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Let's stop dicking around and talk about ditching something big: Visa and Mastercard - Lemmy.ca
lemmy.caVisa and Mastercard are American companies, and they essentially tax everybody
by taking a percentage of purchase prices for themselves. Not exactly a small
percentage either, 1.2% to 2.65%
[https://money.ca/credit-cards/how-much-are-canadian-merchants-really-charged-by-visa-mc].
Ever wonder why so many merchants say they don’t accept American Express? That’s
because they charge quite a bit more to merchantes, 50% more than Visa or
Mastercard. Anyway, we’re letting American companies tax us and we love them
because we get rewards when we use cards. But it’s just a shell game because we
pay more up front because businesses need to charge more to make up for payment
processing charges. They get to sit in the middle and rake in the money. Now the
alternative in Canada is Interac. Interac charges a set amount per transcation.
How much? 2 to 5.5 cents
[https://www.interac.ca/en/payments/business/understanding-fees/]. Unless you’re
going through Apple or Google Pay, and then it’s a percentage again. Interac is
also Canadian. Want to stick it to Trump? Stop using credit cards (and Google
Pay or Apple Pay) and switch to Interac. Want to make Canada better? Stop using
credit cards and switch to Interac. Is it going to be inconvenient? Yes. Online
shopping will be much harder but I have seen online Interac payments before and
we can ask our favourite Canadian merchants to accept Interac online.
in Poland we have blik, and it’s really popular
I make all my purchases online with blik, you can also use it in shops but it’s a bit less convenient than paying with card
Blik has no chargeback equivalent
I switched to Blik recently, and it’s just slightly less convenient. Instead of just beeping a card, you need to enter the code from app and approve in the app. Takes 30sec more, but I’m happy for this to endorse Polish system.