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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

#341

Post by ghaff »

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.

Really? I spent a week there recently and used my US Visa card widely.

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

#342

Post by 013a »

bit_logic wrote: post #169

This seems like a missed opportunity for Google Pay and Apple Pay. Before smartphones and NFC, it would've been too much for every merchant to make their own card, nobody is going to carry that many cards. But imagine if Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. made store cards and they all integrated with Google/Apple Pay. When a customer enters the store, the app could automatically pick the right card. Google and Apple jus…

Starbucks is absolutely ahead of the curve on this one, and its a system that every major retailer should probably investigate.

What I don't want to do is have an app installed for every retailer. But if they integrate with Apple/Google Pay then I'm all for it.

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

#343

Post by frockington »

_archon_ wrote: post #285
pwg wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of problems would go away if all merchants (voluntarily or by law) explicitly charged their payment costs to the customer. At least in the US, the contract the retailer signs with the CC processor to be able to accept CC's explicitly bans passing the card fees on to the customer as a specific line item in the receipt. Which really translates to the merchant increaseing their prices by 1.02x to compensate for…

What prevents a seller from giving a cash discount line item for cash transactions?

Probably wouldn't be the best idea from a business perspective to make it more inconvenient for people with high rewards cards (rich people)

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

#344

Post by frockington »

mrweasel wrote: post #275
kitsunesoba wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. The US is reasonably safe in this regard, but I’ve had credit cards skimmed a handful of times. These cases were dealt with with little more than a quick call to custom service, but had it been my debit card that was skimmed, it would’ve been bad news. For this reason I carry only a small amount of cash (just enough for cash only bars/restaurants) and never carry my debit card. My primary payment method is credi…

Reasonably safe is relative. My bank here in Denmark recommends blocking your VISA or MasterCard upon return from the US, or simply have them issue you a new card for use on your trip.

Same advice in America when I was visiting Denmark. It's probably good travel advice in general as thieves will target tourist destinations

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

#346

Post by pwg »

_archon_ wrote: post #285
pwg wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of problems would go away if all merchants (voluntarily or by law) explicitly charged their payment costs to the customer. At least in the US, the contract the retailer signs with the CC processor to be able to accept CC's explicitly bans passing the card fees on to the customer as a specific line item in the receipt. Which really translates to the merchant increaseing their prices by 1.02x to compensate for…

What prevents a seller from giving a cash discount line item for cash transactions?

Nothing, anymore, in the US at least. A court case a few years back resulted in retailers having the right to offer an "X% off if paying with cash" discount to customers.

But they are still barred from doing the reverse (line item for X% more for CC transaction on the receipt).

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

#347

Post by mehrdadn »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #286
mehrdadn wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The “real” thing to the merchant is the mapping from card to type. This is exactly what I'm trying to understand: how specific/granular the "card types" can be. Maybe another way to ask it is the following: is there a pre-set list of "card types" with pre-set merchant fees provided by Visa/MC/etc. that issuers must choose from (whether Rewards Traditional vs. Signature, or something else) and that merchants can exp…

> is there a pre-set list of "card types" with pre-set merchant fees provided by Visa/MC/etc. that issuers must choose from (whether Rewards Traditional vs. Signature, or something else) and that merchants can expect, or do issuers get to come up with their own distinct "card types" that result in different fees for the merchant? The latter. There are presets for smaller institutions. But these fees and labels are ne…

I see, interesting. Thank you!

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

#348

Post by sls »

frockington wrote: post #335
pixl97 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Some 50.8 million households or 43% of households can’t afford a basic monthly budget for housing, food, transportation, child care, health care and a monthly smartphone bill, according to an analysis of U.S. government data released this month by the United Way Alice Project, a nonprofit based in Cedar Knolls, N.J. that aims to highlight the number of people who live in poverty.

I'm going to assume they grossly overestimated when creating that number. Their aim is "to highlight the number of people who live in poverty". I think I am technically "poor" by a number of standards because I don't have any money in a savings account because I prefer higher yield investments.

Methodology described here [1] if you want to go beyond assuming their result is essentially a lie. In the per-state data [2] you see results like 31-32% below ALICE in the Dakotas, but 47-49% in NY and California. If one wanted to present a partisan hit piece to encourage establishment liberal/"Great Society" safety net policies, this would appear to be the opposite of what you would want to produce.

[1] https://www.unitedwayalice.org/methodology [2] https://www.unitedwayalice.org/in-the-us

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

#349

Post by burkemw3 »

justinph wrote: post #316
bit_logic wrote: post #169

This seems like a missed opportunity for Google Pay and Apple Pay. Before smartphones and NFC, it would've been too much for every merchant to make their own card, nobody is going to carry that many cards. But imagine if Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. made store cards and they all integrated with Google/Apple Pay. When a customer enters the store, the app could automatically pick the right card. Google and Apple jus…

Target's RedCard is a significant advantage they've built over all their competitors. They don't have to pay the fees, customers get a discount, and they get easy access to the data on your purchases. I'm surprised more retailers don't do it.

Many retailers have their own cards: https://wallethub.com/credit-cards/store/

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

#350

Post by wcoenen »

bena wrote: post #306
wcoenen wrote: post #242

A lot of problems would go away if all merchants (voluntarily or by law) explicitly charged their payment costs to the customer. Both for card and cash transactions, because cash handling isn't free either. The customers using high reward cards would then soon discover that they are just paying for those rewards themselves, and the free market would quickly push everyone to the most efficient payment systems.

Why not extend that out further. Explicitly charge their delivery costs, their production costs, their management costs, their payroll costs, etc, etc? Eventually we'll just clamor for merchants to just put a single price tag on everything and not worry us about how much of each item is going to all of their various costs.

Because those other costs aren't avoidable by customer choices, and they don't go towards "reward" programs that distort the payment market and push everyone to high cost systems.
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