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Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

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Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#261

Post by juae »

pmontra wrote: post #245
goc_ wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a question of liking moats or not. Nobody has found any other routes to scale quickly. The moat is fundamental to producing the kind of scaling we see today.

But how many moats there could be in world (or in any given market) ? Furthermore which should ask on which side of the moat are we and if it's good for us to be there. There was a post yesterday which fundamentally is about this issue https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17642551

It's a competitive world full of highly ambitious people. As long as the only tool they have to create/expand/defend their empires is moat building that is all they will robotically do irrespective of the cost.

The pressure on them to do so is massive. And it's the easiest thing for them to do. So they do it.

Ofcourse things constantly collapse. Ask Genghis Khan, the East India Company etc etc And after collapse everyone stands around like Alan Greenspan saying wtf happened?

Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#262

Post by jackweirdy »

so33 wrote: post #164
stickfigure wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been asserted elsewhere in this HN discussion that Visa charges merchants higher amounts for transactions with higher-end rewards cards. Assuming this is true, and these anti-steering provisions prevent merchants from discriminating, what prevents Visa from issuing cards with 200% fees? What's holding the cash back level at a mere 1-2%?

Competition with MasterCard, Discover, and Amex should hold them back from doing this, because at such punitive rates merchants would definitely stop accepting them. I believe Amex is only able to get away with its highest-in-the-industry rates because of the association of Amex cards with business expense accounts and high income earners. This is changing now ( https://www.ft.com/content/715d785e-23fc-11e8-ae48-60d3…

Some of the Amex fee changes will likely have been as a result of a nudge from the EU ruling that includes their double-branded cards (e.g. British Airways AmEx) in the 0.3% fee cap in Europe which previously only affected visa and MasterCard.

Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#263

Post by Jommi »

raverbashing wrote: post #234
alkonaut wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know - I went to Berlin and noticed Taxis wanted cash and would not accept cards. Was like traveling 20 years back in time. I did not mean to say all places outside the US

To be fair the only place where I saw taxis accepting cards as a rule was NYC Practical, still a bit weary though especially without EMV readers

Go to any place in northern Europe and it's basically only card.

Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#265

Post by Jommi »

radicalbyte wrote: post #200
Nursie wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds very weird to this european.... but that's probably because fees here are capped at 0.3% and AFAICT there's not really such thing as a cashback card. (I think they used to exist, just not any more)

Here in The Netherlands you basically can't use credit cards for offline purchases. Everyone uses the European debit cards with chip/pin. The fees are very low too, it's cheaper to process than cash is.

In Finland there is no real differences between credit or debit

Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#268

Post by raverbashing »

Jommi wrote: post #263
raverbashing wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair the only place where I saw taxis accepting cards as a rule was NYC Practical, still a bit weary though especially without EMV readers

Go to any place in northern Europe and it's basically only card.

Where exactly, because I've been to ask the Scandinavian countries in the past couple of years and I paid taxis with cash in all occasions

For everything else, yes, mostly cards

Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#269

Post by mannykannot »

goc_ wrote: post #220
randomsearch wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting quote from Musk: “saying you like moats is another way of saying you like oligopolies”. I like Musk’s focus on innovation, and I also thought this was interesting because it came from one of the PayPal+ group.

It's not a question of liking moats or not. Nobody has found any other routes to scale quickly. The moat is fundamental to producing the kind of scaling we see today.

Scaling quickly is not the greater good.

Re: Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban

#270

Post by PeterisP »

michaelt wrote: post #221
fipple wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you typically transfer cash from a store once a day, and if 95% of your transactions are card, then you now have only 5% of your takings in your till at the end of the day.

The costs of counting and banking cash are proportional to the amount of cash you take - but the costs of CCTV cameras to point at cash drawers and the driver hours for a single daily armoured car collection are the same regardless of how much money is involved.

If the amount of cash becomes relatively small, then you stop doing collection every day, and also don't bother with an armored car.
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