81–90 of 253 posts
There's an opt-out here: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/vision/corp-responsibility/c...
> To opt-out from our anonymization of your personal information to perform data analyses, please provide your Mastercard or Maestro payment card number Does this mean you're opting out of the anonymization, but not the collection of personal information? The wording here could definitely be improved.
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AMEX unusable in Europe? Hardly. I payed for my dentist Friday with it, both supermarket and lunch today, and all Amazon, etc. Some vendors dont take it, but in my European country most places
From the other side of the table, I've worked in companies avoiding Amex support as long as they could, and even after actively obfuscating the support to push the user to use another card. For smaller entities it's a PITA to have to manage a separate additinal contract, and it costs a lot more for the merchant, when virtually nobody only owns an Amex. If you're in europe there are probably other payment means that d…
I completely agree on the cost part for AMEX, but how do you mean it's a PITA to accept those cards? It's usually as simple as enabling an option with your card payment service, not very complicated at all.
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There are advantages to credit. For example, the money remains in your hands until you pay your credit card bill, so if there is a dispute, fraud, or overcharge, you don't have to fight and wait to get your money back. Also, some businesses, such as car rental companies, won't provide services to debit card holders. Also, it's a free [edit: zero-interest, not free] loan (if you pay credit card bills in full); you get…
There are some benefits, but it does complicate the transaction significantly. It's no longer between two parties (a consumer and a merchant), there are now at least two more: a lender and a credit bureau. And that's why we're in this mess to begin with. Credit card transactions are reported to credit bureaus (from a quick web search, it looks like debit card transactions aren't) and this normalizes the idea that you…
We should have a payment system that isn't held hostage by two providers anyway. At least here in Europe MasterCard and visa are the only options. Amex and Discovery are really unusable here. Besides selling our data this also means we get American morals pushed on us, eg they won't provide payments for some websites they don't like. But how do you break up such a duopoly?
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Don't FedNow payments come directly from your bank account, like a debit card? Credit charges have the advantage of protecting you from fraud - the money is still in your hands; you don't have to fight to get it back.
If you want to pay the 3% credit card surcharge for that benefit, you still can (as merchants can both continue to offer credit card rails and surcharge those transactions). If you as a consumer want to avoid that extra cost, instant payments are available. Disputes is not a valid argument for an entire economy to pay a 3% tax to the credit card rails ecosystem imho.
For your local purchases with trusted entities, you can still use cash.
It also goes the other way. Go and try to purchase something from any business on credit when you don't have the money right now. They will always say no, even if you've been shopping there for decades. Visa and MasterCard always say yes.
People love to rail against the CC companies, but if you actually clear your mind and think about it, their payment systems are incredible.
cardholders Mastercard thinks will be “high-value”—predictions used to target certain people and encourage them to spend more money. Sorry, I don't understand, perhaps because I am in the UK not US. My bank issues my Mastercard, so I don't have a direct relationship with them. How would they target me?
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There are advantages to credit. For example, the money remains in your hands until you pay your credit card bill, so if there is a dispute, fraud, or overcharge, you don't have to fight and wait to get your money back. Also, some businesses, such as car rental companies, won't provide services to debit card holders. Also, it's a free [edit: zero-interest, not free] loan (if you pay credit card bills in full); you get…
There are some benefits, but it does complicate the transaction significantly. It's no longer between two parties (a consumer and a merchant), there are now at least two more: a lender and a credit bureau. And that's why we're in this mess to begin with. Credit card transactions are reported to credit bureaus (from a quick web search, it looks like debit card transactions aren't) and this normalizes the idea that you…
A cash transaction is between 2 parties. A debit card transaction is between 5: consumer, consumer's bank, merchant, merchant's bank, payment network/card provider.
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FedNow instant payments in the US. Already live, just taking time to ramp (already plugged into 108 banks and financial services providers, including JPMC and the US Treasury). What it could look like is India’s UPI. UPI is so detrimental to Mastercard’s India business it complains about it publicly. In Europe, more aggressive adoption of SEPA instant payments. TLDR utility priced payment rails provided by a central…
Don't FedNow payments come directly from your bank account, like a debit card? Credit charges have the advantage of protecting you from fraud - the money is still in your hands; you don't have to fight to get it back.
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You forgot the Access Credit card: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_(credit_card) They spent all that money on advertising, I still remember it, but for what? This and Harding and Hobbs
Eurocard and Access got merged into MasterCard So European cards worked but the owners ie banks wanted global ones.
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If you want to pay the 3% credit card surcharge for that benefit, you still can (as merchants can both continue to offer credit card rails and surcharge those transactions). If you as a consumer want to avoid that extra cost, instant payments are available. Disputes is not a valid argument for an entire economy to pay a 3% tax to the credit card rails ecosystem imho.
But it is a valid argument for encouraging distance sales, including most online sales. When customers know they have fraud protection, that helps bring down the anxiety of a purchase a whole lot. For your local purchases with trusted entities, you can still use cash. It also goes the other way. Go and try to purchase something from any business on credit when you don't have the money right now. They will always say…
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/22/fednow-instant-payments-cre...
> Interchange fees — the swipe fees paid by merchants when customers pay by credit card — reached $100 billion in 2022, per Matt Schulz of Lending Tree. That's more than $800 per household.
> In a world where goods cost the same regardless of how they're paid for, it's entirely rational for consumers to pay with credit cards and then collect their kickbacks.
> There's no particular reason why this kind of financial intermediation should be a $100 billion industry, rife with inefficiencies.
> "The shift to instant payments is inevitable," writes TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg in a research note, "though it will take time."
(work at a fintech payments-adjacent, thoughts and opinions are my own)