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Yeah, we don't like the current situation, and this is a topic of ongoing discussion. Credit card network fees make it tricky to do it well but we really want t
by pc 6y ago
Yeah, we don't like the current situation, and this is a topic of ongoing discussion. Credit card network fees make it tricky to do it well but we really want to find a way to make it work.
- jcrben 6y agoWish you could disintermediate credit card fees. I'm sort of hopeful that credit card surcharging might grow (https://www.cardx.com/ https://www.cardx.com/) and start competition on those costs.
- kingbirdy 6y agoI don't have strong feelings either way on having consumers pay CC processing fees, but encouraging them to use debit cards online seems irresponsible given the non-existent fraud protections on debit cards. Of course it's technically consumers' responsibility to know and trade off that risk versus the savings, but at least in the US the sad reality is that personal finance education is woefully lacking or non-existent for most people and they don't know the difference.
- rhizome 6y agoGenerally in the US, debit card fraud liability is limited to $500 if the card owner reports it within 60 days.
- magicalhippo 6y agoMy strategy is to have less than $100 available in the account connected with my debit card. If I need more for some reason I can just transfer on the spot. This also makes me more aware of my spending, since I need to manually keep topping up the account.
- jcrben 6y agoYeah. I'm optimistic that the the relentless long-term competitive march to improved customer experience will include better fraud protections on debit cards. Reduced expenses as technology helps us identify fraud will also help. I haven't used a debit card in years to maximize benefits (altho I sometimes use cash when required by small businesses), but the Capital One debit card advertises $0 Fraud Liability https://www.capitalone.com/bank/debit-card/ https://www.capitalone.com/bank/debit-card/.
- rconti 6y agoCan you elaborate like I'm 5? Just very high level for those of us who only know "they charge a flat fee and a percent which makes microtransactions hard". What are the strategies/thoughts in the industry? Holding and batching payments on a per-user basis? Trying to get agreements so you can batch payments on a per-processor or per-network agreement? Hourly? Daily? Weekly?
- pc 6y ago> Just very high level for those of us who only know "they charge a flat fee and a percent which makes microtransactions hard". That's pretty much the story :-). And so the questions are then whether we subsidize the transactions, batch them (as you say, though that makes refunds and statement descriptors tricky), get card networks to change their policies, or somehow shift how the payments are made (e.g. encouraging cheaper payment methods).
- mkagenius 6y ago> batch them (as you say, though that makes refunds and statement descriptors tricky) Maybe batch them per user per website, that will solve statement descriptors a bit
- ppod 6y agoAt a very high level the batching-with-refunds issue sounds like the kind of problem that the Lightning network on bitcoin tries to solve, or bilateral netting in other financial contexts.
- wcarss 6y agoI recall thinking a few years ago that offering batching as a business built atop stripe sounded like a neat business -- effectively letting users choose a batching solution if they desired, but after closely reading the Stripe Terms of Service, I think it appeared to be disallowed. If Stripe were willing to allow third parties to act as a batching passthrough (or if I was wrong and you do!), this seems like a low-cost way to let the market decide what an acceptable refund/statement descriptor regime should look like.