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Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

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Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#211

Post by rhaway84773 »

Symbiote wrote: post #198
netheril96 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In China most payments cannot be reversed. By contrast, the security of payment methods are much more stringent in China. I was surprised when I first learnt that you could spend money online with a VISA card by only card number, expiration date and a 3(!) digit CVV. Those are hardly secure and printed out on the card that anyone can see. Then the US merchants have so many rules about fraud detection but all of them…

Many of the large American companies involved in payments (Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, Square, PayPal) also operate in Europe, and implement the modern security practices required here. 2FA for credit/debit payments made online, for example, and chip payments since... 2004 or something.

American payment systems are shockingly outdated and have been so for decades.

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#212

Post by rhaway84773 »

ramraj07 wrote: post #54
godelski wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nationalize a universal payment interface like india did > a very corrupt, bureaucratic place with billions of people did it. You're not making a great sell here... you're just saying that this is a thing that a corrupt country does and therefor others should.

I said it’s something even a corrupt country was able to do that is universally loved and accepted. The fact that the US isn’t able to do it suggests it’s in someways far more corrupt than even India.

The U.S. has legalized corruption in the form of lobbying. This wasn’t so bad as long as donations to politicians were capped, but since Cotizens United there is no limit, so the corruption has gone through the roof as well.

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#213

Post by wanttocomment »

danpalmer wrote: post #78
wanttocomment wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Studies show you buy more with a credit card than cash. You think you're saving 1-3% but you would easily save that with slightly more conservative spending. It's also worth mentioning the real business is analyzing the consumer data you give them for pennies.

I'd love to see the distribution on this. My bet is that most people don't spend more and a minority spend a lot more.

It's something as small as throwing in a milk shake with lunch. you don't experience the money leaving.

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#214

Post by nulbyte »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #195
lvl102 wrote: post #176

It’s 2023 and we are still letting these companies take money from EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION. This is the single greatest open scam in the world.

I get what you're saying, but those systems don't pay for themselves. How should payment processing be funded if not per transaction?

Even a flat fee would be better. Cost doesn't really increase with higher dollar transactions; cash doesn't physically move just because a card was used.

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#215

Post by hiatus »

arcticbull wrote: post #98
Scoundreller wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there some abusers of the exemption out there? I kinda like smaller orgs getting a small leg up against bigger ones. Discourages excessive consolidation. It’s like an anti-oligopoly provision.

Before Durbin there used to be a lot of banks that offered points-earning debit cards. After Durbin, for many years SunTrust had a debit card that earned Delta miles. I think that's since moved to Truist. [1] I guess it depends on what you mean by 'abuse.' Is Truist abusing non-Durbin status by giving out points for PIN debit transactions? Or are all the other non-Durbin banks who give back nothing abusing the exempt…

Being non-Durbin enables Truist to compete with bigger banks by being able to offer things like cash back on debit. That seems less like abuse and more things working as intended.

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#216

Post by dingledork69 »

lyrrad wrote: post #14

Looks like this is an agreement between Visa/Mastercard and banks with the Canadian Federal government to lower credit card transaction fees for small businesses. The government's press release is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2023/05/gov... Applies to annual charges below $300K/$175K CAD for Visa/Mastercard. They still will charge higher fees to large businesses. "As part of these new agreem…

How isn't this price fixing?

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#217

Post by nulbyte »

missingcolours wrote: post #81
snovv_crash wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pricing transparency is a good thing. It makes sure incentives for everyone are correctly aligned.

Even as a fan of the rewards points system I'm fine with this. My only beef is that I wish the credit card price was the list price and cash had a 2% discount. A fee that affects nearly everyone isn't a fee (see resort fees), a cash discount reduces surprise and cognitive load.

I agree. I wish the credit card networks didn't give into this, even if I might agree with other parts of the recent reforms. Cash discounts were always allowed.

I think the real problem is that merchants don't want to discount cash, because it still costs money. So now they can have their cake and eat (some of) it, too.

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#219

Post by no1lives4ever »

withinboredom wrote: post #71
bombcar wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of capping prices, you could simply require any fees to be paid by the cardholder. This has begun. Many restaurants near me have a credit card fee, as does at least one car repair place. No fee of paying with cash/debit.

That is usually against the card-processing agreement. If you want to have fun, you can report them to Visa/MC and watch that go away within a few days.

Back in 2005, I bought a car in India. I was trying to pay a part of the purchase price using my credit card. My auto dealer wanted me to add a surcharge. When I called up my card company and complained about this, i was asked to pay the surcharge by my card issuer's call center employee :-(

Re: Visa and Mastercard agree to lower average credit card interchange fee below 1%

#220

Post by jpambrun »

mdasen wrote: post #31
e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These numbers are not public, but the grapevine is that visa/mastercard keeps about a third of all interchange. Credit card rewards are a regressive tax on the poor -- literally, only those like us here on HN with good credit can get 2% cashback on everything, the rest who pay with debit/cash effectively subsidise our 2% discount. I enjoy my 2% cashback, but really would rather see a world where, like the EU, interch…

> I'm weary of government intervention in capping prices, but I'm not sure what's the alternative here Instead of capping prices, you could simply require any fees to be paid by the cardholder. Combine that with a standard for payment processing so that lots of companies could compete for payment processing and fees would drop really fast. If someone is using a POS terminal like Toast or Square, it should be trivial…

I much more value the consumer protection laws that prevents surcharges to be added to the advertised price. If we open that door we will end up with tons of junk fees.
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