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Indeed, and also that whoever wrote the article, didn't actually investigate the reason why they decided to raise the prices at the same time (besides "the fees
by capableweb 3y ago
Indeed, and also that whoever wrote the article, didn't actually investigate the reason why they decided to raise the prices at the same time (besides "the fees help cover costs related to fraud prevention and innovation" but not saying why both of them need it at the same time), and questioning if there is collusion going on as that would actually be malicious use of their market position as a duopoly, and would make for a much more interesting article.
- datavirtue 3y agoDon't worry. Elizabeth is already glaring at them.
- dylan604 3y agoI always forget Mastercard and Visa are two separate companies, as when people talk about them, they are always said together like it's a hyphenated name Mastercard-Visa. Mastercard and Visa are always accepted either one is accepted. Discover and AmEx are totally different, and stores can accept one without the other. It's clear that Mastercard-Visa is by design meant to be the other's alibi for not being declared a Monopoly.
- codexb 3y agoCostco is Visa only
- baldgeek 3y agoCostco is a weird one. They accept both for payment , but can only refund back to Visa. Source : Me, As I have personally experienced this at Costco in California. Maybe it's just this specific store/region
- geostupid 3y agoI hated having to use my 'backup' Mastercard for Costco purchases.
- SECProto 3y agoCostco switched who they partner with close to a decade ago. Pre-2015, they were American Express only. Now they are apparently Visa only in the US, while here in Canada they are Mastercard only
- tamimio 3y agoCanada is Mastercard only
- Terretta 3y ago> Mastercard and Visa are always accepted either one is accepted Not the case. Visa credit cards ($V) can be used at 44 million merchant locations in more than 200 countries and territories. Mastercard credit cards ($MA) are accepted at 37 million merchant locations in more than 210 countries and territories. So they're different, which doesn't matter at all except if you're stuck somewhere! Odds are both are accepted, but it's worth checking a destination country or area within a country before traveling with just one or the other. It might surprise that even in popular countries, V/MA might not be the most widely accepted. It's only recently that CB didn't beat both in France, though for a while CB+V was more common on a door than CB+MA, but now a CB logo usually includes both V and MA. https://histoire.bnpparibas/en/the-carte-bleue-a-french-success-story/ https://histoire.bnpparibas/en/the-carte-bleue-a-french-succ... Also, this is a good synthesis of the duopoly* problem, perhaps less of an issue (aka lower rates) in EU likely thanks to the nationals like CB: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4536466-visa-and-mastercard-threats-to-duopoly https://seekingalpha.com/article/4536466-visa-and-mastercard... * About duopoly: Visa has less than a 50 percent share, MasterCard has less than 40 percent, Discover has 18 percent, and American Express has 15 percent. V and MA acting as if 90% share is most likely "conscious parallelism". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_collusion#Conscious_parallelism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_collusion#Conscious_para... See the duopoly example at the end of the article suggesting a multi-round (long term) Nash equilibrium for parallelism.
- dylan604 3y agoMy one conclusion of international travel is don't expect credit cards to be accepted and just consider it a bonus if they are. As far as AmEx, might as well leave home without it.
- smugma 3y agoWhile in Japan, I noticed that in a few instances I could use Mastercard but not Visa. Specifically, I could use Apple Pay with a Mastercard to add money to my Suica card but not use a Visa. I figured it was some bug or my Visa blocking me, but a friend mentioned it to me. He had bumped into the same problem and somehow deduced that it was (likely) due to not working with Visa.
- eppp 3y agoWhat fraud prevention and innovation? They don't investigate anything. My card has been stolen or skimmed 3 times in 2 years. They just write it off and send me a new one. How many billions a year are these two companies foisting on us instead of actually fixing the fraud or prosecuting it?
- matthewdgreen 3y agoCard number theft and physical card skimming are two types of fraud that should have been technologically obsolete at least a decade ago. The fact that these things still happen is entirely due to decisions made by the payment card industry.
- throwaway04724 3y agoI may be wrong, but from what I understand they are not directly responsible for covering the fraud. That burden is sent downstream to banks and merchants. If they had been held responsible we would probably have a lower rate of frauds. They don't even enforce 3D secure for all countries.