Really high volume merchants have always been able to 'negotiate' rates. Most mom&pop shops are pretty much stuck.
When I was a partner in a retail company, we got Amex, and the rates were different depending on if you needed the money tomorrow, in a few days, or if you could wait a business week. It went from 5.5% to 3% back then if my memory is correct. MC/Visa were less, and very dependant on volume. But all this is from memory over 20 years ago, so reality might be different. Square now charges roughly 2.5% and Paypal is similar. Getting away from checks is a good thing for most small businesses, but there can be charge card fraud they get stuck with. The charge for 'check garantee' insurance can be pretty steep, sometimes higher than charge than credit cards. Still, if you want to help local small business, pay cash. As an aside, Walmart runs so much that years ago they purchased a bank that was part of the MC/Visa system so they could keep down their costs and keep the bank side of the charges. But such is life if your organization can justify the overhead. On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 8:12 AM, Tilghman Lesher <[email protected]> wrote: > My understanding is that Discover Card launched with the promise of > merchants only needing to pay 1.5% (half that of Mastercard and Visa). > American Express's fees were actually higher, but the purpose of that > card is an elite status symbol, and their users generally have higher > bills. > > Since launch, the percentage paid by each merchant is now negotiated, > and may be less for merchants with higher volume. > > https://www.valuepenguin.com/what-credit-card-processing-fees-costs > > On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 10:10 PM, Csaba Toth <[email protected]> > wrote: > > This is interesting info: > > https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/15/17017374/coinbase- > cryptocurrency-bitcoin-ether-unauthorized-charges > > I ended up here: https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/964316171934711808 > > > > This could make sense, it can be just an innocent technical interference. > > However the the crypto currencies would in general "take the cheese" of > the > > credit card companies (VISA, Mastercard, Amex, ...) in the long run. > > Therefore it could be their interest to sabotage it if they can. They > skim > > off "only" ~3% off of credit card transactions, but that's so much money > in > > the end that it's even hard to fathom. > > > > Now, someone mentioned cash back cards. As a customer you don't directly > > face that 3%. The merchant faces it, and when you go to a gas station > here > > in California, if you pay by credit card the gas is at least 10 cents > more > > expensive than cash or debit (I don't remember of such in Tennessee, so > when > > I first faced this I was like WTF?). Well, it makes a lot of sense from > the > > merchant's point of view. They don't want to swallow that 3%, so they > defer > > it to you. The cash-back programs are basically tools to make credit > cards > > more appealing so the purchasing power put more pressure on the merchants > > (the other reason for cash backs are simple market race between the > > providers). Amex is often more asshole with smaller merchants and can > have > > higher rate than 3%. > > > > I often play with the dream to own a credit card company, which would > charge > > 1% instead of 3%. That would be still tremendous amount of money (surely > > enough for everything needed to keep an infrastructure running, 3% is > just > > an agreement across all of those institutes), but obviously I would not > live > > long, because it's too much money for VISA, MasterCard, Amex, ... (all > > charging 3%) to loose. I'm pretty sure I'd die in a surprise freak > accident > > for some reason. That's all for conspiration theories. > > > > Now, crypto currency is not without price, it has transaction price as > well > > which is not even a percentage of the sale value, and can be ridiculously > > high if someone wants a transaction to finish soon, or the sale price is > > low. > > I hope I'm not a luddite when I said that BitCoin is a "dinosaur". > Multiple > > ways to make it perform slightly better, still very far from the volume > the > > bigs can handle... > > I'm truly waiting for a next generation currency which can be 100x > better in > > all aspects, learning form the past. > > > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 6:18 PM, Greg Donald <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 6:57 PM, Richard Thomas <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > I never thought I'd see such techno-luddism come from this mailing > list. > >> > >> Think again! > >> > >> > I'm > >> > not going to do any kind of pitch but if you're interested in tech to > >> > any > >> > degree, > >> > >> Nope, not even a little. > >> > >> > you owe it to yourself to check out what's happening in the > >> > crypto-currency space (and I don't just mean all the bad BS). > >> > > >> > rich > >> > >> > >> https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/15/17017374/coinbase- > cryptocurrency-bitcoin-ether-unauthorized-charges > >> > >> > >> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/cryptocurrency/loopx- > startup-pulls-ico-exit-scam-and-disappears-with-4-5-million/ > >> > >> You mean how people are getting ripped off, that 'bad BS'? > >> > >> Not the venture capitalists you're looking for. > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Greg Donald > >> > >> -- > >> -- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > >> "NLUG" group. > >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >> [email protected] > >> For more options, visit this group at > >> http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en > >> > >> --- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > >> "NLUG" group. > >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an > >> email to [email protected]. > >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > > > -- > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "NLUG" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected] > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > > > --- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "NLUG" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [email protected]. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > -- > Tilghman > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nlug-talk+unsubscribe@ > googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/ > group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- ><> ... 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