Do you wish, as the CB payment network recommends in its communication, to favor “Paye in France”? Or on the contrary trust the international Visa or Mastercard networks? Here’s what you need to know.
“Pay in France”. In a recent advertising campaign, the French CB card payment network, set up 40 years ago by the main French banks at the request of public authorities, encourages consumers to use it for their purchases. A “citizen gesture”, argues CB, in the name of sovereignty in matters of payments, in the face of the power of international networks, in particular Visa and Mastercard, both based in the United States.
Bank card: what does “pay French” mean?
If you are sensitive to the argument, you may be asking yourself the question: how to choose your network and be sure to pay with CB? To have the choice, you must first that your card is “co-badged”, that is to say designed to operate on CB in France and on another network abroad. This is probably the case: 77 million cards issued in France (1) are, the vast majority of them. Exceptions include, among others, the most recent cards issued by the BPCE group (Banque Populaire-Caisse d’Epargne), by the online banking giant BoursoBank, the neobanks Revolut and N26 or even the payment institution Nickel.
To check that your card is co-badged, it’s simple: just look carefully, front and back, looking for the presence of the CB logoin addition to that of Visa or Mastercard.
The possible choice especially for online payments
Are both logos there? In local shops, you will generally not have to do anything to pay with CB. It is the merchants, in fact, who choose the default payment network. And, in the vast majority of cases, they opt for CB, reputed to be less expensive. “According to merchants, the difference between the average price of a payment made by CB and another made by an international payment network can go from 1 to 10,” assures Philippe Laulanie, the general director of CB. However, choosing your network is possible by clicking on the yellow or orange button on the payment terminal when presenting your card.
You are fan of contactless mobile payment ? Difficult in this case to practice “Paye in France”. Only two banks currently (Société Générale and Crédit Agricole) allow payment via Apple Pay or Samsung Pay with the CB network. Elsewhere, these payments are made through your card’s international network, even if it is co-badged. This is bound to change. According to CB, the main French banking groups have committed to making the necessary developments to authorize CB mobile payment within 18 months.
In the case of online payments, finally, the choice is generally possible. The payment pages of merchant websites generally display the logos of the different accepted networks. All you have to do is click to choose your favorite.
How to get a free bank card?
(1) 2023 figure provided by CB