Prusa Store Request  

RE: Prusa Store Request

Probably a decent idea.  I am still not sure I want another form of credit.  

RE: Prusa Store Request

What most consumers don't understand: vendors pay that 3% cash back out of their product purchase as a fee to VISA (includes Mastercard/Discover/AMEX, etc).

That's right: when you pay with a VISA card, the merchant pays the bank handling the transaction a very high transaction fee. Cash back cards charge the banks (and merchants) that higher fee.

So when you ask Prusa to accept a 10% cash back card, Prusa will simply raise everyone's price 10% plus margin.  Why raise it for everyone? Because VISA requires merchants NOT allow discounts for cash purchasers: it's in the contract a merchant signs when applying to use VISA (et al).

Ever see a store NOT accept AMEX?  That was pretty common because AMEX had much higher merchant fees. Merchants lost money by accepting AMEX over VISA.  It's also why VISA/MC won the CC wars.

So - next time you pull out your cash back CC and think you are winning: just remember the merchant RAISED prices to accept that form of card.

RE: Prusa Store Request

Posted by: Tim

What most consumers don't understand: vendors pay that 3% cash back out of their product purchase as a fee to VISA (includes Mastercard/Discover/AMEX, etc).

That's right: when you pay with a VISA card, the merchant pays the bank handling the transaction a very high transaction fee. Cash back cards charge the banks (and merchants) that higher fee.

Not to get too deep into this, but what you have said is not entirely accurate. The vendor can choose his CC processor and shop around for the best rates. The more volume you do, the better your rate from the CC processor. One of the corporate entities where I work shopped around and only pays 1.5%. I would guess that a Wal Mart could get down to .5% or lower.

Also, it isn't Visa that says cash customers cannot get a discount. Most states have laws preventing this.

RE: Prusa Store Request

Posted by: richard.l

Posted by: Tim

What most consumers don't understand: vendors pay that 3% cash back out of their product purchase as a fee to VISA (includes Mastercard/Discover/AMEX, etc).

That's right: when you pay with a VISA card, the merchant pays the bank handling the transaction a very high transaction fee. Cash back cards charge the banks (and merchants) that higher fee.

Not to get too deep into this, but what you have said is not entirely accurate. The vendor can choose his CC processor and shop around for the best rates. The more volume you do, the better your rate from the CC processor. One of the corporate entities where I work shopped around and only pays 1.5%. I would guess that a Wal Mart could get down to .5% or lower.

Also, it isn't Visa that says cash customers cannot get a discount. Most states have laws preventing this.

Mmm.  The states are hold us down.  

RE: Prusa Store Request

Posted by: Tim

What most consumers don't understand: vendors pay that 3% cash back out of their product purchase as a fee to VISA (includes Mastercard/Discover/AMEX, etc).

In that VISA (or MasterCard) is paying you cash back out of their profits, yes, that's true.  However, that has nothing to do with this post.  Prusa can use whatever processor they want and whatever service they want.  So maybe with Stripe they get a 2% fee and with someone else it's 2.25% or lower if they can get it... great.

Apple Pay does not, in fact, take ANYTHING from the business -or- the consumer, it takes a small percentage from the processor.  I really don't understand why there is instant resistance to an idea while throwing in tons of assumptions about the thing.  I even provided the link to the technical details in my original post.

Here is a quote from a simplified article about it:

Does Apple Pay charge a fee?

Yes.  There is no doubt of this.  However the revenue is not taken from the consumer or the merchant.  Apple has negotiated with the payment card issuing banks to receive  a very small portion of the Interchange fee that a swiped transaction would have normally  incurred.  The foundational premise Apple used to convince the banks to share about 0.10% of the approximate 1.60% of typical interchange, is there is significantly less fraud potential with the Apple Pay method.  Thus these banks faced a reasonable level of potential savings that would continue to accrue as Apple Pay became more popular, thereby significantly diminishing overall system wide fraud and misuse losses.

Article Source: https://www.quora.com/Does-Apple-take-a-percentage-of-Apple-Pay-transactions

RE: Prusa Store Request

Yes True...... Even I do agree with you.

RE: Prusa Store Request

Posted by: Zetta

Apple Pay does not, in fact, take ANYTHING from the business -or- the consumer, it takes a small percentage from the processor.  I really don't understand why there is instant resistance to an idea while throwing in tons of assumptions about the thing.  I even provided the link to the technical details in my original post.

Here is a quote from a simplified article about it:

Does Apple Pay charge a fee?

Yes.  There is no doubt of this.  However the revenue is not taken from the consumer or the merchant.  Apple has negotiated with the payment card issuing banks to receive  a very small portion of the Interchange fee that a swiped transaction would have normally  incurred.  The foundational premise Apple used to convince the banks to share about 0.10% of the approximate 1.60% of typical interchange, is there is significantly less fraud potential with the Apple Pay method.  Thus these banks faced a reasonable level of potential savings that would continue to accrue as Apple Pay became more popular, thereby significantly diminishing overall system wide fraud and misuse losses.

Article Source: https://www.quora.com/Does-Apple-take-a-percentage-of-Apple-Pay-transactions

 

And...the processor passes the additional amount taken by Apple to the business, which then passes it down to the consumer. Noone is going to give up any profits for this.

RE: Prusa Store Request

Posted by: richard.l
And...the processor passes the additional amount taken by Apple to the business, which then passes it down to the consumer. Noone is going to give up any profits for this.

I'm sorry but this is just factually incorrect.  

Given that is the case, I would imagine that the incentive to the processor is that they gain a captive audience with a billion iPhone users there are likely to be a LOT of transactions.  Given that Apple went with MasterCard (the underdog) they are more likely to want a piece of something rather than a piece of nothing.

Have you ever set up Apple Pay?  It doesn't cost you more than any other credit card processor. (all are within 0.5 percent of each other in my experience)

RE: Prusa Store Request

Moved from Software category to General discussion. I will talk to our eshop guys about including Apple Pay 😉

RE: Prusa Store Request

Whenever I try to order from the e-shop, my credit card denies the transaction, because obviously an American buying from some rando company in the Czech Republic has to be fraudulent, right? 🙄 And so I’m forced to use PayPal, which hasn’t always been great for Prusa.

So ApplePay would really seem like a win-win.

RE: Prusa Store Request

Well - my experience is a bit dated but factual - I owned a retail store way back when while I was doing mostly contracting (time between contracts and all), and I can attest to the fact my statement is true.  Yes, you can and I did shop processors, negotiate for fees based on volume and average sale, but at the end of the day if someone walks in with a card offering 5% cash back, despite that contract I as a merchant had no way of knowing that unless I called my processor or the bank hosting the card and asked (and trust me, this was not information they want to give vendors).   If I simply accepted every card, the extra fees became an unknown variable on my bottom line.  I did not accept Discover for this reason, too many unknown "cash back" levels, and AMEX was just too high overall (as was Diner's Club, Euro Card, etc.).  

16. PROCESSING FEES.
16.1 Fee Schedule. Merchant will pay Processing Fees in the amount specified in the Fee Schedule attached to the Merchant Application or as otherwise provided for in this Merchant Agreement or an Addendum thereto. Bank may increase the Processing Fees by giving Merchant thirty (30) days advance written notice effective for Transactions submitted on and after the effective date of the change.
16.2 Card Association Actions. Bank will not be required to provide the Merchant with thirty (30) days notice of an increase in Processing Fees in the event that any Card Association, or any other entity having such authority increases the Processing Fees and the effective date for implementation of the increase in the Processing Fees is less than thirty (30) days. In such cases, the Bank shall make reasonable efforts including, but not limited to, written correspondence, notification on statements, website notification, email, fax and direct contact via the telephone or otherwise, to provide reasonable notification to Merchant. However, failure to provide advance notice of the increase in Processing Fees will not affect Merchant’s obligation to pay the increased Processing Fees. The increase(s) in Processing Fees shall be effective on the date specified by Bank. 
16.3 Payment. Processing Fees and other service charges owed by Merchant to Bank may be deducted by Merchant Bank from amounts due Merchant, or from the Settlement Account or from the Reserve Account. Merchant will pay the amounts due by the next Business Day if sufficient funds are not available in the Settlement Account.

RE: Prusa Store Request

Posted by: @tim-m30

Well - my experience is a bit dated but factual - I owned a retail store way back when while I was doing mostly contracting (time between contracts and all), and I can attest to the fact my statement is true.  Yes, you can and I did shop processors, negotiate for fees based on volume and average sale, but at the end of the day if someone walks in with a card offering 5% cash back, despite that contract I as a merchant had no way of knowing that unless I called my processor or the bank hosting the card and asked (and trust me, this was not information they want to give vendors).   If I simply accepted every card, the extra fees became an unknown variable on my bottom line.  I did not accept Discover for this reason, too many unknown "cash back" levels, and AMEX was just too high overall (as was Diner's Club, Euro Card, etc.).  

16. PROCESSING FEES.
16.1 Fee Schedule. Merchant will pay Processing Fees in the amount specified in the Fee Schedule attached to the Merchant Application or as otherwise provided for in this Merchant Agreement or an Addendum thereto. Bank may increase the Processing Fees by giving Merchant thirty (30) days advance written notice effective for Transactions submitted on and after the effective date of the change.
16.2 Card Association Actions. Bank will not be required to provide the Merchant with thirty (30) days notice of an increase in Processing Fees in the event that any Card Association, or any other entity having such authority increases the Processing Fees and the effective date for implementation of the increase in the Processing Fees is less than thirty (30) days. In such cases, the Bank shall make reasonable efforts including, but not limited to, written correspondence, notification on statements, website notification, email, fax and direct contact via the telephone or otherwise, to provide reasonable notification to Merchant. However, failure to provide advance notice of the increase in Processing Fees will not affect Merchant’s obligation to pay the increased Processing Fees. The increase(s) in Processing Fees shall be effective on the date specified by Bank. 
16.3 Payment. Processing Fees and other service charges owed by Merchant to Bank may be deducted by Merchant Bank from amounts due Merchant, or from the Settlement Account or from the Reserve Account. Merchant will pay the amounts due by the next Business Day if sufficient funds are not available in the Settlement Account.

I fully agree 😉 nor banks, processors, neither APPLE are charity organisations. The charity at the end is always paid by end consumers, even in case money to charity is sent from APPLE account.