Visa and Mastercard: The global payment duopoly (2024)

Post by tracker1 » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

h4kunamata wrote: post #150

I have gone full on cash-only mode, people would freak out with the amount of fees they pay without knowing it. I only have debit card, no credit card at all, in many places AUD$0.30-$0.50c is added to the goods price on debit cards. With cash, many places are offering 5-15% off when buying with cash only which is awesome. If you are a gamer, you most have heard within the last 3-4 days now that Steam, Itch.io and ot…

Post by habinero » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 5:51 PM UTC

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #176

habinero wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's almost like porn isn't the problem, it's crime and chargebacks. All of those sites use high risk payment processors if they go through the major card networks.

I sincerely doubt that people are issuing chargebacks for Steam store purchases.

Post by zamadatix » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC

rprend wrote: post #271

zamadatix wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being the #1 priority is very different than not caring at all. It may feel that way when trying to sell the alternative, but the merchant would still disagree at the end of the day. The alternative to new competition (which would probably also raise its rates as soon as it became popular enough) is regulation on the fees, as seen in Europe. This makes some sense as the problem is less with the capabilities of th…

The merchant would disagree, but the merchant is lying to themselves, haha. The tough lesson i had to learn was people’s stated preferences often don’t match their revealed preferences. I really wanted it to be true so i gave them a ton of benefit of the doubt, but still lukewarm response. Regulation on interchange worked in Europe. The other option is government mandated support for bank transfer rails. That’s how U…

Post by one-note » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 8:13 PM UTC

BobaFloutist wrote: post #288

one-note wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t want to spend money you don’t have? Congrats, your credit score is trash and now you can’t rent a house (let alone buy).

You can pretty trivially set credit cards to auto-pay and use them as debit cards, with the only difference being a delay in any overdraft penalty. Sure, if you overspend you get heavily penalized, and that's not great, but you don't have to spend a dime of interest to build a respectable credit score.

Post by PokestarFan » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 8:37 PM UTC

michaelmior wrote: post #221

whatevaa wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rewards exist because credit card transaction fees to merchants are very high, though. Europe put a limit on those fees and no credit card rewards exist here.

Sure, but for those of us in North America, it's still a draw. That said, I can see that the consumer would potentially be better off if fees went down, prices dropped, and rewards went away. But that's probably not a realistic future.