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Great work Visa, now I hate you

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Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#151

Post by bennysaurus »

X-Istence wrote: post #139
bennysaurus wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to understand what Visa is competing against; it's not against the other card providers, it's against cash. Considering how much money they have spent to be a sponsor I don't think they count their return to happen during the Olympic period, this looks more to be a habit forming thing (when you go out their aim is you'll go for your Visa by default).

I go for the card with the highest amount of cashback for me...

Yep but that's up to the banks and their bundles more than Visa/MC; the cards company's mission is more one of convenience.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#153

Post by uptown »

icefox wrote: post #45
mthoms wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. What you're implying is that the marketing benefits of Visa become a sponsor are secondary to the direct revenue it generates at the event. This could be the most profitable marketing spend with the quickest ROI ever.

"$700 million worth of charges" Visa only gets 2-5% of the charge. Lets assume on the high end at 5% we are talking about only 35 million in income. Even doubling that for the second week we get 70 million (before costs). How is that the quickest ROI ever? Sounds like a bad marketing move backed up by a loss of profits. Maybe the real winners were the olympic committee or the other credit card companies that bid up t…

Visa's in it for the interest payments. For every consumer that doesn't pay their bill in full each month ... they've got months and/or years of interest piled on top of paying back whatever they spent.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#154

Post by bdunbar »

andrewfelix wrote: post #88
jakeonthemove wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In socialist Europe, banks own YOU! :-). But seriously, the banks screw with their customers so much over here that this is just another bump on the road. To me, "proud to only accept Visa" sounds like "F@#k you MasterCard and your users, too"...

>In socialist Europe, banks own YOU! Americans have a lot more personal debt than Europeans. 'In Free Market America, banks own YOU!' would be more appropriate.

'In Free Market America, banks own YOU!' would be more appropriate.

But wrong. Or at least 'they own the unwary and dumb'.

I bank with a credit union, got rid of my credit cards in favor of debit, and working real hard to pay down my debt. Already I've bought two vehicles for cash.

Now, granted, they were not _great_ vehicles, but they run and they're paid for. Looking forward to paying _cash_ for a really _nice_ (but used) car in a decade.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#155

Post by lutorm »

Can anyone explain to me why the government issues currency for free, but doesn't provide for an electronic equivalent? Instead of having economic transactions being controlled by a giant corporation, shouldn't this be considered an essential function that should be handled by the state?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#156

Post by mvc »

dangrossman wrote: post #115
corin_ wrote: post #2

This reads like the sort of post that so often goes on bad logic riding on emotion, but it's a completely valid point. I'm a Visa user, plus I don't plan on going anywhere near the Olympics despite living fairly close to London, but when I heard about this marketing plan I literally thought it had to be one of those hilarious fake news stories. But it wasn't. Stuff like the McDonalds sponsorship he mentioned (banning…

> But this Visa deal, what on earth are people without Visa supposed to do? I just don't see how anyone sane could think this was a good plan, either from an Olympic organiser's point of view, or Visa's. It's been working for the past 26 years that Visa has sponsored every Olympics game. This isn't a new thing. This is what pays for the Olympics even occurring. Their sponsors are exclusive sponsors. Visa's already co…

> This is what pays for the Olympics even occurring

Even conservative estimates of the final cost of the Olympics are around 10bn. Visa paid only 100m so I think the games would have been fine without them.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#157

Post by kmm »

zzygan wrote: post #68
dredmorbius wrote: post #41

It's more than just Visa -- this is the marketing arrangement for (AFAIK) ALL Olympic sponsors. The marketing agreement with the IOS is: - You get your brand prominently featured across venues, media feeds, and collateral. - All competitors are iced out. I'm OK with the first. I'm not OK with the latter. Particularly in light of the Orwellian trademark and copyright enforcement (including significant changes to corre…

Yep, there is also the stipulation that no Shops in London are allowed to sell hot Chips unless sold with Fish aka Fish and Chips, because McDonalds has exclusive sponsor rights on Chips. I should say that English Chips really are nothing like McDonalds french fries. Same thing, different brand

How are they enforcing that? Please don't tell me it's actually illegal to sell french fries in London right now.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#158

Post by kmm »

revelation wrote: post #107
dredmorbius wrote: post #41

It's more than just Visa -- this is the marketing arrangement for (AFAIK) ALL Olympic sponsors. The marketing agreement with the IOS is: - You get your brand prominently featured across venues, media feeds, and collateral. - All competitors are iced out. I'm OK with the first. I'm not OK with the latter. Particularly in light of the Orwellian trademark and copyright enforcement (including significant changes to corre…

This fits in nicely with the IOC WLAN police: https://twitter.com/SadaoTurner/status/230737352958566401/ph...

How do they enforce that? It's not illegal (yet) to emit WiFi signals, or is it?

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#159

Post by dangrossman »

mvc wrote: post #156
dangrossman wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But this Visa deal, what on earth are people without Visa supposed to do? I just don't see how anyone sane could think this was a good plan, either from an Olympic organiser's point of view, or Visa's. It's been working for the past 26 years that Visa has sponsored every Olympics game. This isn't a new thing. This is what pays for the Olympics even occurring. Their sponsors are exclusive sponsors. Visa's already co…

> This is what pays for the Olympics even occurring Even conservative estimates of the final cost of the Olympics are around 10bn. Visa paid only 100m so I think the games would have been fine without them.

40% of the Olympic costs are funded by The Olympic Partner (TOP) program, of which Visa is a charter member. I was making a general statement about exclusive sponsorships making the Olympics possible, not Visa alone.

Re: Great work Visa, now I hate you

#160

Post by harshreality »

ars wrote: post #67
sliverstorm wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good to have one of both, I've decided, unless you are big on cash.

Yes! Especially traveling outside the US. In the US it's common for merchants to always take both, it's not so elsewhere. I did take a taxi once in the US that only took one and not the other - and not the one I had. That ended up as a half hour drive around town looking for an outdoor ATM.

Another interesting "feature" of credit cards is that they tend to charge a percentage for foreign transactions, and so do the banks that back the cards.

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/foreign-transact...

The only major one that doesn't is Capital One... and they mostly issue mastercards.

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