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Does Square have access to information that credit card companies do not? If not, why haven't CCs started a similar program (or have they)?
by grimtrigger 12y ago
Does Square have access to information that credit card companies do not? If not, why haven't CCs started a similar program (or have they)?
- bksenior 12y agoA credit card is by definition a loan, so Id say they have. Thats why when you open a new business you have an Orcas weight in "sign up for this credit card" envelopes at your door.
- grimtrigger 12y agoGood point.
- JumpCrisscross 12y agoCredit card companies are heavily regulated. There may be limits to whether they can do with their point-of-sale data. More critically, their data may have limited power for predicting businesses' creditworthiness. MasterCard can only see MasterCard transactions. This is fine for evaluating the cardholder, particularly if MasterCard is at the top of their wallet. But it produces a conditional view if one wants to estimate a merchant's cash flows. Square, on the other hand, sees a broader swath of a business's transactions. This might give it a small statistical edge in certain cases.
- cm2012 12y agoThere is an entire Merchant Cash Advance industry based around these kind of loans. It was a big innovation around 16 years ago.