51–60 of 82 posts
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The transaction costs are unfortunately not negligible for small vendors, they don't have the power to negotiate like Walmart et al.
Stripe and Square are the not terribly expensive, we use both, and they're the cost of doing business past 1992.
The actual cost of a credit card transaction must be 1/1000th of what our business is charged.
As soon as CC charges became hidden Visa/MasterCard decided to say "screw you" to society and double their "tax". They need cutting out of retail.
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>I would see this practice immediately banned. That's just covering up for a bigger problem. If you've got a lot of people without bank accounts, just make it easier to open a bank account. Here in the UK, you can open an account in minutes on your mobile phone with any photo ID, even if you're not a UK resident. Banks are required by the banking code to offer fee-free accounts regardless of credit history and to acc…
The problem isn't about how difficult it may be to open an account. The problem is that banks become gatekeepers for the ability to exchange legal tender for goods and services. I could write an entire essay on the problems this causes if cashless business becomes wideapread. But a few highlights include: * A positive feedback loop will form due to less cash being accepted => less cash circulating => less reason for…
I agree, but it depends on your point of view, I guess. Cash will itself probably be portrayed as a "threat." After all, only drug dealers and people too lazy to lift themselves up to bankable condition need cash. Right?
No-cash is an example of a middleman, or system of middlemen, locking up something for themselves that was once "free."
Water, especially bottled water, can be an example. Gentically modified seeds that produce sterile plants, in addition to some other benefit (Roundup-Ready) is another.
This is anecdotal: here in Shanghai it's not uncommon that vendors(specifically street-side small vendors) will turn down customers paying with cash payments. Those that do unwillingly sigh and look for change. Vendors all assume immediately they're going to scan your QR code or you will scan theirs. Even taxis have their QR Codes printed out on their dashboard somewhere. Subway systems and buses all use QR codes. Re…
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Specifically, they pass it on to all their customers, not to only those customers using cards (doing so is against the merchant-processor agreements). i.e. those using cards are in effect increasing the price for those not using cards.
in many places in europe there will be a surcharge added depending on the type of card you’re paying with.
This makes sense in urban areas. Kids and anyone else without a bank account can walk in to any grocery store and use their cash to purchase one of those loadable prepaid cards.
A real nightmare occurs when a large number of businesses don't accept cash. As this process proceeds, people who are unbanked or can't get a credit care are now not only locked out of the financial system, but also the monetary system! It hugely centralizes the management of the entire consumer economy in the hands of a few bankers who have no responsibility to the electorate - and there's no escape valve. I would s…
>I would see this practice immediately banned. That's just covering up for a bigger problem. If you've got a lot of people without bank accounts, just make it easier to open a bank account. Here in the UK, you can open an account in minutes on your mobile phone with any photo ID, even if you're not a UK resident. Banks are required by the banking code to offer fee-free accounts regardless of credit history and to acc…
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this situation will change any time soon in the US, it's just too profitable for the banks and the government is too much in their pocket to actually want to fix the problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem isn't about how difficult it may be to open an account. The problem is that banks become gatekeepers for the ability to exchange legal tender for goods and services. I could write an entire essay on the problems this causes if cashless business becomes wideapread. But a few highlights include: * A positive feedback loop will form due to less cash being accepted => less cash circulating => less reason for…
> Anything that threatens the universal acceptability of legal tender should be viewed as a national security threat. I agree, but it depends on your point of view, I guess. Cash will itself probably be portrayed as a "threat." After all, only drug dealers and people too lazy to lift themselves up to bankable condition need cash. Right? No-cash is an example of a middleman, or system of middlemen, locking up somethin…
Even if we accept that line of fallacy, the sum threat of everything that could be done with illegal cash transactions is orders of magnitude smaller than the threat of a cyber attack or natural disaster disabling all exchange of money.
I don't think even the staunchest anti-cash proponents could seriously advocate for building a house of cards out of our monetary system and creating a much bigger problem than what anti-cash purports to solve.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I would see this practice immediately banned. That's just covering up for a bigger problem. If you've got a lot of people without bank accounts, just make it easier to open a bank account. Here in the UK, you can open an account in minutes on your mobile phone with any photo ID, even if you're not a UK resident. Banks are required by the banking code to offer fee-free accounts regardless of credit history and to acc…
> Here in the UK, you can open an account in minutes on your mobile phone with any photo ID, even if you're not a UK resident. Is this a relatively new thing? One of the biggest bureaucratic nightmares I’ve ever had was opening an account in the UK. Closing it was even worse. I emptied it from an ATM then walked in and asked to close it. They agreeed then handed me a fist full of money that I’d already withdrawn from…
Yes. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, regulators took the opinion that the retail banking sector had become over-consolidated, with a handful of "too big to fail" players dominating the market. Steps were taken to promote competition and diversity in retail banking, which led to a proliferation of mobile-first entrants - off the top of my head I can name Revolut, Monese, Monzo, Starling and Atom.
These new banks have the benefit of a clean-slate IT infrastructure and culture, so they're genuinely modern. For example, Revolut's business bank customers can control their accounts via a fully-specified API and receive transaction notifications in Slack.