Forget Google, time to end the Visa-MasterCard duopoly

Post by just-ok » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 12:25 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #89

anamexis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retailers can offer discounts for cash transactions, per the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill of 2010. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durbin_amendment

It depends on where you live. 10 states have laws that prohibit or restrict discounts for cash transactions: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas. Some of those restrictions have been invalidated by federal courts, but I was somewhat confused about which states were affected.

Post by redis_mlc » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 12:28 AM UTC

ur-whale wrote: post #6

There is something that I've never managed to put my finger on: most companies as huge as Google / Apple / FB etc... or even more traditional ones (banks, oil, etc ...) are sort of "well known" in the sense that they do PR, they have well known figureheads, etc ... VISA has always struck me as a very nebulous entity, whose structure, governance, is not very well know by the general public. I wonder how they managed t…

Post by ByteJockey » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 12:34 AM UTC

fsckboy wrote: post #66

jedberg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a myth: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm Private companies can refuse cash.

if you owe a business money, you can pay the debt in cash.

Post by FridgeSeal » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 12:37 AM UTC

vmception wrote: post #38

tiffanyh wrote: post #20

I am reading so much incorrect information in this thread it’s maddening. The card network (Visa, Mastercard, etc) do NOT make money on Interchange. It’s hard to have a healthy dialogue on this topic if folks don’t understand the basics of how the card networks generate revenue. Below is a decent primer. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/032615/how-mas...

> It’s hard to have a healthy dialogue on this topic if folks don’t understand the basics of how the card networks generate revenue. same for so many finance and legal topics you should see the stuff people say in cryptocurrency land, you can even agree with their technology but still be surrounded by the weakest arguments

Post by cynix » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 12:40 AM UTC

jariel wrote: post #44

ComputerGuru wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interchange fee pricing is set based on how much MasterCard charges the bank That’s not true though, or at least is a massive oversimplification. In the US, interchange fees are extremely inflated to allow banks to recuperate the rewards they give out to distinguish their card offerings from one another. The 2% cashback has to come from somewhere.

"The 2% cashback has to come from somewhere." Yes, but in reality, the program comes from an upside down approach to overcoming the obviously anti-competitive practices that VISA/MC use to forbid retailers from offering discounts for not using VISA etc.. You can't say "Get 2% if you use cash instead of VISA". (Notice that nobody ever advertises that?) Because VISA doesn't allow it. You also can't say "$1.99 + 20 cent…