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The customer chooses the card, the retailer pays the fee. Other companies can't undercut Mastercard's fees because the consumer(the person making the decision o

The customer chooses the card, the retailer pays the fee. Other companies can't undercut Mastercard's fees because the consumer(the person making the decision of payment type here) doesn't know or care what the fee is.

dustinmoris 6y ago
> Other companies can't undercut Mastercard's fees because the consumer(the person making the decision of payment type here) doesn't know or care what the fee is. You got the consumer part wrong. The consumer is the merchant, which can decide if they allow Mastercard cards or not. Same as many merchants don't accept Amex. It's because they don't like to pay the Amex fee. Same as many merchants don't accept Apple Pay or Android Pay or why some merchants only allow card payments for purchases of a minimum amount. Merchants are the consumers and they decide what cards they will accept. Based on what cards they will accept consumers will be picky about which cards they want to have. For those exact reasons I have a VISA credit card as well as an AMEX because I sometimes can't use my AMEX, otherwise I wouldn't even have a VISA CC.
- avianlyric 6y ago
  Very few merchants have the market power to say no to either Mastercard or Visa. It would prevent to many customers from being able to give them money. Which would then make it pretty tricky for the merchant to make money. Also Apple Pay and Android Pay don’t cost merchants more to implement or use (assuming they have the HW, which any card reader from the past 10 years will have). The card network rules also forbid merchants from not accepting them, but of course rules don’t mean much without enforcement. Finally there is really only one company that can undercut Mastercard, and that’s Visa. It’s only a question of time before Visa bump their fees, there’s no way they’re gonna leave money on the table for long.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  You have your terminology completely mixed up.
geofft 6y ago
In most of the US, credit card surcharges (charging customers a higher price when using credit cards than when using cash or debit/bank cards) are legal. Is it also legal to charge customers a fee based on what type of card they use? A large number of customers have multiple cards anyway, so that would be a meaningful incentive.
- dustinmoris 6y ago
  Yes, many merchants charge customers more when they choose to use AMEX for example.

dustinmoris 6y ago

> Other companies can't undercut Mastercard's fees because the consumer(the person making the decision of payment type here) doesn't know or care what the fee is. You got the consumer part wrong. The consumer is the merchant, which can decide if they allow Mastercard cards or not. Same as many merchants don't accept Amex. It's because they don't like to pay the Amex fee. Same as many merchants don't accept Apple Pay or Android Pay or why some merchants only allow card payments for purchases of a minimum amount. Merchants are the consumers and they decide what cards they will accept. Based on what cards they will accept consumers will be picky about which cards they want to have. For those exact reasons I have a VISA credit card as well as an AMEX because I sometimes can't use my AMEX, otherwise I wouldn't even have a VISA CC.

avianlyric 6y ago
Very few merchants have the market power to say no to either Mastercard or Visa. It would prevent to many customers from being able to give them money. Which would then make it pretty tricky for the merchant to make money. Also Apple Pay and Android Pay don’t cost merchants more to implement or use (assuming they have the HW, which any card reader from the past 10 years will have). The card network rules also forbid merchants from not accepting them, but of course rules don’t mean much without enforcement. Finally there is really only one company that can undercut Mastercard, and that’s Visa. It’s only a question of time before Visa bump their fees, there’s no way they’re gonna leave money on the table for long.
jacquesm 6y ago
You have your terminology completely mixed up.

geofft 6y ago

In most of the US, credit card surcharges (charging customers a higher price when using credit cards than when using cash or debit/bank cards) are legal. Is it also legal to charge customers a fee based on what type of card they use? A large number of customers have multiple cards anyway, so that would be a meaningful incentive.

dustinmoris 6y ago
Yes, many merchants charge customers more when they choose to use AMEX for example.