Let's stop dicking around and talk about ditching something big: Visa and Mastercard - Lemmy.ca
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Visa 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.
  • njordomir@lemmy.world
    363·
    1 day ago

    Yes,

    After World War II and through recent times (well after the DM to € switch), Germany was one of the most cash-happy countries. If you didn’t carry cash on you, there was a good chance you’d end up stuck and unable to pay for something. Even today, many businesses don’t take credit cards compared to the US.

    Using a card demands that you trust Visa, MC, etc. with your data as well as pay a fee.

    The last time I was there (Christmas time) I was horrified to see the inroads these bloodsucking leeches made into Germany. People around the world are selling themselves and future generations into economic servitude and making themselves targets for corporate surveillance based advertising at an alarming rate.

    Now would be a great time for a worldwide cash-based movement to spring up.

    I ran a cash-based business for a decade and it wasn’t so I could cheat on taxes (I paid those every year). It was so I could deny the CC companies their undeserved cut and remain congruent with my values.

    Convenience or Freedom

    Choose one.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      5·
      20 hours ago

      Some businesses in Germany only accept cards like giro and ec, so that’s another possibility. In Portugal some businesses only accept MB cards. In Denmark some places only use Mobile Pay. It’s definitely becoming more common for Mastercard and Visa to be accepted in all 3, but alternatives did exist.

      • njordomir@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 hours ago

        True, even before Visa and MC started making inroads, I was seeing EC cards commonly in Germany, but usually only for certain uses. The fact that some businesses now operate in a cash exclusionary way frightens me a little. We’re headed for sci-fi dystopia.