MasterCard is at war with cash in Canada

[tay]

For some reason MasterCard wants to be able to track your movements........




"Bills and coins leave no ineluctable trace as they change hands"






In MasterCard’s Canadian network, contactless payments have almost doubled to one in four in-store sales by consumers in June, 2015, from 13 per cent in June, 2013. During its last nine quarters, MasterCard has seen its card count in Canada fluctuate between 49 and 56 million, less than five per cent of its total. Lang thinks he can use technology to persuade users to rack up bigger bills and fees in the next year or so.


“Over the next 12 to 18 months, we’re going to see a fairly significant move towards digitization,” he said.


The Purchase, N.Y.-based company has released a handful of I.T. products that try to smooth out points of friction: ShopThis! lets readers buy an item directly from a digital publication. MasterPass is a way to store card info online and proceed quicker to checkout.


Pay With Rewards lets people redeem and keep track of loyalty points in real time. Qkr is a food ordering mobile platform at live events, which is used in New York City at Yankee Stadium and was also recently piloted at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.


The assault on cash hinges on people keeping their bills in the bank and reaching for their credit cards even when they have enough money to pay for things on debit. Even as cash usage declines in Canada, a Bank of Canada spokeswoman noted in an email the value of banknotes in circulation has grown at the same rate as gross domestic product over the past 20 years.


“I don’t think too many people get up in the morning and say I cannot wait to make a payment today,” said Lang. “My guess is, that’s not really on the forefront of most minds.” But it’s on MasterCard’s.




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MasterCard is at war in Canada, and it’s not against who you’d expect

 

[tay]

Visa wants small businesses to stop using cash — and will pay a $10,000 bounty


For years, mom-and-pop shops and food trucks alike have shuddered at the expense of credit card transactions. It’s not uncommon, for example, for small businesses to have minimum dollar amounts for card purchases. Some still don’t accept them at all or gently inform customers they prefer cash.

Credit-card behemoth Visa launched a campaign to change that Wednesday.

The campaign to go cashless — or the Visa Cashless Challenge — aims to create a culture in which cash is no longer king, Visa said.

As consumers increasingly demand ease and security in their shopping, cash-only businesses face challenges as digital payments become the consumer’s choice. And, according to a Visa-conducted study, it might become profitable. According to the report, businesses in New York City could save more than 186 million hours in labor and generate an additional $6.8 billion in revenue by going cashless.

But small businesses remain skeptical.

“The good thing about cash is that there’s no merchant fee,” said Jimmy Fixari, owner of Turn In BBQ, a food truck sometimes located in Civic Center park that has a $5 credit card minimum. “If we could do anything, we would do cardless, but we try to be as flexible as we can.”

Fixari takes cards through Square and pays the company a 3 percent fee per transaction, he said.

Cards don’t appear to be going away anytime soon. According to the Federal Reserve’s payments study in 2016, the number of noncash payments increased at an annual rate of 5.3 percent from 2012 to 2015.

Business owners recognize the trend, but the costs prevent them from advocating on behalf of a more convenient and popular option for their customers. Fixari, who says 60 to 70 percent of his transactions are with a card, says he would not be in business without such payment. Similarly, Matt Cherry, owner of the Pasty Republic’s Pasty Bus, a Denver restaurant and food truck, estimated that of his younger millennial customers, 90 percent use a credit card to pay.

According to a U.S. consumer study by TSYS, a credit card company, only 5 percent of people ages 25-34 prefer cash over credit or debit card in 2016. By contrast, 17 percent of people ages 55-64 prefer cash.

Visa, a global payments technology company, is trying to combat the anti-plastic tactics by small businesses with monetary resources.

The corporation plans to give $10,000 to as many as 50 small-business food-service owners who commit to the campaign to become cashless. The campaign includes a “call to action” for small-business restaurants, cafes and food truck owners to share what cashless would mean for their employees and customers.

Visa wants small businesses to stop using cash — and will pay a $10,000 bounty – The Denver Post

 

[Johnnny]

I prefer using cash over debit still if I choose not to use credit.

I'll take out a lump sum from the ATM at my local bank and budget that throughout the week. The reason why is because TD doesn't have many ATM's around town and im not going to pay $3 for the convenience of withdrawing my money from the gas station or corner store.

When i use my credit card I pay the amount right away when I get home by transferring online between accounts.

Cash is king and having some solid coin in my vehicles centre counsel means im not breaking 5's or 10's to buy a can of Pepsi or a bag of minnows.

 

[taxslave]

Credit card companies don't like cash because they can't collect interest on it.

 

[Danbones]

50 days of pain: What happened when India trashed its cash

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly banned most of India's cash on Nov. 8, he warned that "difficulties" could persist for 50 days. The payoff, he said, would be less corruption and less tax evasion.
He was right about the difficulties. Indians endured an acute cash shortage and massive lines at banks as they sought to exchange worthless notes for new currency. Change was nearly impossible to find. Some businesses resorted to barter.
Modi's 50 days have now passed. But as 1.3 billion shell-shocked Indians try to recover from the country's cash crisis, there are questions over whether their economy can do the same.
What happened when India trashed its cash - Jan. 4, 2017

its a globalization enslavement scam like gnoball warming

 

[TenPenny]

“The good thing about cash is that there’s no merchant fee,” said Jimmy Fixari, owner of Turn In BBQ, a food truck sometimes located in Civic Center park that has a $5 credit card minimum. “If we could do anything, we would do cardless, but we try to be as flexible as we can.”

no merchant fees for cash?


The local bottle redemption depot has to pay an extra charge for all the coins they get from the bank in order to pay customers.


I'd call that a merchant fee.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

In vain do heroes toil and patriots rave
When secret gold slips on from knave to knave
Blest paper credit! Last and best supply
To lend corruption lighter wings to fly
A single note can waft an army o'er
Or ship off senates to a foreign shore