According to Berlingske newspaper, the national debit card system Dankort is on the brink of extinction and will be buried unless something drastic happens in the next three weeks.
The reason is that the EU has proposed a law that will make it illegal for shops to pay the 60 øre to the banks every time a customer uses the card.
“The Dankort could perish due to this,” Henning N Jensen, a payment expert and owner of the consultancy firm PlusCON, told Berlingske newspaper.
“The EU proposal will make it difficult for the Dankort to compete with the international cards and will mean that it will become too expensive and impossible to work with.”
READ MORE: Contactless Dankort on the way
More popular than ever
The new EU law will provide international credit cards such as VISA and MasterCard optimal conditions to manoeuvre in the payment market.
The Dankort first saw the light of day in paper form back in 1983, before it was offered in electronic form (plastic with a magnetic strip) in 1984. Since 2006, the card has been administered by NETS.
The debit card has continued to increase in popularity and over one billion transactions were made using the Dankort in one calendar year for the first time in 2013.
Just last month, Dankort revealed that users will be able to make purchases of 200 kroner or less and not have to enter their pin number to complete the transaction. Just a quick wave will suffice.
