Recently signed up for patreon but couldn't figure out a payment method. The only option available, paypal, would succeed and I'd be redirected back to the merchant (patreon) but then neither show up in my patreon account nor on the paypal side - and I'd rather avoid giving paypal a cut so this was already a last resort. Open source liberapay was a no brainer (for K9 and F-Droid iirc) but very few creators have a liberapay. Surely there's more going on than this, but the news doesn't surprise me with this amount of friction and very handful of payment methods available. It'll work for the 90% or they'd not be in business at all, but still.
For that I'd need to first get a credit card. Most people here don't have one because you never need it here, but indeed for paying for american stuff I tried getting one. Happened to be after moving to Germany. Was denied, don't have a credit score (not here at least, and afaik the Netherlands doesn't have this system of random magic score calculations without actually being indebted) and neutral wasn't good enough. Like I said, paypal really was the last resort. I'd be happy for them to just draw from my IBAN directly (basically everyone in Europe has this, banks in Germany are required to give you one regardless of credit score because, indeed, it's essential for modern life) or to send them cash in the mail like mulvad or use the here-common iDeal system, or manually transfer it or...
It's not very clear from your comment where exactly you are, but in The Netherlands credit cards are quite common — almost everyone I know has one, and I was raised here.
I never see anyone, always normal debit cards instead of paying on credit (loan), and the first question you get when your card's color looks unfamiliar and it doesn't work on the first try is whether it's a credit card because those aren't commonly supported. It's virtually nonexistent. My dad has one for booking hotels abroad afaik, but while in NL you just never need it and I never see them around.
