the processor makes sure the floor is covered […] but there is no ceiling with any processor that I’m aware of
Nobody’s in business to lose money.
I suppose because online transactions are more likely to be fraudulent or something
I can see that. I’ve been lucky enough to only see two cases of stolen card numbers, and in both cases there was a small purchase (to verify the number), and then largish purchases I guess to see if merchandise can get delivered before the fraud is noticed. I wonder if they write off on their taxes the fees on those largish, fraudulent purchases they catch.
I guess with the costs of running all the servers to look for fraud, security on the whole works, hot backups, cold backups, etc, that 3% doesn’t look so bad for all that goes on behind the scenes, but it also doesn’t look like their stock prices are hurting (what the heck happened to Fiserv that owns Clover that they dropped 50%?).
Do you also take American Express? Is there any difference on your end between Visa/Mastercard/AMEX? I’m genuinely curious since I remember all the old commercials.
I like the credit card for most purchases because I’m just going to pay it off later anyway. I don’t buy a lot of cups of coffee or sodas, so that’s not an issue. The fraud recovery is worth it for me even if I’m paying the fee.
When food trucks became a thing locally you had to have cash, and you had to at least know enough words to specify the number on the menu and what type of meat you wanted. Now that same business has a bunch of local locations all doing card transactions, and maybe doing a cash discount. I wouldn’t know since the food <-> money+card_fee transaction is worth it to me. I would wager for that type of business that they pick up more overall business than they lose, and they really should teach at least a little bit of this in school so you don’t get people weirded out by a minimum fee, but then again I was in line at a gas station that had a “minimum purchase for cards” sign, and a guy was like $5 short. The cashier explained, guy goes and gets a $2 drink. Cashier explains again, guy goes back again and still doesn’t come up to the limit. A tacked on “hidden” CC fee probably saves a lot of trouble in the long run.
I’d be more amenable to ACH if I had a dedicated business account. I use it for my current broker, but balked once before when I signed up for Robinhood and one of the later steps was “now we just need your bank account and routing number.” Nah guys, I’ll pass. I’m assuming most checks these days get filed electronically anyway.