Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by c0nducktr on Sunday October 15, 2023 @08:02PM (#37894559)

In the US today, it's been my experience that if a business accepts credit cards, Visa, MC, Amex and Discover are all accepted. Costco would be the exception that proves the rule. This has been the case since I started using credit cards, maybe 10 years ago.

Does anyone know when this changed? I don't think I've just been lucky this entire time.

Edit: When traveling overseas, I've always just used VISA though, but that's just because I have a card without foreign transaction fees with them.

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Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by fiddlerwoaroof on Sunday October 15, 2023 @08:04PM (#37894572)

Amex is frequently not taken by small businesses that don’t use one of the newer POS systems like Square or Clover.

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Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by owenmarshall on Sunday October 15, 2023 @09:13PM (#37894913)

IME, it’s less about POS systems and more about what the merchants are willing to give up in fees.

Amex charges significantly more than the others, to the point that multiple businesses I frequent offer a sliding scale - par for cash/check, +2-5% for Visa/Mastercard/Discover, +5%+ for Amex.

This is just one more input to an optimization problem for me, but for merchants makes a significant difference: my mechanic says he saves thousands of dollars a month by turning Amex customers into Mastercard customers, and Mastercard customers into cash customers.

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Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by fiddlerwoaroof on Sunday October 15, 2023 @10:41PM (#37895418)

Well, I’ve noticed businesses switch to accepting Amex when they got one of the newer POS systems. I wonder if Square/Clover/etc. have negotiated different rates for their customers.

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Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by kalleboo on Monday October 16, 2023 @11:45PM (#37910336)

I think Square has a flat fee no matter what card. They probably just average out the fees between the cards.

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Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by csdreamer7 on Sunday October 15, 2023 @08:59PM (#37894849)

I have seen a few places not take Discover, or Amex, or only take Visa/MC here in the US.

Costco was unique because they used to only take Amex credit cards and then Citi/Visa won that business.

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Re:Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data by anonymoose33282 on Sunday October 15, 2023 @09:18PM (#37894950)

I stopped noticing several years ago, it seems every place has all 4 on the "We proudly accept" window decal. But I do remember checking 10-15 years ago to make sure places took my Amex, because not all of them did.

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