Only to be told that my 6 year old business that has been in profit each and every year and does a respectable 6 figure turnover is "too risky"
fuck that
We don't blame or otherwise hit on Braintree -- it's the bankers that are the real problem.
I can provide a counterpoint - we signed up with Braintree a few months back and their service so far has been nothing short of stellar. Nice API, well written client SDKs and a support team that you can chat to about code and get responses from very quickly. We found the signup process to be smooth.
European merchants who want to take advantage of Braintree to accept online and mobile payments can now apply for an account online. The new streamlined process means that in minutes, merchants can complete the online application, and be on their way to accepting payments. Approval decisions usually follow a week or two after we receive your application.
With Braintree, merchants in 40 different countries can accept payments in more than 130 currencies, and settle in 13 currencies—including GBP, AUD, and EUR. Apply now and enjoy the global benefits of accepting online and mobile payments with Braintree—including our world-class support.
I feel this is a common misconception that accepting credit cards in Europe equals having a good online payment option in Europe. It just means you've half implemented a payment system in Europe since a lot of people here use Debit cards [1]. Besides that there are also other common payments solution like direct bank to bank online Giro systems for example iDeal in the Netherlands or Giropay in Germany.
[1] http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/date/2012/html/pr120910.en.html
If you have a B2C company where you want to charge €10 or so then alternative payment methods may become an issue. But if you sell SaaS subscriptions for €50 or €200 a month a Credit Card is still the way to go, even in Europe.
While the extra protection offered on credit card purchases is not overly significant for the size of most purchases, it is more than nothing so worth having.
The stats you link to don't specify the marketplace sampled, but I suspect it covers physical outlets as well as online ones which will skew the figures for debit cards at least (unless my experience is not representative of the larger population).
