enthalpy

Wednesday, December 03, 2003


For once, Wal-Mart does something that doesn't make me want to puke. They've stopped accepting signature required debit payments from MasterCard. It's about damn time, and I hope Wal-Mart has enough pull to see that this doesn't come back.

If you use a debit card as a credit card, the credit card company (MasterCard) gets 3% of the transaction. But if you input a PIN, the bank issuing the card charges between 75ยข and $1.50 for the transaction. For using the same card! So by using a PIN as opposed to a signature, you save the retailer (and ultimately, yourself) some money, and for someone like Wal-Mart, that adds up to Billions a year.
"Wal-Mart has demonstrated that when they get committed to a program like this, they can hold their breath for a long time," he said. "I think it is likely that MasterCard will end up having to give some concessions to make this work."
Too many times this has happened where Wal-Mart has flexed its retail muscle to screw the little guys. It's a good change to see that they're stickin' it to MasterCard, for screwing us all out of our money, while doing almost noting in return.



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