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What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

tautology.town

41–50 of 338 posts

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#41
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love if it was transmitted to the bank for my own use so I can easily remember what I purchased or run budgeting software against it! Obviously wouldn't be excited about it being resold tho.

It's crazy it is resold but we don't even get it for our own use. Budgeting with credit card statements would instantly become so much more useful with less effort.

Just provide Plaid your login credentials to your card account /s

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#42
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's crazy it is resold but we don't even get it for our own use. Budgeting with credit card statements would instantly become so much more useful with less effort.

Just provide Plaid your login credentials to your card account /s

How does that help if the bank doesn't have the data?

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#43
post #40
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes on you. Merchants prefer credit cards because there is less loss than cash. 2.5% is nothing compared to 5-10% loss at the register. Plus easier and more accurate accounting.

ACH is still the best https://gocardless.com/

Great, so it is immediately deducted from my account and swiftly deposited into the recipient's account in 3-5 business days.

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#44
I play the credit card "game" because I hate feeling like I'm leaving money on the table, but I really wish I didn't have to. Some degrees of fees make sense, to run the network, and handle fraud, but it's ridiculous that people have this sense that shopping should somehow fund your vacation.

Where I am it's increasingly common to see credit card fees when checking out. I get it, because merchants are being charged 3-5% of their total revenue. I wish there was a low fee credit card network that merchants didn't charge a fee for, so I could continue the simplicity of digital payments but opt out of this crazy Visa Infinite rewards accounting boondoggle.

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#45
post #36
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes on you. Merchants prefer credit cards because there is less loss than cash. 2.5% is nothing compared to 5-10% loss at the register. Plus easier and more accurate accounting.

90% of cash I give to restaurants goes in the pocket, not the register. Bad service = card always.

Are you saying servers keep 90% of what you pay? Tip and otherwise? What country? How do you know? How could a business possibly operate in this reality?

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#46
post #7

I remember reading a comment here a while back about merchants being offered a discount on the processing fee if they also transmitted detailed data about the purchase (essentially the data that would be on the receipt). That data could then be resold on to advertisers. Does anyone remember this or have links to more data? (Not having much luck with search, maybe I'm hallucinating the whole thing.)

This would explain why so many damn coffee shops dont deal with cash now - the double as a coffee shop and data reseller

Well, they still pay a fee, it’s just reduced.

They primarily don’t deal with cash because cash is a pain. It needs to be physically taken to a bank and protected from theft by both staff and random robbers with guns, it needs to be counted all the time, and you need to maintain the right denominations to make change.

I have reservations about businesses getting rid of cash, especially if they’re turning away people who don’t have alternative ways to pay, but I certainly understand why they do it.

It’s also always awkward when a coffee shop is like 95% credit, and you try to hand them cash and they look at you like you’re Rip Van Winkle.

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#47
post #16

[deleted]

The answer to that is to "donate" to about 270 congress critters. Buying 5 motorhomes for supreme court members could work too.

> The answer to that is to "donate" to about 270 congress critters.

Not too far off. You gotta ask why such a lucrative business has a near monopoly, and the answer is not that potential competitors don't notice their profit margin.

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#48
post #21

>The merchant pays 2.5% The best way to pay for poor services already rendered and move on with life is to simply pay via card. Didn't like that haircut? Terrible food at the restaurant? Hold onto your cash and slip them the card.

Jokes on you. Merchants prefer credit cards because there is less loss than cash. 2.5% is nothing compared to 5-10% loss at the register. Plus easier and more accurate accounting.

>5-10% loss at the register

Where did you get this number from?

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#49
post #17
post #15

In my opinion, the only solution is everyone (individuals as well as corporations) gets a direct account with the federal reserve as long as you can associate a taxpayer identification with the account. Using it is voluntary but it is free of cost, paid for by taxes, and moving money to and from accounts is free of cost. Depositors would get the same overnight interest rate that banks do, and this interest is added e…

How are chargebacks resolved in this situation? This is an important question- most of the costs of a credit card providers come from dealing with fraud and chargebacks. That's partially because, under US law, credit card companies have to eat fraudulent charges if they can't get the person or company that did the fraud to do so. (Funnily enough, this is one of two places where protections for average people in the U…

Customers can pay the credit card fee to get their chargeback insurance, if they choose, while others who can pay with cheaper instant payment rails can opt out. This is trivial with merchants able to surcharge credit card payments, as many merchants are starting to do (US mobile phone companies, US internet providers, Meta ad purchases, restaurants, etc).

Re: What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks

#50
post #7

I remember reading a comment here a while back about merchants being offered a discount on the processing fee if they also transmitted detailed data about the purchase (essentially the data that would be on the receipt). That data could then be resold on to advertisers. Does anyone remember this or have links to more data? (Not having much luck with search, maybe I'm hallucinating the whole thing.)

This would explain why so many damn coffee shops dont deal with cash now - the double as a coffee shop and data reseller

Merchants aren't going cash only to sell your data, they're doing it because it's expensive to handle cash and makes their taxes a whole lot more troublesome too.
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