I asked a cashier once why some people still pay with cash.1) Too old to change their habit.2) Illegal immigrant3) Don't want wife to know how much alcohol you are buying
Retailers charging transaction fees
- Thread starter huckfinn
- Start date
No-one is suggesting the banks give it away for free.....but when they post multi-billion dollar profits in a system that limits competition (5 banks) the complaint is their fees are too high.
I was a Senior Business Account Manager some time ago......small businesses typically come in just to deposit money. What I am suggesting is, their visits would be far less frequent if they went to plastic.
The 2.5% fee is to deposit money into an account for businesses......so, if they deposit 1000 cash they will be charge $25 for that service.
If they went to plastic (paper trail), wouldn't they have to declare all their sales for tax purposes?
Yes, that is part of it I am sure. I have often been in a convenience store paying cash, and the cashier doesn't hit the 'total' button, then the machine doesn't include that transaction when they 'close the till' and add up the days receipts.
They are publicly traded companies that ultimately answer to their shareholders. Blaming them for trying to return the biggest profit they can is silly. Do you blame Apple or Samsung or General Electric for the same thing? They are all in the same business - making money for their shareholders.
As for the system limiting competition, I'm not quite sure what you are talking about. There are 5 large, full service banks in Canada but there is nothing I am aware of stopping another from rising. In every significant aspect of their business they also have competition outside of the "big five"... for deposits there are tons of credit unions, that also give personal loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc. Lots of mortgage brokers and credit card issuers as well.
Banks are not crown corps - they are actually one of the most heavily regulated businesses (both here and in the US). In fact, the giants in banking like Bank of America, Chase, etc are having a hard time operating in the US because turning a profit has suddenly been deemed a bad thing.
I think the U.S. until very recently had something like 20,000 banks and some of them went broke. Canadians should be happy (but we are never happy) that we have a stable and profitable banking system where your money is safe and your pension plan investment in bank shares are appreciating in value.
It's called user fees.
What, did you really think we can go 10+ years without the government having to raise taxes? That's pretty naive.
This isn't really the whole story. The Canadian banks are somewhat creatures of the government, and not truly subject to competition. Why hasn't one of them been sold to a large foreign bank? Why were they not allowed to merge?
Consumers like the safety of the system, but let's not pretend that the big banks have serious competition. The issue the big 5 see is that canadian banking is a zero-sum market, so they expand elsewhere.
Do credit card companies enforce some kind of policy against retailers charging fees to customers for using credit cards?
I've always heard credit card places charge merchants about 3%. While debit card usage fees are lower.
Yet, in my experience I've seen more retailers charging customers small fees like 25 or 50 cents to use a debit machine if they buy less than $10.
You'd think retailers would be more likely to charge for using credit cards since 3% of a purchase can be a lot.
I've always heard credit card places charge merchants about 3%. While debit card usage fees are lower.
Yet, in my experience I've seen more retailers charging customers small fees like 25 or 50 cents to use a debit machine if they buy less than $10.
You'd think retailers would be more likely to charge for using credit cards since 3% of a purchase can be a lot.
Call me crazy, but I like how the Canadian banks are strong all all copy each other.
There's lots of branches and ATMs of each around, each seem financially sound, and even though they like to nickel and dime people, all you have to do is pick basic savings and chequing accounts and the fees are non-existent for basic transactions.
Getting burned with ATM fees isn't a big deal. There's so many of each ATM around.... BNS, RBC, CIBC etc... chances are good you'll pass by the one you use on the way to work.
Mortgages are at what?..... 2.5% now? You'd think with 5 strong banks who copy each other in a "wink, wink, nudge nudge way", they'd all follow each other and make loans and mortgage rates sky high. But they don;t.
There's lots of branches and ATMs of each around, each seem financially sound, and even though they like to nickel and dime people, all you have to do is pick basic savings and chequing accounts and the fees are non-existent for basic transactions.
Getting burned with ATM fees isn't a big deal. There's so many of each ATM around.... BNS, RBC, CIBC etc... chances are good you'll pass by the one you use on the way to work.
Mortgages are at what?..... 2.5% now? You'd think with 5 strong banks who copy each other in a "wink, wink, nudge nudge way", they'd all follow each other and make loans and mortgage rates sky high. But they don;t.
When I was in high school in the mid 80's, my Hasty Market owner made it known I could just as easily enter "$2 non taxable" on the register as entering "$1.87 taxable". I've also been in many independant stores where they just kept the till open and anyone paying with cash, they wouldn't enter it on the machine at all.
Regarding credit vs debit, I'm guessing that those stores that add a fee to use debit probably don't accept credit.
MasterCard and visa forbid surcharges as part of their merchant agreements.
Some retailers will indirectly get around this buy providing a 3% discount on cash purchases. I think it's silly as you are still discouraging a form of payment which could be an inconvenience to your customers. Unless you are in an extremely price sensitive business why not just roll your banking costs into your pricing?
I don't think the banks failed, but the mortgage companies and bond companies did.....I may be wrong tho...
Yes, the Americans have 3800 banks, and it is very difficult to regulate them.....probably the biggest cause of the financial problems in recent years.
Canada's is quite stable.
