In Europe, sure. In the US, not so much. Unless you want to make the argument that the fees charged in the US are effectively subsidizing European cardholders and merchants who enjoy a legally-mandated lower fee, Visa seems feel the European market is worth it even with their lower profit margins.
And even if you did want to make that argument, I'm not sure I care to subsidize Visa's profit margins in other places; capping fees in the US to a similar level as in Europe would be fine with me.
(Except maybe not really: I do very well with rewards from credit cards. Mandated lower fees would make those disappear overnight. Of course I can't prove that I wouldn't still be saving more money with mandated lower fees, though. But I think the average person would probably save with capped fees, and that's what's most important from a policy perspective.)
(Of course this presupposes that merchants set prices in order to pass along CC fees to the customer, rather than just charging whatever highest price the market will bear. If CC fees get reduced, prices might stay the same.)
danielmarkbruce|1 year ago
kelnos|1 year ago
And even if you did want to make that argument, I'm not sure I care to subsidize Visa's profit margins in other places; capping fees in the US to a similar level as in Europe would be fine with me.
(Except maybe not really: I do very well with rewards from credit cards. Mandated lower fees would make those disappear overnight. Of course I can't prove that I wouldn't still be saving more money with mandated lower fees, though. But I think the average person would probably save with capped fees, and that's what's most important from a policy perspective.)
(Of course this presupposes that merchants set prices in order to pass along CC fees to the customer, rather than just charging whatever highest price the market will bear. If CC fees get reduced, prices might stay the same.)