Visa charged with price fixing and sticking it to the customer on both ends. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050715/retailers_visa.html?.v=5 Grocery chain operator Kroger Co. and several other large retailers are charging Visa with price-fixing on credit-card transaction fees. Kroger said Friday a federal lawsuit alleges Visa USA Inc. and Visa International Service Association are colluding with member banks to illegally fix prices on interchange fees. Credit card issuers such as Visa and MasterCard charge merchants the fees each time a customer pays with a credit card. ------------------------------------ Personal note. Prices are much higher across the board cause of CC fee's. Its been kept secret for years. Paying cash only should be cheaper. What would bring the point home and force change. Would be for stores to now only charge those who pay with a CC. Sort of stick CCC's out in the wind. CC debt would plummet. CCC's would put an attack on paper money as dangerous to our health. Anthrax soaked $20 bills show up in the chain. Kaos ensues, nuclear war, end scene.
LOL Yardley.... So, has dumpster diving in PA gone up exponentially recently p p ou: I've known about the CC fees for a while... Was shocked the first time I heard of it, talk about getting paid on both ends... Consumers pay with interest fees, then retailers pay per transaction fees... Man, I'm in the wrong buisness ou:
Did you see that NY Times piece? I guess the new way to fight spy ware. Is throwing your computer away and buying a new one. It said something like since you can get a new computer for $4-500 it more cost effective to just pitch the old one out. ?
sigh. i've known about this for years, having been a manager at a retail store. first, you're not getting charged on both ends. IF you charge something on a card AND you keep a balance past the grace period you get charged interest for the money that the card/bank is loaning to you. be thankful you're getting a ~25 day interest and fee free paycheck advance (if used intelligently) and quitcherbitchin. if you carry a balance ... well now, who's fault is that? i'm sure visa put a gun to your head ... :error: second, yes, there is a % transaction fee for all sales on credit cards. do you know why stores are so eager to sign up for card transactions even though it 'costs' them more on each sale? because credit card purchasers spend more per transaction. significantly more. often on higher profit margin items. and there is much less of a default rate than there is with personal checks and the retailer doesn't have to worry about counterfitting. which costs the retailer far less money in recovery and prosecution fees. in short, retailers make money on credit card transactions. if there were any merit to this suit, the plaintiffs would have sued the credit card industry (amex, discover, diners club, visa, mc, et al) with collusion and price fixing. remember, there are a half dozen widely used alternatives to visa ... if visa's (or any other cards) fees are 'exorbitant' it's up to the retailers to start charging a service premium on users of that card or to drop that card altogether. you'll note that nothing of the sort is being done. if all of the cards still charge about the same amount then the price is at what the market will bear OR there's collusion ... in which case they should all be defendants. you may remember a time when gas stations priced a surcharge for all card transactions for fuel ... it wasn't all that long ago. you know why they don't anymore? a. pay at the pump eliminates the need for most of the tellers (and their payroll cost) b. pay at the pump increases the number of customers that can be served per hour at each pump by reducing transaction time increasing sales volume. c. if the customer comes in anyways and buys with a card they tend to do a lot more impulse buying ... on high margin 'convenience' store crap. yeah, it's costing the retailer oodles and oodles ... this reminds me of that manufactured 60 Minutes scandal (one of many that 60Min has manufactured) about higher auto loan rates when customers got their loans from car dealers instead of directly from the bank ... as if there shouldn't be a fee associated with having someone else do your loan shopping instead of getting off your lazy @$$ and doing it yourself. ou:
been going on for years.... I had a fur business in grosse pointe, Mi as a retailer i was charged like 18% of every credit card transaction, also the customer using card is charged whatever their rate is. so visa would make like 38% off every card use......... :rant: I would offer discounts for cash!
cc fees were once much higher....I was getting charged up too 7% at one time in my retail business.....now I have about 1.3%.... forget about using american express ...they are high...some even penalize for low volume.... 2 years ago I stopped accepting credit cards for about 5 months....I was switching transaction companies....costomers were not complaining one bit..... they been making $$ both sides for ages....
I would have to look but they reported that circuit city already successfully sued Visa over this and won. Why everyone else is jumping on the band wagon.
Not to change the subject, but, don't you pay on both sides of a cell phone call too? I think you also pay if you connect or not.? Mike D.
Here in China they base all prices on cash transactions. If you pay by credit card it is not unusual for them to add 3-4% to the price for the cost of credit card handling fees. After a while you realize that it's better to pay cash especially for big ticket items.
If you get on Visa's business website, you are in violation in your merchant's agreement if you charge a credit card surcharge or a minimum charge amount. You can however offer a "cash discount", but it can only be labeled as that, and not as a credit card surcharge.
