Forget Google, time to end the Visa-MasterCard duopoly

Post by lillecarl » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 1:03 AM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #92

arachnid92 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want to present a counterpoint to your claim that in the EU, CCs matter less: there are countries in the EU like Sweden where cash is virtually non-existent. Basically everything is card-based here, I've even seen panhandlers who accept electronic payments in Stockholm.

Card != CC. The point is that in EU there's less motivation to use credit cards than in USA because the situation is better for payment cards that are not credit cards. If you refer to Sweden, I believe that the split there is that something like 40% of the cards are credit cards, and the majority are not.

Post by annadane » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 1:07 AM UTC

Post by notyourwork » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 1:08 AM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #108

notyourwork wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people didn't spend money they don't have the problem you describe dissolves. No one has to use credit cards and being financially literate is an individual responsibility.

> financially literate is an individual responsibility. Is being able to read and write an "individual responsibility?" How about the ability to communicate in a language at all? What about any other basic core skill that would make a person capable of learning more things to make them "productive?" "Individual responsibility" as it pertains to these topics is at best a misnomer, if it even names an existent thing at…

Post by ryanwatkins » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 1:10 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #95

ryanwatkins wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Merchants certainly "notice" and take any opportunity to use an alternative to the card networks. They only accept it because they must to avoid losing a purchase. They would rather customers pay in almost any other form due to interchange costs. When talking to big merchants about any new payment product, the first question you will hear is often "so, how does this lower my interchange cost?"

That might be true, but it isn't as obviously true as you would think. Credit cards payments are not subject to being stolen or lost. Once you have the approval the money will reach your account. Of course there are other frauds you are vulnerable to. Which is why it isn't clear what is really best

Post by Gaelan » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 1:12 AM UTC

DevKoala wrote: post #105

sdenton4 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have poor credit, you get a crappy credit card: low limit, high interest rates, no rewards. If you've got great credit, you get a high limit, slightly-less-astronomical rates, and all the rewards. The cost of the rewards is (as I understand it) mainly carried by the transaction fees, spread out over all purchases everywhere. So you have pointless price increases for people who /don't/ use credit cards (like me…

I had poor credit at a point in time. I "bought" a credit card to build my credit by putting a deposit. After 1 year of on-time payments I was able to graduate to a credit card with cash back. The system didn't feel punitive to me, and honestly, I had poor credit in the first place because I was irresponsible while in college.