Re:Beyond the Bitcoin bubble
by krrrh on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @10:52AM
(#16168855)
GP was talking about auditing costs at financial institutions which is a different issue than credit card transactions (I think).
Another portion of that 3% cost is marketing in the form of cashback and rewards points which can be eliminated if the market or regulators demand it. In Australia they capped credit card fees to around 0.5% on the basis that the fees were a market distortion. They review them regularly and have suggested that lower fees are appropriate [1]. It doesn’t actually cost Visa that much to handle transactions, and there are proven solutions to fixing credit card fees if that is what is desired.
Another portion of that 3% cost is marketing in the form of cashback and rewards points which can be eliminated if the market or regulators demand it. In Australia they capped credit card fees to around 0.5% on the basis that the fees were a market distortion. They review them regularly and have suggested that lower fees are appropriate [1]. It doesn’t actually cost Visa that much to handle transactions, and there are proven solutions to fixing credit card fees if that is what is desired.
[1] search document for “cap” http://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-...