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Comment by lvl102 | Hacker News Reader

It’s 2023 and we are still letting these companies take money from EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION.

This is the single greatest open scam in the world.

They provide a service. Handling payments is never free. It's up to governments to do their job and cap fees where the market cannot do it on its own.

Let's be 100% clear on this - nobody is forcing the merchants into accepting credit cards. In fact, many don't. They do fine as cash-only businesses.

The hard economic reality is that accepting credit cards increases your sales, presumably enough to make the interchange fees worth it.

At last, Afterpay, Affirm etc. charge 600 bps (6%) interchange for their 4 split payments offer. Again, no one forces merchants to accept these payment methods, but the ones that do clearly see the benefit to the top line resulting from higher conversions.

I get what you're saying, but those systems don't pay for themselves. How should payment processing be funded if not per transaction?

> How should payment processing be funded if not per transaction? reply

Taxes? Do you pay a toll to use each and every road for your car?

Do something like what India has done.

The "road toll" may not be the best example.

At least in New York, you pay a toll every time you cross most bridges and every time you enter/exit a thruway (aka "freeway" in other parts of the country)

So in New York do you have to pay a toll for each and every road, if not then its a good example.

It only made sense when banks were much smaller and we didn’t have smartphones and cheap internet.

You’re paying for a network that’s lost value. You’re paying for a brand at this point. It’s a scam.

Even a flat fee would be better. Cost doesn't really increase with higher dollar transactions; cash doesn't physically move just because a card was used.

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