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I think of it this way: does a business have an option not to do business with Visa? Realistically no. They have all the market power that a monopoly has.
by advisedwang 2y ago
I think of it this way: does a business have an option not to do business with Visa? Realistically no. They have all the market power that a monopoly has.
- legitster 2y ago> does a business have an option not to do business with Visa? Absolutely. There's Discover, Mastercard, Google Pay, Apple Wallet, crypto, checks, and good old-fashioned cash.
- madeofpalk 2y agoApple Pay and Google Pay are not payment networks. Those are just Visa and Mastercard.
- legitster 2y agoIt depends on your payment gateway. I can setup a POS payment system with any payment gateway processor I want. Depending on the system you can essentially run direct deposit into Google Pay, and as a vendor I can direct deposit the money into my checking via my gateway. But that's not the issue being contested because there are hundreds of payment gateway processors available.
- mattzito 2y agoRight, you CAN set that up, but in the US, not accepting visa and Mastercard is essentially untenable if you are a retailer or restaurant. You might be able to avoid accepting AmEx, but from talking with restaurant owners, the biggest spenders are often AmEx holders and are annoyed at having to use a backup card.
- bluGill 2y agoWhich of those is realistic though. They exist but you turn away customers with money who cannot pay.
- lxgr 2y agoThat's not how the payment market works, though. If a customer walks into your store and has exactly one (type of) card on them that they want to use to pay, you have a choice of accepting that card or losing their business. This makes competition between payment methods at the POS structurally very hard.
- jamie_ca 2y agoCostco (in Canada at least) doesn't work with Visa. It's cash, bank debit cards, or Mastercard. (No AmEx/Discover either.) It can be done, at scale, but definitely a business risk.
- lolinder 2y agoCostco in the US doesn't accept Discover but does accept Visa. Heck, they even offer a Visa credit card which stands in as your official membership card.
- frumper 2y agoThey used to only accept Amex and had a branded card. It worked fine for them that way too.
- 8note 2y agoThis change happened in 2015, for anyone who remembers Costco and amex being inseparable: https://www.costco.ca/_ax-faq.html https://www.costco.ca/_ax-faq.html
- BeefWellington 2y agoIn part this is because of the existence of Interac though. If Interac didn't exist it's possible they would feel they need to use VISA to not turn away too much membership. Having debit as a fallback means they can partner with whomever gives them favourable terms. I doubt Costco is paying Mastercard a % of the transaction the way most other retailers are. Despite it existing since the 80s, there's been constant pressure / lobbying to get rid of it.[1] [1]: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/interac-in-a-fight-for-its-life/article1364954/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/interac-i...
- toast0 2y agoIn the US, bank debit cards are commonly Visa, although they can often be run on multiple networks, debit is confusing.
- lxgr 2y ago
- lumb63 2y agoThere are tons of cash-only businesses.
- indymike 2y agoThere are also a lot of businesses that take cash because their owners have been banned from taking credit cards.