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Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

economist.com

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Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#21

Post by tryptophan »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

https://www.moderntreasury.com/learn/what-is-fednow > FedNow is an instant payment service for both individuals and businesses. Once launched, the initial transaction limit will be $25,000. This means that FedNow be more useful for small businesses and retail payment needs until it is widely adopted and the transaction limit grows. > In early 2022, the Federal Reserve released pricing and fee details for their real-t…

Visa/Mastercard are looking very overvalued to me. When fednow comes out, I see very little reason for people to use those legacy options anymore. Its like the market is completely oblivious to the impending doom coming for these rent seekers.

Every single app/store/site is gonna be begging you to enroll in fednow and will be offering 2-3% discounts/bonus points for any purchases made through it.

Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#23

Post by sytelus »

I still haven't understood why credit cards companies need to go through this complex multi-hop "settlement" pipeline that takes almost a day for transactions to get "processed". Is it because some banks still depend on mainframes doing batch processing?

Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#25

Post by reaperducer »

10g1k wrote: post #6

1.4 billion people in China use WeChat to pay for everything. They don't even bother with credit cards.

Fortunately, phones never get lost. Or broken. Or stolen. Or discharge. Or malfunction. Or lock people out for no good reason.

I can put a $100 bill through the washing machine and it's still perfectly usable. When I can do that with a phone, maybe I'll switch.

I ran a credit card through the washer and dryer last month, and even though it got bent, and the stripe doesn't work anymore, the chip does. And the numbers can be punched into a POS terminal if all else fails.

E-wallets are putting your finances into a single point of failure. Tech people should know better.

Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#26

Post by kelnos »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

https://www.moderntreasury.com/learn/what-is-fednow > FedNow is an instant payment service for both individuals and businesses. Once launched, the initial transaction limit will be $25,000. This means that FedNow be more useful for small businesses and retail payment needs until it is widely adopted and the transaction limit grows. > In early 2022, the Federal Reserve released pricing and fee details for their real-t…

Perhaps this is an irrational fear, but one of the reasons I like credit cards is because when a charge happens, no money leaves my personal accounts. If a charge is fraudulent, it gets cleared up without me being out some amount of money until it gets cleared up.

I assume with FedNow (same as if I were to transact using debit cards), money leaves my bank account more or less immediately when a charge happens. That means if someone manages to fraudulently charge something, I am out that money (up to $25,000!) until the dispute process is resolved.

Also, do I really want the central bank to have a record of all my transactions? Not sure I do.

Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#27

Post by Swizec »

bnchrch wrote: post #15
sudden_dystopia wrote: post #3

This is the best, and in my opinion, only use case for Ethereum

This is something I hope a blockchain solution breaks through. A thought on how to do it. 1. Create a stable coin 2. Create a credit card that uses this token 3. Tie using it to some reward, supercharge it with VC if you have to 4. Release a QR payment component where vendors don't have to pay to receive payment, get rewards and payees earn double rewards 5. Integrate that bad boy far and wide Worth noting that Strip…

> This is something I hope a blockchain solution breaks through.

Don't worry, Visa and probably Mastercard already have a crypto department. They've been digging into blockchain (and buying startups) for a while now.

Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#28

Post by dhosek »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

https://www.moderntreasury.com/learn/what-is-fednow > FedNow is an instant payment service for both individuals and businesses. Once launched, the initial transaction limit will be $25,000. This means that FedNow be more useful for small businesses and retail payment needs until it is widely adopted and the transaction limit grows. > In early 2022, the Federal Reserve released pricing and fee details for their real-t…

>Merchants can pass the CC surcharge through

Unless things have changed in the last 20ish years, if you accept credit cards you’re not allowed to charge different prices for CC vs non-CC payments (although there are apparently some carve-outs for gas stations).

Re: Can the Visa-Mastercard duopoly be broken?

#29

Post by toss1 »

withinboredom wrote: post #5

Haha. Ask American Express. They’d love to help.

HaHa, yup, but it seems they're fat & happy where they are, with high fees on both sides. Their services are so much better than V/Mc that they could rapidly swamp V/Mc, IFF they'd reduce their fees. But they are obviously not interested in any other than the market segments they've got.
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