Visa and Mastercard are American companies, and they essentially tax everybody by taking a percentage of purchase prices for themselves. Not exactly a small percentage either, 1.2% to 2.65%. Ever wonder why so many merchants say they don’t accept American Express? That’s because they charge quite a bit more to merchantes, 50% more than Visa or Mastercard. Anyway, we’re letting American companies tax us and we love them because we get rewards when we use cards. But it’s just a shell game because we pay more up front because businesses need to charge more to make up for payment processing charges. They get to sit in the middle and rake in the money.
Now the alternative in Canada is Interac. Interac charges a set amount per transcation. How much? 2 to 5.5 cents. Unless you’re going through Apple or Google Pay, and then it’s a percentage again.
Interac is also Canadian.
Want to stick it to Trump? Stop using credit cards (and Google Pay or Apple Pay) and switch to Interac. Want to make Canada better? Stop using credit cards and switch to Interac. Is it going to be inconvenient? Yes. Online shopping will be much harder but I have seen online Interac payments before and we can ask our favourite Canadian merchants to accept Interac online.
The other major advantage of credit cards is consumer protection. Generally speaking you can’t file a dispute or do a charge back on a debit transaction – or at least it’s very difficult and time-consuming. Credit cards offer a certain amount of peace-of-mind when it comes to things like fraudulent transactions.
True, though Debit cards offer some protections as well. I mean, interac cards do fully cover fraudulent charges already under their zero liability policy, so I’m guessing your main point is that it’s “easier” to challenge bogus cc payments.
But in general, while I agree it’s a feature of the cards, I don’t think it’s a ‘main’ thing that drives their usage. Sorta like, in the interac card agreements, there’s usually a clause that says buying something with a warranty on debit, adds a year to the warranty period, up to a max of something like 5 years - so the default 1y warranty turns into 2y. It’s a nice feature, if you take advantage of it. But that’s not something that most people know/care/take advantage of, and it’s not a ‘driving’ feature for people adopting/using interac cards.