent from banks.

No consumer protection is more important than the right to opt out of a transaction. It’s the only consumer protection that one can give themself without relying on others. Surcharging consumers who opt out of banking is an attack on that option. It puts a price on consumer protection.

Banking inherently entails abuse of privacy. The digital footprint is huge and undermins data minimisation rights.

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[–] [S] 0 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

This has nothing to do with Americans.

Nonsense. Read about FATCA.

The assumption is cash doesn’t get charged extra. No rights are being taken away.

Bad assumption. Cash payers are now being charged more, for train and bus tickets for example. A €10 ticket has an extra fee of €12 for paying cash (12 on top of the 10), for example.

Charges associated with useing cash for payments is handled with separate legislation, which is different in different parts of the EU because they use different currencies. Typically dealt with under laws relating to legal tender.

You are apparently unfamiliar with the Rundfunk case in Germany. The EU has exclusive competency over the euro and meaning of legal tender. And no, it does not protect cash payers from surcharges.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    All people with a right to live in the EU have a right to a free or reasonable priced bank account.

    The assumption in the leaflet when they say they are protecting surcharges for using cash. They aren’t implying a right to charge more for using cash. Your inferring that. They can’t make that commitment because not all countries use euro in the EU, that’s why there’s no common EU wide solution for cash payment legislation.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    All people with a right to live in the EU have a right to a free or reasonable priced bank account.

    Not exactly. That’s just a façade in attempt to create the optical illusion of equality. The EU requires member states to support a “basic” bank account, but then the EU looks the other way when they reduce the account capabilities and charge fees. You pay much more for a basic account than for a retail account, and depending on the member state you also loose features and capabilities. Some member states block cash services on basic accounts -- thus making them useless in the context of this thread.

    So in the end, Americans are still marginalised on the basis of nationality.

    The assumption in the leaflet when they say they are protecting surcharges for using cash. They aren’t implying a right to charge more for using cash. Your inferring that.

    It’s reality, not inference. Cash payers pay fees that card payers are exempt from.

    The leaflet is accurate. Card payers are protected from fees (fees that cash payers are not).

    They can’t make that commitment because not all countries use euro in the EU, that’s why there’s no common EU wide solution for cash payment legislation.

    The EU absolutely has the power (exclusively, in fact) to prevent surcharging cash. Non-euro countries have more sovereignty in this regard, by choice.

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