Chime Banking Now Supports Apple Pay

[tmiw]

It's still enough to cover the fraud. The government told the card issuers to reduce their debit card fees because the percentage charged to the merchants was too high for the amount of fraud that actually exists.

Credit card fees weren't touched, and the government should leave it alone. I like all of the benefits and higher rewards I get from credit cards BECAUSE they have higher interchange fees.

The caps were hardly put into place with anything in mind other than large retailers' bottom lines. Small businesses still pay the same ~3% they always have due to their processing contracts.

Want to actually help small business? Mandate interchange-plus pricing.

One reason they're failing is because of the EMV problem with debit certification. You can thank Durbin for that one, as well as a reduction in debit card rewards and free checking accounts (although they still exist to a much lesser extent). It's still weird to be able to withdraw cash at a cash register from your checking account without typing in a pin, while at the same time, having a PIN required at an ATM.

Debit network acceptance was a problem long before EMV. Without "signature" debit it's very possible that a lot of businesses would still be cash-only in 2016. Much easier for most merchants to just sign agreements with Visa/MC (and maybe Discover/AmEx too) than to sign with all ~20 debit networks.

Also, the higher interchange fee for credit networks basically helped to encourage banks to sign onto the whole thing.

However, those cards would be world capable in countries that have adopted chip and pin. I understand you can still use your chip and signature card at manned POS systems, but it's much more difficult to fuel up at the pump or buy train tickets without a card that has a PIN attached to it and set as the priority.

STAR/PULSE/etc. do not work outside the US. Also note that PIN is supported for kiosks on our chipped debit cards if needed. Visa/MC have also made significant strides in ensuring that PIN isn't needed at all for kiosks.

I love how Wegmans supports cash back at the register. I can get $10 bills instead of forced into getting $20's when I don't need them; I can save myself the $1 fee the store's ATM owner charges, and I can also save the $2.50 fee my bank would have charged. I'll save $3.50 per withdrawal and keep my card PIN. If I let someone borrow my card, with a pin, I can protect against them just draining my bank account and grabbing cash, where as with just a signature, they can just take all of my money.

If you bank with a major bank that has branches/ATMs in your area, ATM fees should not be a problem. Hell, that's true even with most online banks these days.

 

[American Hero]

Want to actually help small business? Mandate interchange-plus pricing.

I used to get my hair cut at a small business---until the crappy hours, stupid holidays off like MLK day, and the constant complaining about how it costs too much to upgrade to a chip reader finally ticked me off enough to leave and start going to Super Cuts. Thank god I stopped going to that place... Now I don't have to listen to the constant whining about her being "broke" all the time. When I received and starting using my Discover card, either her or her dumb husband pulled the Discover and AMEX stickers off the window, even though the cards still worked there. It really ticks me off when small business owners want to save a penny here and a penny there and then constantly whine about how broke they are. I'll continue to do business with a small business owner who doesn't whine constantly and actually is smart enough to run a business so they don't have to complain about how poor they are all the time.

It's really not that hard to accept credit cards as a small business... I mean really... take that $5 haircut and start charging $5.20 for it, wow that was hard! Instead of complaining about a 2%-4% interchange fee, use your brain. If not, then eat the $.20 interchange fee, and if it breaks your business, then you're a dumb business owner who needs to be employed by someone instead of being the employer.

I don't want to "help" a small business owner when they can help themselves by using their brain.

If you bank with a major bank that has branches/ATMs in your area, ATM fees should not be a problem. Hell, that's true even with most online banks these days.

I have Key Bank in my area. I can use their ATM for free, however, and it may seem like a 1st world problem but whatever, a 10 minute drive back and forth (so 20 minutes of my day, plus gas) certainly isn't worth avoiding a $1 ATM, or even $0 if the grocery store accepts withdrawal by debit. Besides, I need quarters to use the washer and dryer at my apartment... Not only is Wegmans two minutes away from my house, but they also can give me $10 in cash back to pay for a roll of quarters, not just $20's, and also provide that service without a fee, and without me having to waste 20 minutes of my day and extra gas for the privilege of getting cash.

 

[sudo1996]

OK, well that's not allowed per the merchant/issuer agreement, sorry. Look it up yourself if you don't believe me.

I believe you. I think they're just violating the rule. A lot of these places are sketchy, so I wouldn't put it above them. Yes, besides the places that offer a discount for using cash, there are places that say after you try to use credit that there's a surcharge of some amount greater than 4%.
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That's because we live in America. In other countries, you tap your card and go. American's are too afraid and sensitive of such technology.

I don't know. It's probably just because the cities haven't modernized their train systems. Berkeley's BART trains are old, slow, and screechy, and they don't even have proper signage at the stops. I hear my city-planning-major friend complain about it all the time.