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Comment by blhack | Hacker News Reader

Visa and mastercard should be careful they don't compete their way out of a market. Stripe, square, apple, google, samsung, etc; there is no reason these companies couldn't band together to create their own clearing system. Visa and MC started as credit cards, but almost nobody I know uses them that way anymore. They're all bank cards, and visa/MC/Amex are just proxies. I see no reason why they can't be replaced, and I'm honestly hopeful that they will be.

Okay and seriously: I actually just want US Mint backed card. I think it's absolute lunacy that these private companies are essentially levying their own tax on consumer transactions. Cash is outdated, and the government should react appropriately. (And only in my most feverish of fever dreams: it's a cryptocurrency, and only at >104F temperatures, it's on the ethereum network. Oh boy a man can dream!)

In this world: Amex, Visa, and MC can go back to being credit cards.

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I mean the actual reason these companies are able to levy these taxes is because they provide contractual consumer protection. If we had strong consumer protection laws in the US in the first place, there wouldn't be much value left in Visa/MC etc.

Visa/MC are essentially the Uber of credit. The banks provide the credit lines and Visa/MC take a processing fee to use their networks. Amex is a pure play. Paypal in store is one way to avoid the CC network.

I don't think I follow you here. What consumer protections does visa offer me if I am using it as a bank card?

I haven't used a bank card in many years. Is it common for people to use bank cards for general purchases? I believe more people use credit cards now because of the many benefits, including consumer protections.

Yes this is very common. Most people I know use a bank card, which is powered by Visa's payment network, and ran as credit.

Far fewer to almost none, BUT by the same token interchange rates on bank/debit cards are way lower than they are on credit cards.

Here in Norway we got Vipps, a mobile payment system owned by the largest banks here, which recently beat all relevant competition.

At the beginning the transactions went through your credit card, but they added (optional) direct bank account access not long ago. They also quickly removed transaction fees for amounts < ~$500, above it's 1%.

They've also added ability to have company accounts, so that you can pay in kiosks, kebab shops or whatever with Vipps. And since they're backed by the banks you can get and pay your bills directly in the Vipps app. They're currently in integration talks with Paypal to make Paypal<->Vipps transactions more smooth.

So yeah, raising transaction fees isn't the first thing I'd do if I were Visa or MasterCard in Norway.

The clearing system isn’t the core part of the card brands value though. It’s their payment network. The fact that a card issued anywhere can be used to process payments to a majority of the worlds merchants and banks.

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