Seven Eleven Credit Card Rebellion

I heard on NPR today that there is rebellion against the credit card fees in the retail sector. They said that most retailers survive on a 2% margin on sales which tends to be under attack by the credit cards' voracious appetite to get more per sale.

They talked about a 7-11 petition for customers to ask the credit card companies to roll-back fees. The reporter said that Visa was taking $.10 a transaction plus a 1% interchange rate for simple credit cards and debit cards. Gift and foreign cards had higher rates. The 7-11 Convenience store was complaining about the high rate which was hard to predict, arbitrary and on a typical small purchase of $2.50, is about 5%.

I've often wondered why Walmart, in their relentless pursuit of lower prices for customers, have not gone after credit card expense. Is it because they also are in the credit card business so they are making money on it? (By the way, this is total speculation, I have no idea whether Walmart offers credit cards). Is it because Walmart has a special deal with the card companies are are paying a much lower rate than everybody else? (again, total speculation, I have no insight and haven't yet researched it).

Costco doesn't allow Visa or Mastercard credit cards in their stores. You either pay with Amex or a debit card. Is that part of a strategy to attack those fees?

Anybody know?

The easy way out

Under great time pressure to get it done, I agreed to go with Paypal. The rates are reasonable and the whole thing can get set up in a few hours. It's simple. No sales people, no complexity, no delays.

We are using the Paypal as a merchant account option.

I'll tell you how it goes.

Need a new vendor

I've started a new online business and am setting it up separately than the original. It gets it's own tax ID, corporation, paypal, adsense, and credit card account. I don't want to use my original vendor (too many eggs in the same small basket) so I'm looking for someone to set up with.

Authorize.net seems to be the name brand. If anyone wants to bid, contact me asap. It starts with a zero run-rate and I expect to collect a million dollars in the first year, most of it in the first three months (August through October) as a back to school thing.

Yes, I'm in a hurry.

Payments will mostly be $99 or $49. Contact me as creditcardsonline101 @ a gmail email.

jo