Cash. It's so much better for the smaller shops - any store you want to support you should use cash.
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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Cash if you're in person. Gift cards if it's a service that has those (like Steam). A crypto currency, if you feel like that's a valid option.
We could band together and pressure them back to doing their jobs? I think the majority of shit won't get better without active involvement with addressing it.
Is violence a currency?
Is violence a currency?
No scarcity
But unlimited demand?
Luigi says yes.
The problem with answering this question is that on the consumer side you don't really make this choice. The businesses that you pay for things at make this choice.
Visa and Mastercard are payment networks. The businesses that accept them are renting access to those payment networks, because ultimately accepting those forms of payment helps them make more money.
There are other options for payment systems, but for you to use them requires that the business you want to buy something at accepts those options.
Ya
Highest profit margin in the whole S&P 500? Visa/MC duopoly, like 70%!
Meanwhile Brazil has a 0% solution. Real card fees shouldn’t be 3%, should be IDK like 0.1% or something
I'm not aware of how payments work in Brazil, but in Denmark we've had a debit card that everyone uses and every store accepts. It's completely free for consumers, and stores pay way less for Dankort transactions than for credit cards, so it's a win-win.
The fees are insane to me. I do think it's fine for there to be some fee, they do provide an infrastructure and keep it up to date, but current fees are just insane for what they're providing.
Some businesses offer more options though, and when they do you can choose to use those options.
Er, yes, that's my point? It's up to the business to make that choice.
My point is, hardly anyone goes out of their way to use other payment options, and that's one reason why most businesses don't bother with them, so this is also a choice of the consumer. Of course there's also little incentive for the consumer not to bother, but that's kind of just the deal with catch 22 network effects, someone has to take the leap to using something else.
Here in the U.S. at CVS pharmacy, I've seen Venmo option on their self check outs.
lol...like the business has a choice?
Before COVID it was almost 50/50 cash/credit and now we're at 25/75 cash/credit because people learned to use their card more than before (Spain).
Banks make the choice, you use what the bank gives you in business, or you have no business.
In a practical sense it's true that most businesses can't afford to not accept Visa & MasterCard.
This is not a choice made by banks. The credit payment networks are not banks and are not owned and operated by banks.
A business does have the choice to accept other forms of payment besides Visa & MasterCard, which is the point I was making. If you want to use a different method to pay for something, the business has to accept that form of payment.
Correct, they are not owned (mostly) by banks, but the fees go to the bank and cc company for processing, so it's relatively the same. Also noted that when you open an account you don't have a choice of what company your debit/cc issued by the bank is. In the US & SA it was exclusively VISA (I've had one at one time or another since early 90s....fuck I'm old) and in the EU it's Mastercard...I haven't seen any other type issued....id love to see that change.
I will also add some banks are just CC companies in the US- the junk mail kind that offer zero rates, etc.
Cash for small physical payments. It's the most private payment system. There's no third party payment provider involved.
Seconded. Cash is simple and convenient, no app or phone necessary.
In India We use Rupay Card. Rupay Market share in india is more then 60%
If you're in Canada, Interac is a Canadian grown company. Just use your debit card and skip the credit if you can.
To use Wero, both the sender and recipient must have an account at one of our bank members in Germany, Belgium or France (source)
No Canadian bank or credit union offers JCB cards.
Basically the only option is Interac, but it only works inside Canada. If you want to use your Canadian debit card internationally, it's going to go through an American payment network like Cirrus, Maestro, or the Plus network (ie. MasterCard or Visa's network).
The payment options can expand, JCB was initially only available in the Japanese market and today there affiliated cards issued in Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Many canadian terminals here already accept them. They would be a great alternative.
Wero is experiencing massive growth in Europe where more and more banks are accepting them.
Nothing is set in stone.
Isn't JBC acceptance in many countries through partnership agreements with US American Express or Discovery cards? Doesn't that make them the same as using Visa or Mastercard?
I checked and it seems like only JCB is only independently used in Japan without the partnerships. I wonder why not the skip the middlemen and do it themselves?
Amex and Discover do not act as sketchy as Visa and Mastercard so no they’re not the same.
In the US, JCB and UnionPay cards are processed on Discover infrastructure. I suspect it's a matter of instant broad acceptance, which is more appesling than trying to sign up 5 million new merchants.
Not sure how they get their payments processed, though they give you a credit card to use. Might be US only
There are none that allows for practical day-to-day grocery purchases, and/or international travel. Someone please prove me wrong.
Amex is apparently the “little” guy I think? (I’d just linked this a second ago)
While they are smaller, they're worse for businesses as their fees are higher
In AU at least most places here will pass fees onto the cardholder as a surcharge. Very rare to find a business that eat the surcharge these days.
Edit: Larger businesses yeah they will eat it, I'm more speaking of smaller businesses.
Interesting, in Croatia I've seen only a handful of very small businesses do that, not a single chain of stores does that.
Is Discover a good choice?
Not anymore since it was acquired by Capital One.