[kwlug-disc] Cash becoming illegal?

[John Van Ostrand]

----- Original Message -----
> Locally, cash is king even for large transactions (even land and real
> estate
> in some cases), because the credit card company takes 2% of the
> transaction. Something the vendor saves when dealing with cash.

This is the problem I have with credit cards is that they appear to offer *free* value. They make purchasing convenient but neglect to tell us that the vendor is charged a percentage. In fact this fee is undoubtedly passed along to us in some form. If you were given an option to have a 2% to 4% discount on something and pay by cheque, debit or cash would you? I'm guessing most of you would say yes when it comes to medium and large purchases. Conversely if you were told you would be charged that same 2% to 4% more because you're using a credit card would you still use it?

Visa actually introduced a new credit card last year, I forget the name. It added an extra couple of percent to the amount charged to vendors. The vendors contractually could not refuse to take payment using this card. Again the customer was unaware of the extra charge but the vendors were furious.

-- 
John Van Ostrand 
CTO, co-CEO 
Net Direct Inc. 
564 Weber St. N. Unit 12, Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6 
Ph: 866-883-1172 x5102 
Fx: 519-883-8533 

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