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Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

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Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#31

Post by throwaheyy »

est31 wrote: post #7

The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. As a store owner you are required to pay up to 3.5% of your revenue to the processing company (the percentage can be even higher than that if you sell stuff for small amounts, like just a dollar). With cash you can choose your bank and there is more of a free market, while with credit cards you can't get around not accepting certain br…

No.

The entire idea behind credit cards is to reduce friction in commerce resulting from handling cash. This attracts more customers to businesses through increased convenience.

Taking cards is voluntary, there's no "forcing processing fees" involved. Plenty of businesses opt not to take credit cards.

In fact, interchange fees (which in the US now top out around 2.7%, not 3.5%) are at an all-time low because of technology improvements. The first credit cards had a processing fee of 7% (https://www.businessinsider.com.au/history-of-credit-cards-2...).

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#32

Post by remus »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #25
cheonic729 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. No. As a consumer, I enjoy immense value by carrying around zero cash. In fact, I don't even carry around physical cards (thank you Apple/Google Pay).

What is this 'immense value'?

Not carting a pocketful of loose change round your entire life. Not an issue for some people, but I really like carrying less stuff.

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#33

Post by graham_paul »

cheonic729 wrote: post #9
est31 wrote: post #7

The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. As a store owner you are required to pay up to 3.5% of your revenue to the processing company (the percentage can be even higher than that if you sell stuff for small amounts, like just a dollar). With cash you can choose your bank and there is more of a free market, while with credit cards you can't get around not accepting certain br…

> The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. No. As a consumer, I enjoy immense value by carrying around zero cash. In fact, I don't even carry around physical cards (thank you Apple/Google Pay).

You are paying a price for that. The second someone steals your phone, you lose it, drop in into water or your battery runs off, you are temporarily poor and if you might find yourself in trouble if you can't get somewhere where you can charge your phone

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#34

Post by 1MachineElf »

908B64B197 wrote: post #3
45756e wrote: post #2

Funny to think that as well as tech companies trying to give out credit cards, a few financial companies (Capital One) are now seeing themselves and identifying as tech companies. Although based on the article, it doesn't seem like the latter is really related to the former.

> a few financial companies (Capital One) are now seeing themselves and identifying as tech companies. Is it branding or an actual shift? I've seen many companies pivot to being "tech companies" but still didn't have incentives in place to attract real talent, and more crucially that still treated software and tech as a cost center. But hey they had bean bags!

Before their infamous AWS breach, a former coworker of mine tried to get me hired there under a fancy cyber security operations title. He gave me a tour of the new(ish) building around Tysons Corner, VA. It is a very modern building, with a lot of charging stations and Tesla model S EVs in the parking garage. Public events happen there, they have two cafeterias, and probably a whole bunch of networks supporting all of that. They constantly evaluate new cyber tools, so I was told. It seemed to me that, yes, there could be something behind this idea that they are "a tech company."

So I went through the hiring process. There's an online proprietary aptitude test that's required of all candidates, and it's apparently such a big deal, that you can only take it once per 6 months. They start you off with a practice test served from a non-CapitalOne FQDN, then the real one served from a CapitalOne FQDN. Well, I took both, and got an error at the end of the real one. Apparently, Firefox is explicitly supported on the practice test, but only IE11 is supported on the real one. The error meant none of my exam results were recorded, and due to some technicality, that meant I was SOL for 6 months.

My experience with CapitalOne, the "tech company" whose aptitude exam required a legacy browser, ended right there.

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#36

Post by the_jeremy »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #25
cheonic729 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. No. As a consumer, I enjoy immense value by carrying around zero cash. In fact, I don't even carry around physical cards (thank you Apple/Google Pay).

What is this 'immense value'?

less hassle, enhanced security. I can spend hundreds of dollars without having to carry that much cash on me, or having to go to an ATM ever. It's more convenient and more secure, which is almost never true today.

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#37

Post by gonehome »

fotta wrote: post #30
gonehome wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple Card is great - I switched to it and closed all my other credit accounts (even though the others had better overall cash return when factoring in their points value). I did this for a few reasons. - Better software: The iOS integration with Apple Card is really good. The second best I've seen was Amex, but they were still a distant second. - "Daily Cashback" - just automatically putting the 1%/2%/3% back on…

small nit: the underlying creditor is Goldman Sachs, not Morgan Stanley :)

Thanks - fixed :)

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#38

Post by thaumasiotes »

remus wrote: post #32
throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this 'immense value'?

Not carting a pocketful of loose change round your entire life. Not an issue for some people, but I really like carrying less stuff.

Loose change is both heavy and worthless. You can carry cash around without bothering with loose change.

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#39

Post by asutekku »

graham_paul wrote: post #33
cheonic729 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. No. As a consumer, I enjoy immense value by carrying around zero cash. In fact, I don't even carry around physical cards (thank you Apple/Google Pay).

You are paying a price for that. The second someone steals your phone, you lose it, drop in into water or your battery runs off, you are temporarily poor and if you might find yourself in trouble if you can't get somewhere where you can charge your phone

The second someone steals my cash i don’t have it anymore. If someone steals my phone, it is locked and the money attributed to it are safe. Sure, i may have lost my phone but my money is safe.

Re: Tech companies are clamoring to give you credit cards

#40

Post by jjoonathan »

throwaheyy wrote: post #31
est31 wrote: post #7

The entire idea behind credit cards is to force processing fees upon store owners. As a store owner you are required to pay up to 3.5% of your revenue to the processing company (the percentage can be even higher than that if you sell stuff for small amounts, like just a dollar). With cash you can choose your bank and there is more of a free market, while with credit cards you can't get around not accepting certain br…

No. The entire idea behind credit cards is to reduce friction in commerce resulting from handling cash. This attracts more customers to businesses through increased convenience. Taking cards is voluntary, there's no "forcing processing fees" involved. Plenty of businesses opt not to take credit cards. In fact, interchange fees (which in the US now top out around 2.7%, not 3.5%) are at an all-time low because of techn…

> Taking cards is voluntary, there's no "forcing processing fees" involved.

Lol, sure. That's why they make stores promise to never, ever, under any circumstances make interchange fees visible to customers.

Hiding in the shadows is not the sign of voluntary mutual-benefit value creation, it's the sign of a good hustle that someone is hoping to milk just a little bit more before the Sauron's Eye of public attention turns their way.

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