Yeah, PayPal (and MasterCard) started making decisions on what you could and could not buy with their services here in Aus, too (for example banning lottery ticket purchases), so I stopped using them wherever possible. Won’t be long until that’s not an option though (i.e. to avoid that), I bet…
In Sweden they have this shit called “Klarna”, which is like a worse PayPal, which is much more intrusive at openly stealing your personal information (address, email AND phone number, because Sweden), and you literally can’t get around it, for most online purchases…
It scares me how normalized that is, and that it is trending in that direction back in Aus as well…
It exists as that in Sweden too, but then you have a number of “merchants” that just straight up make it their only way to pay. Which would be like doing that with Afterpay…
Of course, the reason that this “works” in Sweden is because they’ve all gotten used to paying with “Swish”, which is integrated with Klarna, and which takes all your details every time you pay using it.
Literally, every transaction on there is linked to your bank account, and your address, and your SSN-equivalent, and they just use that all the time, because “cash bad”…
It’s extremely dystopian.
So as a foreigner, I still had to type in all that personal info to use Klarna, even though I don’t have a Swish. Which was the only way I could pay for, for example, tickets to a show, and sometimes even long-distance train tickets. All very creepy…
Yeah, PayPal (and MasterCard) started making decisions on what you could and could not buy with their services here in Aus, too (for example banning lottery ticket purchases), so I stopped using them wherever possible. Won’t be long until that’s not an option though (i.e. to avoid that), I bet…
In Sweden they have this shit called “Klarna”, which is like a worse PayPal, which is much more intrusive at openly stealing your personal information (address, email AND phone number, because Sweden), and you literally can’t get around it, for most online purchases…
It scares me how normalized that is, and that it is trending in that direction back in Aus as well…
I see Klarna advertised for payments a lot in the US, but as a service for installment payment rather than up front payment.
It exists as that in Sweden too, but then you have a number of “merchants” that just straight up make it their only way to pay. Which would be like doing that with Afterpay…
Of course, the reason that this “works” in Sweden is because they’ve all gotten used to paying with “Swish”, which is integrated with Klarna, and which takes all your details every time you pay using it.
Literally, every transaction on there is linked to your bank account, and your address, and your SSN-equivalent, and they just use that all the time, because “cash bad”…
It’s extremely dystopian.
So as a foreigner, I still had to type in all that personal info to use Klarna, even though I don’t have a Swish. Which was the only way I could pay for, for example, tickets to a show, and sometimes even long-distance train tickets. All very creepy…
Jfc. How about no, Scott?