Retailers charging transaction fees

[huckfinn]

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.

Fair comment....agree with the credit unions and such. I don't know if another bank like the 5 could open in Canada; I mean, there might be legislation or something restricting it, so that is why the credit unions and such have opened. The only difference is, they are owned by their members.

The regulations in the US have increased to ensure the mortgage meltdown doesn't happen again......they might cry that it is stopping them from making a profit, but it is in the best interest of the economy in general.

Credit card issuers seem to use banks, or operations like Chase to back them. Sears for instance, uses Chase. Mortgage brokers negotiate mortgages with banks, or private lenders.

 

[explorerzip]

Probably too lazy to go to an ATM to take out money.

Depending on who you bank with, it can be tough to find an ATM. TD has more ATM's and branches across the GTA than the other guys. You can use a Frisco Bay or a store ATM, but they ding you big time on fees.

 

[Occasionally]

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?

Thanks. No wonder I never see fees to use a credit card.

 

[benstt]

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.

Well, and the fact the US delliberately deregulated some aspects. (Below.) The other was that credit derivatives were more complicated than the wiz kids realized.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Legislation

Quote -

The term Glass–Steagall Act usually refers to four provisions of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933 that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations within commercial banks and securities firms.[1] Congressional efforts to “repeal the Glass–Steagall Act” referred to those four provisions (and then usually to only the two provisions that restricted affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms.[2] Those efforts culminated in the 1999 Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), which repealed the two provisions restricting affiliations between banks and securities firms.[3]