> I'm sure the fees are significantly lower for debit vs. credit cards.
This used to be the case, but in recent discussions with retail owners I've been told that the fees are now comparable.
In my Canadian city high-volume, low-price businesses such as independent fast food places take debit only since credit card charges would remove a good bit of their margin on a sale.
Yeah, true. But isn't it still in the neighborhood of 2%?
0.05% + 22¢ for debit cards.
That is an insane amount of money to be losing if/when this thing takes off. There must be more to the story.
I don't think so. Its a user acquisition cost. Instead of putting up Ads, they're offering a free service. Good tactic.