Let's stop dicking around and talk about ditching something big: Visa and Mastercard - Lemmy.ca
lemmy.ca
Visa and Mastercard are American companies, and they essentially tax everybody by taking a percentage of purchase prices for themselves. Not exactly a small percentage either, 1.2% to 2.65% [https://money.ca/credit-cards/how-much-are-canadian-merchants-really-charged-by-visa-mc]. Ever wonder why so many merchants say they don’t accept American Express? That’s because they charge quite a bit more to merchantes, 50% more than Visa or Mastercard. Anyway, we’re letting American companies tax us and we love them because we get rewards when we use cards. But it’s just a shell game because we pay more up front because businesses need to charge more to make up for payment processing charges. They get to sit in the middle and rake in the money. Now the alternative in Canada is Interac. Interac charges a set amount per transcation. How much? 2 to 5.5 cents [https://www.interac.ca/en/payments/business/understanding-fees/]. Unless you’re going through Apple or Google Pay, and then it’s a percentage again. Interac is also Canadian. Want to stick it to Trump? Stop using credit cards (and Google Pay or Apple Pay) and switch to Interac. Want to make Canada better? Stop using credit cards and switch to Interac. Is it going to be inconvenient? Yes. Online shopping will be much harder but I have seen online Interac payments before and we can ask our favourite Canadian merchants to accept Interac online.
  • Tuukka R
    0•12 days ago

    Cash (banknotes and coins) can be used at self-checkout in Germany, so it can be used at self-checkouts anywhere, assuming the shop hasn’t blocked that.

    Its super easy, even. You throw the coins in a kind of a bucket and the machine counts them very quickly. Then you get the change in a tray with a round bottom so it’s super easy scooping it all with one move.

    If cash becomes a big thing again, it will be usable at self-checkouts outside Germany as well. Shops don’t want to pay extra salary expenses just to avoid having a reasonably cheap device at their self-checkout counter.

    • Kualdir
      1•12 days ago

      I’ve never seen cash accepted at self checkout in Belgium or the Netherlands and that still doesn’t take away at how inconvenient cash is overall.

      • Tuukka R
        2•12 days ago

        Yup, I’ve only ever seen that in Germany. In Finland we also need to queue if we want to pay by cash. I don’t know why they want to pay for all those extra cashiers.