The Way You Swipe Your Credit Card Comes With A Cost, At Least As Per VISA!

The debit card is something that you and I use so frequently, that we are hardly conscious of it. We hardly think about our debit card transactions unless for the very few minutes when we are actually in the process of the transaction. But Visa is one company that is minding all your debit card transactions. The way you swipe your debit card will determine how much money the company is going to make the retailers cough up as fees. This is so high that retail outlets like Costco and Walmart really limit the way you swipe your credit card.  These processes are opaque to the debit card users.

Signing The Bill V/S Typing Your Pin Makes A Huge Difference

As a customer, it might not make a difference to you weather you sign your debit card bill or type your PIN on it, but for the retail outlets this does make a big difference ! In a store like Walmart or Costco, if you sign the debt bill instead of punching your four digit pin code, the retailer has to pay up almost double the amount they’d have to as fees if the condition was otherwise. This is the reason these retail outlets are literally compelling the customers to type the codes, rather than put the signature. Some other retailers allowing the customers to sign but they are offering high incentives for those who’d opt to type in the Pins. Some of them still allow you to sign up the bills and it is a question to wonder why they would prefer that when they have a huge amount to pay up as a fees

Debit Card Companies Lure Banks With A Share In The Processing Fees

Banks issue debit cards and companies like Visa try to please the banks so that the banks issue more and more cards of their company. So, instead of trying to win over the customers or merchants, Visa concentrates more on pleasing banks. It promises to pay high processing fees by making the merchants cough up high fees through the swiping process. Nowadays, even PIN debit is costing more.

Bad Competition Of Debit Card Companies

Though companies make the debit cards, banks issue them. The banks, being the issuing authority need to be pleased and that financiers like Visa are all eager to do. If the debit card generating authorities would have directly issued cards to consumers, this fee would have been lifted off or lowered in value. However, this is not the case. To make matters worse, Visa also charges an interchange from the retailers which amounts to billions of dollars.

You, as a consumer, may think that you are not affected by the debit card fees, as it’s the retailer who pays it. But you should be aware that in the long run, the costs of these fees are going to be passed down to the customers in the form of high fees. So ultimately it’s you and I who are going to be affected by this.