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Comment on Hot Ones trying to sneak in the package protection

historicaldocuments@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

See also: merchants charging a ~3% fee if you use a credit card because similarly covering the cost of a payment processor is increasingly becoming a cost that is not absorbed. Even with medical practices!

At least this is easy to understand, though. Credit card processor charges us X% so we’re passing that on. We used to eat it or fold it into business costs, but with the economy doing it’s slow-death we can’t anymore.

What really gets me, especially with large purchases like a medical bill or a transmission replacement for example is that 3 or more % quickly becomes advantageous for the processor. On a $10,000 that 3% becomes $300, and it did not get $297 more expensive to wiggle some bits around over a $100 payment’s $3. Then, some businesses decide that the best way to offset that cost is something akin to an ACH transfer…just hand over your bank account information and don’t worry about it!

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MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Yea, this is a conversation I’ve had with plenty of small businesses owners now. There was this mom and pop sandwich shop that was used to a bunch of blue collar workers and day laborers paying in cash. Their clientele shifted once big companies started moving in and a lot of people are paying with card. Then over the years the percent of card purchases climbs to 90%. People are coming in for a coffee and they’re paying in card so they eventually come up with a card minimum and everyone gets upset because they don’t carry cash so they stop going. I guess people are averse to using their debit cards due to fraud. They then just tack on a card fee instead and that’s that. I appreciate that approach because then people can still make a choice and it’s not raising prices across the board.

I mostly do B2B stuff now and ACH is pretty standard, though I still have some using checks.

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ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Definitely and the processor makes sure the floor is covered; my processor has 2.7%+ 15 cents per transaction to ensure they make a minimum amount per transaction, but there is no ceiling with any processor that I’m aware of

What’s also interesting is that with most processors the fee varies for in person and online with online being notably higher (1.5 vs 2.7% with mine). I suppose because online transactions are more likely to be fraudulent or something but ultimately the processing of the payment shouldn’t change between the settings

I eat the fee fwiw

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- historicaldocuments@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  the processor makes sure the floor is covered […] but there is no ceiling with any processor that I’m aware of
  
  Nobody’s in business to lose money.
  
  I suppose because online transactions are more likely to be fraudulent or something
  
  I can see that. I’ve been lucky enough to only see two cases of stolen card numbers, and in both cases there was a small purchase (to verify the number), and then largish purchases I guess to see if merchandise can get delivered before the fraud is noticed. I wonder if they write off on their taxes the fees on those largish, fraudulent purchases they catch.
  
  I guess with the costs of running all the servers to look for fraud, security on the whole works, hot backups, cold backups, etc, that 3% doesn’t look so bad for all that goes on behind the scenes, but it also doesn’t look like their stock prices are hurting (what the heck happened to Fiserv that owns Clover that they dropped 50%?).
  
  Do you also take American Express? Is there any difference on your end between Visa/Mastercard/AMEX? I’m genuinely curious since I remember all the old commercials.
  
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