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Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

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Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#41

Post by sph »

sschueller wrote: post #38

Visa has managed to get banks in Switzerland to give up direct debit cards in favor of visa debit cards. The cards have very high fees for vendors vs the almost non existing fees previously. Worst part is that if a business wants to accept regular visa credit cards that have "normal" fees they have to accept these new debit cards. The consumer has no clue and just pays with what is easiest which ends up being the vis…

I don’t get it. I have a UK bank and my debit card has the Visa brand. When I buy something for £50, I get billed £50. Same with my Visa _credit_ card, though to be fair I never signed up to any cashback service. Am I missing something?

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#42

Post by toast0 »

disadvantage wrote: post #9
humanistbot wrote: post #6

Where do you think that 1-1.5% cashback rewards on your credit card come from? It's your cut of their cut.

Cashback rewards are largely worthless and so small as to be negligible IMHO. I can understand the extreme-couponing aspect for people who budget down to the penny, but for me it's basically useless.

I get 2% off of everything that goes through my credit card and it takes me very little effort, I just have to push the deposits to my main account from time to time. 2% of my spend isn't very significant, but I wouldn't say it's negligible. Less work than haggling for a cash discount and carrying cash.

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#43

Post by DenseComet »

sph wrote: post #41
sschueller wrote: post #38

Visa has managed to get banks in Switzerland to give up direct debit cards in favor of visa debit cards. The cards have very high fees for vendors vs the almost non existing fees previously. Worst part is that if a business wants to accept regular visa credit cards that have "normal" fees they have to accept these new debit cards. The consumer has no clue and just pays with what is easiest which ends up being the vis…

I don’t get it. I have a UK bank and my debit card has the Visa brand. When I buy something for £50, I get billed £50. Same with my Visa _credit_ card, though to be fair I never signed up to any cashback service. Am I missing something?

You get billed the same amount, but the transaction fees that a merchant pays on a transaction varies with the card type, brand, tier, and various other factors.

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#45

Post by ransom1538 »

sph wrote: post #41
sschueller wrote: post #38

Visa has managed to get banks in Switzerland to give up direct debit cards in favor of visa debit cards. The cards have very high fees for vendors vs the almost non existing fees previously. Worst part is that if a business wants to accept regular visa credit cards that have "normal" fees they have to accept these new debit cards. The consumer has no clue and just pays with what is easiest which ends up being the vis…

I don’t get it. I have a UK bank and my debit card has the Visa brand. When I buy something for £50, I get billed £50. Same with my Visa _credit_ card, though to be fair I never signed up to any cashback service. Am I missing something?

Yes. The consumer just tries to max the cashback rewards (some cards are 2% on all transactions). Visa tries to max merchant coverage - so all the merchant customers are using visa. The merchant (should) try to minimize card usage for tax purposes.

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#46

Post by RicCo386 »

sph wrote: post #41
sschueller wrote: post #38

Visa has managed to get banks in Switzerland to give up direct debit cards in favor of visa debit cards. The cards have very high fees for vendors vs the almost non existing fees previously. Worst part is that if a business wants to accept regular visa credit cards that have "normal" fees they have to accept these new debit cards. The consumer has no clue and just pays with what is easiest which ends up being the vis…

I don’t get it. I have a UK bank and my debit card has the Visa brand. When I buy something for £50, I get billed £50. Same with my Visa _credit_ card, though to be fair I never signed up to any cashback service. Am I missing something?

Fee is usually paid by business, so you pay £50, but the business got just £49. Most business calculate this fee to the price of the product/service, like they do with rent, electricity, gas, employee wages etc...

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#47

Post by BenjiWiebe »

f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #17
sansa wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a matter of fact, Visa and Master card are nominally not a duopoly. Atleast in India, we have a practically state sponsored card issuer, RuPay[1] [1] https://www.rupay.co.in/

Ah pardon me you are exactly correct. I meant in the United States. I don't know much about payments outside the US other than the very broad strokes.

In the US, Discover is fairly common as well, and American Express is widely available now too.

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#48

Post by wmf »

dehrmann wrote: post #37
wmf wrote: post #4

Multiple companies take a cut of each credit card transaction: the acquiring bank, the payment processor (e.g. Stripe), the network (Visa/MC/Amex), maybe the issuing bank. The fees add up to 2-3%.

It's worth mentioning cash transactions aren't free, either. There's a higher likelihood of employee theft, giving the wrong change, accepting counterfeit bills, and cost of transporting cash to and from the bank.

Yes, although credit card vs. ACH is what the OP was asking about.

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#49

Post by sph »

RicCo386 wrote: post #46
sph wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t get it. I have a UK bank and my debit card has the Visa brand. When I buy something for £50, I get billed £50. Same with my Visa _credit_ card, though to be fair I never signed up to any cashback service. Am I missing something?

Fee is usually paid by business, so you pay £50, but the business got just £49. Most business calculate this fee to the price of the product/service, like they do with rent, electricity, gas, employee wages etc...

Gotcha, but it sounds like it’s more of a tax on businesses than customers, though to be fair it’s the same thing depending on how you look at it.

It would still cost me £50 if I had paid in cash.

Re: Is Visa taking 2% out of all my transactions?

#50

Post by guiambros »

gruez wrote: post #28
guiambros wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...extreme-couponing aspect for people who budget down to the penny... It's the opposite. 1.5% of zero is zero, but 1.5% of a large sum is something material. The cashback credit cards are worth for those who spend a lot of money for it to be worthwhile. Back of the envelope: $6K per month is $1,000 per month of cashback (or airline miles, points, etc).

>Back of the envelope: $6K per month is $1,000 per month of cashback Do you have a typo somewhere? $1k of cashback for $6k spend works out to 16.6%, which is very high. $1000 per year is far more reasonable.

Sorry, I meant "... $1,000 per year". $6K × 12 months × (1.5÷100) = $1,080
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