They're pushing credit cards. They don't take Visa, but they do take American Express, or they don't take this one, but they take that one, or you'd better bring this one, or if you forget who you are, look on your credit card; it will be there.
For merchants, it is an amazing opportunity. Compared to Paypal, crypto has no credit card fees, no charge backs, no 'Oops, we decided to hold your cash for 3-12 months while we investigate something we can't disclose.'
I use debit cards for everyday purchases, as I don't believe in credit cards. But this has caused problems, especially with American touring, because I refuse to have a credit card - and in America you can't pay for anything on a debit card.
I'm the worst customer for a credit card company because I always pay my balance off every month.
I use a credit card for everything - and I choose one of the ones which gives you money back.
Swipe fees have increased steadily since the introduction of debit cards 20 years ago, when there were no swipe fees at all. Merchants can't negotiate or control them. They've tried, but they have no leverage against the big banks and issuers. So they get ignored.
Credit cards are the WORST investment that you can make.
It turns out that CVS is one of about 40 merchants in a consortium that formed in 2011 to develop their own mobile-phone-based payment system. The consortium, called the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, is in large part all about eliminating, or at least reducing, the fees banks charge retailers for swiping credit cards.
Credit card agreements run as long as 30 pages, and it's 30 pages of largely incomprehensible text.
Credit card interest payments are the dumbest money of all.
Credit cards have been extremely profitable to banks. They're profitable not from the fees they collect from the retailers that use the credit cards, that pays the bills, but the real profits come from the interest payments and the charges to users that are unexpected.
A cash advance on a credit card is one of the worst types of borrowing because the interest rate is typically 21 percent or more.
At its core, bitcoin is a smart currency designed by very forward-thinking engineers. It eliminates the need for banks, gets rid of credit card fees, currency exchange fees, money transfer fees, and reduces the need for lawyers in transitions... all good things.
The fact is I tried for years to work with the financial industry on reasonable swipe fee reform, but the industry wouldn't have it.
