Visa To Shut Down Cash Discount January 1st?
So this is JUST A RUMOR.....
I have heard rumblings of Visa to shut down "non compliant" Cash Discount programs starting at the 1st of the year.
It is no secret Visa is not happy with the way CD is being sold, and most importantly they simply did not expect to have the impact it has on the industry. Visa only allow's Surcharges and a Cash/Credit prices because it was mandated by law.
If Visa was not forced into allowing merchants to "tarnish" and "discourage" credit card usage it would have never allowed it to happen. Too bad we are here now.
So what is going to happen with all of the non compliant CD programs? When I say non complaint I mean the ones that are still charging the customer a fee for using a SIGNATURE DEBIT card. In my opinion any Debit card should have never been allowed to be called "cash" as long as the merchant is charged to use the network.
The truth is nothing is going to happen!! There is simply no way Visa can effectively police the 10's of thousands of merchants on these programs.
So far I have seen these methods Visa has been made aware of non-compliant cash discount programs.
- Customer gets upset about the "service charge" and calls/reports it to Visa
- Bancard Agent that is mad cause they didn't close the deal call/reports it to Visa
- Tattle-tale Bancard Agent plays Cop and calls/reports it to Visa
- Visa secret shops the merchant (only seen on convenience stores so far)
Truthfully the ISO's and Agents that are against the CD program are the ones destroying the program. We are self imploding! Finally there was a way to bring margin back into our business and we destroy it ourselves!
I think there is still hope!! Hybrid programs will start popping up. Just like our Newest XeroPoint. Program. It's a Hybrid. The merchant only pays 1% for debit transactions while the Credit cards are still assessed a fee. This way everyone can be happy. It is in compliance with Visa, the merchant only pays 1% on debit cards, and we still make some margin.
I still foresee non-compliant CD programs sticking around for quite some time! So Enjoy the Margins while they last and invest in some real-estate!
Happy Selling,
Derrick Hess
www.processinginc.com
985-401-1178 X.101
President/Co-Founder & Managing Partner -- Leading By Example at Bryte Payment Solutions
5 年Great read Derrick. I have so many questions too. Curious to where the rumor started??
Your Payments Solution Expert @ Nationwide Payment Systems | New Business Development * Payment Processing Software
5 年Lol