Cash or Credit?

By Econ70 | 07/25/2012

While stores have always been able to offer cash-paying customers a discount, the recent settlement with Visa, Mastercard and bank credit-card issuers now allows stores to add a charge (equal to the swipe fee) for credit-card payments. Since stores can now disclose the fee, they suddenly have more leverage to negotiate lower swipe fees. Bet…

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Swiped Away

By Econ70 | 12/08/2011

Due to Dodd-Frank, the Fed capped fees merchants pay credit card companies (CCCs) on debit cards (DCs) to about 21 cents from about 44 cents. When the fee was 44 cents, CCCs often reduced DC fees on small transactions; less than $5 or $10. Because the fee was lowered, CCCs now want the full 21…

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