I know Wero is still in its infancy and the digital Euro is still a few years away, even if you believe there’ll be no delays. But depending on where you live you can already do a lot for EU financial independence.

• Use cash (very easy but not ideal in many situations/online)
• Use a national payment providers:
  • Germany 🇩🇪: Girocard
  • Netherlands 🇳🇱: iDEAL
  • France 🇫🇷: Cartes Bancaires
  • Poland 🇵🇱: BLIK
  • Italy 🇮🇹:Bancomat/PagoBancomat
  • Many other options, check for your country
• Use SEPA direct debit mandate or wire money directly if you can
• Sign up to a european crypto exchange and use it for direct purchases. although I get if you don’t like crypto but this is just for direct purchases

Otherwise American Payment providers usually get at least 1% and if you use card payment a lot over time that can really add up. This also mostly makes sense when buying from a european company. For US companies it really doesn’t matter much. I’ve been trying to replace Amazon with Otto and I use SEPA direct debit mandate to avoid fees.