When I was paying at a local shop recently, I mentioned to the owner I'm trying to pay cash now rather than card because Visa is a US company and he he thanked me, since using a credit card costs them money.
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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It’s not all or nothing as you have options folks:
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If you still want to use credit cards to increase your credit rating and to receive the cashback you can just Interac/cash/direct deposit for small businesses and charities then use the credit cards for the big guys.
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You can also just boycott Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover for the duration of the trade war or the Trump presidency.
Sometimes incremental change is the way to go.
Additional information from Goodsuniteus on the political contributions of the credit processors:
Visa: 51% democrat / 49% republican / very high contribution level.
Mastercard: 56% democrat / 44% republican / very high contribution level.
American Express: 56% democrat / 44% republican / very high contribution level.
Discover: 72% democrat / 28% republican / very high contribution level. (May be acquired by Capital One)
Capitol One: 48% democrat / 52% republican / contribution level very high.
PayPal: 66% democrat / 34% republican / contribution level high.
Apple Pay: 85% democrat / 15% republican / contribution level very high.
Google Pay: 85% democrat / 15% republican / contribution level very high.
Samsung Pay: 63% democrat / 37% republican / contribution level medium. (At least South Korean)
Why do companies put money on both parties? If I'm a candidate and they give money to my enemy it's like not giving me money at all right? Right?
Good post. This is pretty much what I do.
Same with mastercard.
I nearly asked "What about American Express?". Sometimes I wonder how I graduated kindergarten.
It's okay, there are 35(?) countries I believe in America. 1 that gets talked about a lot. Being that they are discussing this from Canada in America, I'd say it's safe to consider maybe American Express could have been from Canada. Mexico, Argentina, Brasil, and most other large countries in America aren't English primary, so it would be harder to pass them off.
From my experience, all countries in North and South America (except the U.S.) refrain from referring to anything they do as American because they would 100% be assumed to be U.S.
Indeed, it took me a while to realize the other person meant "The Americas," aka North and South America and not the US, aka "America."
Mine as well. I also used to spell Brasil with a z, but since Bubba Gump tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico I'm avoiding our naming conventions.
In Brazil, there is no alternative :(
For a huge chunk of the internet there isn't one either. If Visa/Mastercard suddenly decide they don't want to do business with you anymore, you're fucked.
The Canadian banks are big enough to build a wholly Canadian credit system for global use, especially if they could get everyone in Canada (and maybe elsewhere) to switch right now.
They probably get too many incentives from Visa and Mastercard to find it enticing though, which is why they're always pushing credit cards and offering cashback and airmiles, etc.
I think there is a European alternative being developed. Perhaps we can get in on that.
The Canadian banks are big enough to build a wholly Canadian credit system for global use
lol Canadian banks don’t even do their own credit analysis, and they rely on interac… they can’t even rollout the basics
I work for an American credit card company, and my advice is to ditch credit and debit cards entirely. Use cash.
Credit cards (when used correctly) is one of the few pro consumer products we have left.
Most cards come with fraud protection, something you cannot get with cash, checks, or gift cards.
Similarly, most cards come with purchase protections like extended warranties. I have a credit card that gives me free damage protection on my cell phone so long as I pay the monthly bill with it.
I'm not saying cash isn't great but there are good reasons to use a credit card. At least for now.
I don't think those benefits are worth it when you consider the cost of having your purchase history and personal data for sale to anyone who wants it.
Yeah one of the few fixes to our shitty situation is to end surveillance capitalism. It’s deconstructing our behaviors trending them and exploiting them vs ourselves and the people around us.
Cash becomes a component of a healthy surveillance free (ish) lifestyle. But you probably wouldn’t be posting on any internet site if you were all in on it enough for swapping over to cash to matter. haha.
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As another American who works in the industry, it's a wedding cake of frighteningly bad software piled on top of well-intentioned but poorly implemented mandates piled on top of willful ignorance frosted with solving problems people don't actually have. And the little couple on top are both the capitalist pigman from a 1930s Soviet poster that we all recognize thanks to Hexbear :`(
I prefer cash too.
Good info from the inside, thanks. I had some money in a Digital Payments ETF but I recently dumped it and moved the money to a European fund instead. This makes me feel a bit better about that decision.
I would love to hear your side of things. Cash is better for curbing impulse spending and it is of course anonymous but it is inconvenient. I feel like there's a target on my back when I walk around with more than a couple hundred dollars.
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I actually need the cash back I get from my credit card though, it's more than 1000 per year
But you do understand that if credit card cash backs didn’t exist, prices would likely fall by more than the cash back?
Here is the problem. You're not going to get the general population to care enough to change their behavior, and then the only people who miss out are the people who are no longer getting their cash back off their whiny self-righteous protest that amounted to less than a rounding error.
Case in point: I live in one of the most liberal cities in the United States. There is technically supposed to be a one month long boycott (lol) of Target right now. Guess the parking lot of which local retailer is still as packed as it always is every day?
People won't give a shit until they are massively inconvenienced with no alternatives.
Yeah that makes sense
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Ahh, so as an American my only option is cash. 😔
Cash is better for privacy too. Don't be paying for that abortion, gun, or donation to environmental cause in this climate with Visa.
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I’m on board for this but this proposal is up against a familiar devil: the network effect.
Shops support Visa and Mastercard because customers use them, customers use them because shops support them. This creates a powerful network that is extremely difficult for an upstart to unseat.
So while it’s a good idea to encourage people to take individual action on this — and you’re doing a great job doing so, and I’m taking it to heart for my own actions — we also need to accompany this with a policy solution to help overcome the network effect.
You're right and the network effect would be very hard to overcome for this. It would need a lot of media attention just like liquor and alcohol.
I whipped this up too.
Add interac and keep fees in Canada slogan
This is super cool. And you’ve inspired this Canadian to start moving more payments to Interac. Love the message and I’m on board.
My suggestion to accompany this with policy is not an alternative to taking personal action, but complementary.
One piece of constructive feedback on the artwork— it might be helpful to stress the positive aspect front and centre. For example lead with Interac with a maple leaf, and the American systems in lower prominence by having them 2/3 sized and positioned below.
Please don’t misconstrue my feedback in your mind as an attempt to distract or demoralize you through bike-shedding or anything like that. You’re doing great stuff and it’s inspiring.
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is this the same interac corporation that won't do anything about their god awful etransfer system? no app like venmo or cashapp? how many years did it take them to implement autodeposit? why do etransfers sometimes take 1 hour?
You're complaining about something Interac does that credit cards can't even do? I'll wait while you send money with Visa by text.
No. I'm comparing interac to Venmo.
Ah, I see. I was comparing Interac to credit cards.
my point is that Interac is not without faults. They have an unfair monopoly over peer to peer transfers of money between banks.
For this to work, Interac needs to incentivize using it like credit cards do.
All types of loans require a credit score of some kind, and credit cards are one of the best ways to build this. Additionally, credit cards usually offer some kind of return.
Also because of poverty, a lot of people have a dependency on credit or payment plans.
Interac needs to make a Canadian answer to the credit card.
I'm European. We don't get credit card benefits, we just get stolen from. Everyone uses them nonetheless.
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YES, I ain't even Canadian but been saying this since day, those 2 companies are such a huge factor in how much leverage this 2 party dictatorship has over majority of the world, that and Microsoft, Apple, Google etc. This is why Cash is King, and using American payment processors just feeds their power and leverage over global finance.
You can see how its affected Russia when US payment processors halted operations as part of sanctions. The only viable alternative is using Monero for online transactions and physical cash.
Monero is the only realistic and promising way of paying people online without relying on the two largest payment processors on the planet, fully under the control of the US. The ONLY crypto that's actually treated and used as a currency, rather than a stock like btc, and actually has any real world use and offers privacy.
I’ve given up taking visa / Amex / Mastercard. My business now only accepts Interac e-transfer and cash.
Interac is hands down the most secure way to pay for something. I never have to take a card from a customer, the customer never has to take on additional debt, the money is automatically deposited into my account within seconds, and it costs me absolutely no money to do this and I have to pay no money to a merchant to make it happen.
I wish I could do this at more places.
See, not using Google Pay is something even I, a non-Canadian, European person can do. doingmypart.jpg!
Most bigger Dutch banks used to have their own payment app, but they've all switched to integrating with Google Pay, and removed the alternative.
I've gotten used to mobile payments — to the point where I don't even know my debit card pin anymore — so it's hard to switch back, but damn is it annoying the service companies have gone evil.
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Just like tipping, a percentage system makes no sense. It's the exact same work to bring me a $50 meal vs a $500 one. And for payment processing, a flat fee makes much more sense because there's no difference in processing a $100 transaction vs a $10,000 one.
So why does a percentage-based system persist? Because workers want higher wages (understandable when restaurants refuse to pay them more and expect the customer to pay part of their income). And for giant corporations like Visa and MasterCard, it's literally never enough for them. They can make more money, so that's the only reason. It's so dumb...
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I have never yet had a problem challenging and reversing a charge made to my credit card. Their fraud detection also seems to be superior. On the other hand, members of my family have had to jump through hoops when challenging fraudulent Interac transactions. They have felt like they are being seen as the more likely perpetrator, and meanwhile the money is no longer in their account while the process drags out. Very stressful.
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I have a cash back VISA card. The week after Jan 20, I pulled my card info off every online service I use, stopped using the card entirely, and a few days ago canceled it completely. It was a tough choice. I generally earned about $600 a year cash back, but it's time to free ourselves of America and forge our own path. I don't really see the Can/American relationship ever being repaired at this point. Time to move on.
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