As Visa and Mastercard raise fees, merchants may look to crypto
Cryptocurrencies have fees, but so do payment cards. Credit card providers charge merchants a cut of the payments they accepted, called interchange fees or swipe fees. With two major card providers aiming to elevate rates, could crypto become an alternative? “Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are planning to raise swipe fees for some types of credit-card purchases in April,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, adding: “Though invisible to consumers, they [interchange fees] are glaring to merchants, which often end up paying fees of about 2% of their customers’ credit-card purchases.....
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When Bitcoin supporters praise their favorite currency, one of the great attributes everyone discusses is the network’s low fees, paling in comparison to the major credit card companies such as Mastercard and Visa. Now, with Walmart dropping support for Visa in Canadian stores due to high fees, bitcoin could have a chance to shine. Walmart and Many....
The cost of traditional banking transactions has come into focus once again as Amazon announced it would no longer accept Visa credit cards for payment in the UK. It was part of a battle that began earlier this year in Singapore and Australia where the e-commerce giant took steps to deter Visa credit card payments. An Amazon spokesperson explained, “We believe the cost of accepting credit card payments should be going down over time to allow merchants to reinvest savings into low prices and shopping enhancements. Yet despite technical advancements, some cards’ cost of payments continue to....