A positive aspect of TWINT is that it’s a closed Swiss system - one doesn’t pay provisions to foreign companies but to a Swiss company and money overall stay in the closed ecosystem. I.e. it’s sort of domestic infrastructure security, a shield against political overreach.
Positive and negative. My non-Swiss guests can’t use it and I often end up having to get the payment for tourist tax (which I usually calculate at the end of a stay based on actual occupancy) in cash, annoying for them. Given my border-proximity I’m happy to take Euros, but some people seem to manage to avoid having any cash whatsoever and need to make a special trip to the ATM.
(I can take credit cards, but it involves several steps, both me and the client going back into my reservation system to do so, and of course I then have to bear the ~2-3% charge the service providers levy, so I’m out of pocket on revenue that isn’t even mine).
I guess they could use prepaid Twint. But opening an account and transferring money just to pay the tourist tax is probably a bit steep.
That would be me 
Not heard of that, it might actually not be a bad idea, a bit like revolut if it can reduce transaction costs. Of course not just for the 3 francs/person/day tourist tax.
Worth a look…
Oh, no, not much use for most of my non-Swiss guests, the prepaid version is only available to people (specifically with mobile phone numbers) from
- Switzerland (+41)
- Germany (+49)
- Liechtenstein (+423)
- Austria (+43)
Thanks for checking. This is very surprising to me. Why wouldn‘t they accept other people‘s money?
Money laundering rules.
Is this a guess? Or did Twint communicate?
Allowing two countries outside of Switzerland (Germany and Austria) seems a bit random. What about allowing France or Italy or Netherlands or …?
It is mobile numbers from THREE countries! But still a good question. Assume it has to do with the potential business and over the border agreements made til now.
Basically it is a Swiss product originally started by post finance and now merged into the SIX Group. Main criticism about it are the commissions that businesses must pay. Even higher than those of credit card companies. In the end we as consumers, even if we don’t use it, have to pay for it.
I specifically did not include Liechtenstein in my list of countries, since they have the same currency and are therefore part of Swiss payment system.
Hopefully the Prince is not an SF member here. If so, would be dam worried to step foot there again.
Not for Twint they’re not. They can’t have a regular twint linked to their bank account, they have to use the pre-paid solution or a work-round using a Swiss subsidiary of a Liechtenstein bank..
which makes me wonder why won’t you accept Wise/Revolut payments? Aren’t they popular amongst the tourist visiting your premises?
The TWINT has more limits for non-swiss numbers, which most likely renders it useless for them
Eh? Me, you mean? I don’t have a POS system, but my website can accept payments from pretty much any card issuer worldwide. I just don’t like to use it for smaller payments like the tourist tax, bit of a hassle involving setting up the payment from my end first, and the commission, as previously mentioned.
These days more and more people seem happy to pay by direct bank transfer, which is a win-win, so I tend to suggest that if they don’t have cash or Twint.
As for the other questioner -
the list of countries came from the Twint website, I’m sure you could find it with about three mouseclicks, just like I did.
Yes, thanks. The list of countries is clear to me. I was wondering if money laundering was the reason for these few (arbitrary?) countries.