[UPDATE 3.15.2019] Merchants on a traditional pricing program have reported that email notices of the planned price increase have already been circulating ahead of the April adjustment.
Visa / Mastercard are mulling increasing their interchange / wholesale fees in April 2019, Reuters & Wall Street Journal reports.
Unfortunately for Merchants, the landmark $6 billion settlement of September 2018 is practically nullified when Visa/Mastercard’s cost of paying the penalty is recycled back to merchants - the very group the settlement was supposed to protect. As the old gambling adage goes, “If you play long enough. The house always wins.”
“A Visa spokesperson confirmed that the fee hikes would go into effect in April, 2019, but only for merchant banks, and not merchants”, according to the Reuters article. However, banks are not known for their benevolence, or for reducing profits by absorbing costs. So they are likely to pass on these fee increases to the merchants which result in an increase in interchange fees. Interchange fees are what merchants pay to banks when consumers use a credit or a debit card to make a purchase from their store.
“Recently, the two companies along with several U.S. banks, had to pay over $6 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by merchants who accused the credit card companies of violating federal antitrust laws by forcing merchants to pay swipe fees and prohibiting them from directing consumers toward other methods of payment.” - Reuters
Upgrading to Rate Lock Zero is the first step in stopping the cycle. A strategically structured cash discount program eliminates credit card fees and rewards cash paying patrons with nominal (if any) disruption in consumer behavior.
Upgrade to Rate Lock Zero here.