Mastercard sued for $19B in Britain's biggest damages claim

Re:Mastercard sued for $19B in Britain's biggest damages claim by objclxt on Friday September 09, 2016 @12:45PM (#12463886)

> the only credit cards where interchange is 2-3% are those that pay 1-2% in cash back or reward points/miles. Non-reward credit cards and gift cards start at 0.65% in interchange fees otherwise.

Those differences in credit card fees between rewards and non-rewards often aren't being passed on to the merchant, though, especially small businesses who have little room to negotiate.

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Re:Mastercard sued for $19B in Britain's biggest damages claim by dangrossman on Friday September 09, 2016 @12:47PM (#12463912)

I'm a small business merchant, and they're passed on to me. I pay interchange plus 0.04%. If interchange on a specific transaction is 0.05% then I pay 0.09%. If it's 2.9% then I pay 2.94%.

Merchant service providers have been pushing this "interchange-plus" pricing model to win over businesses from other providers with the old "tiered rates" pricing for many years now. Even "tiered rates" did pass on some of the price differences, just not as directly.

PayPal/Stripe's model of a single flat fee for all card types is pretty much exclusively an internet (card-not-present) thing, except for the rare coffee shop with one of those Square smartphone dongles. None of the B&M stores you shop in are likely paying flat rates. Different cards cost them different amounts of money.

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Re:Mastercard sued for $19B in Britain's biggest damages claim by bung on Friday September 09, 2016 @01:47PM (#12464478)

I wonder if he meant "passed on _by_ the merchant", as in, it's not like any business will give non-rewards-card-payers a discount.

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Re:Mastercard sued for $19B in Britain's biggest damages claim by watchdogtimer on Friday September 09, 2016 @01:30PM (#12464328)

Who's your merchant services provider?

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