Yeah, if the US supported something decent, I'm sure most of the world would soon follow. Netherland unfortunately doesn't have that kind of pull. But the Dutch iDeal system for online payment is, as its name suggests, pretty much ideal.
When I buy something (on Steam or GOG, for example), I select iDeal as payment method, then select my bank, then the shop redirects me to my own bank's website which processes the payment, and then redirects me back to the webshop which knows that the payment succeeded. The webshop doesn't have to know anything about me except which bank to redirect me to.
Unfortunately it only supports Dutch banks, and lots of international webshops don't support it. To my bafflement, even lego.com doesn't support it, which is just plain weird (they intend to, they say, they just haven't gotten around to it yet in the 18 years that iDeal has been around).
For interpersonal payments, rather than from a shop, you can send someone a payment request. The brandname that named the idea is Tikkie, an app from a major Dutch bank, but I think it can be used by anyone no matter what your bank is, and it uses iDeal for the payment. But every bank now has its own payment request system. You just send someone a link, and they can choose how to pay it. It's ridiculously simple, and it's all done through your own bank. No need to trust any third party with your payment information.
If domestic payments in the US use a similar system, can we please make this work across borders? Because everything from the US seems to work with credit cards or PayPal instead.
When I buy something (on Steam or GOG, for example), I select iDeal as payment method, then select my bank, then the shop redirects me to my own bank's website which processes the payment, and then redirects me back to the webshop which knows that the payment succeeded. The webshop doesn't have to know anything about me except which bank to redirect me to.
Unfortunately it only supports Dutch banks, and lots of international webshops don't support it. To my bafflement, even lego.com doesn't support it, which is just plain weird (they intend to, they say, they just haven't gotten around to it yet in the 18 years that iDeal has been around).
For interpersonal payments, rather than from a shop, you can send someone a payment request. The brandname that named the idea is Tikkie, an app from a major Dutch bank, but I think it can be used by anyone no matter what your bank is, and it uses iDeal for the payment. But every bank now has its own payment request system. You just send someone a link, and they can choose how to pay it. It's ridiculously simple, and it's all done through your own bank. No need to trust any third party with your payment information.