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>Users pay the fees both directly (annual costs, interest) Both avoidable. Many zero fee cards, interest only on monthly balances. Some zero fee cards even o

>Users pay the fees both directly (annual costs, interest) Both avoidable. Many zero fee cards, interest only on monthly balances. Some zero fee cards even offer rewards (read: net positive over cash). >indirectly (increased prices due to vendor fees) I'd need to see some data that the convenience of credit cards to both consumer and retailer has increased prices. I do know that explicitly raising prices to cover fees for card using customers is against most merchant account terms of service and you can report retailers that do so.

brd529 7y ago
It’s a total tax on the entire ecosystem. Every merchant that chooses to accept credit cards has to build 2-3% into their margins to cover the interchange fees. It’s often against their agreement with visa/mc to charge the fees for credit transactions only and so they build them into the base cost.
- the_duke 7y ago
  As a side note, the situation is a bit better in Europe, where considerable regulation was introduced recently. With mixed but positive results. Interchange fees were capped to 0.3% for credit cards. This is a nice summary if you are interested: https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/18-months-impact-interchange-fee-regulation-european-union-cards-market https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight...
- jayd16 7y ago
  Crypto isn't free either.
icebraining 7y ago
> I do know that explicitly raising prices to cover fees for card using customers is against most merchant account terms of service and you can report retailers that do so. That's no longer the case after Visa, Mastercard, etc were sued[1] and reached a settlement in 2013 disallowing those terms. A few states have passed laws to reimpose that rule, but most haven't, afaik. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Interchange_Fee_and_Merchant_Discount_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Interchange_Fee_a...

brd529 7y ago

It’s a total tax on the entire ecosystem. Every merchant that chooses to accept credit cards has to build 2-3% into their margins to cover the interchange fees. It’s often against their agreement with visa/mc to charge the fees for credit transactions only and so they build them into the base cost.

the_duke 7y ago
As a side note, the situation is a bit better in Europe, where considerable regulation was introduced recently. With mixed but positive results. Interchange fees were capped to 0.3% for credit cards. This is a nice summary if you are interested: https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/18-months-impact-interchange-fee-regulation-european-union-cards-market https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight...
jayd16 7y ago
Crypto isn't free either.

icebraining 7y ago

> I do know that explicitly raising prices to cover fees for card using customers is against most merchant account terms of service and you can report retailers that do so. That's no longer the case after Visa, Mastercard, etc were sued[1] and reached a settlement in 2013 disallowing those terms. A few states have passed laws to reimpose that rule, but most haven't, afaik. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Interchange_Fee_and_Merchant_Discount_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Interchange_Fee_a...