this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
552 points (98.4% liked)

Buy Canadian

1571 readers
806 users here now

A community dedicated to buying Canadian products.

Une communauté dédiée à l'achat de produits Canadiens.


Rules:

1. Posts must be related to buying Canadian-made goods and / or using Canadian-owned services

2. Absolutely no bigotry will be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.

3. AI Content Policy

Not allowed: AI-generated images or articles

Tolerated: AI-generated post summaries

4. Only content in French and English is permitted

5. Declare all self-promotion

Users are encouraged to report any content that violates our community guidelines


Règlements :

1. Les poteaux doivent être en lien avec l'achat de produits et / ou de services opérés par des canadiens

2. Aucune bigoterie ne sera tolérée. Ça comprend, mais sans se limiter à, le racisme, le sexisme, l’homophobie, la transphobie, etc.

3. Politique sur le contenu IA

Non permis : Images ou articles générés par l'IA

Toléré : Résumés IA de publications

4. Seul le contenu en français et en anglais n'est toléré

5. Déclarez toute auto-promotion

Les utilisateurs sont encouragés à signaler tout contenu qui ne respecte pas nos directives communautaires


Related communities: Communautés connexes :

!buyeuropean@feddit.uk !buyafrican@baraza.africa !boycottus@lemmy.ca !canada@lemmy.ca !canada@lemmy.ml ___

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Visa and Mastercard are American companies, and they essentially tax everybody by taking a percentage of purchase prices for themselves. Not exactly a small percentage either, 1.2% to 2.65%. Ever wonder why so many merchants say they don't accept American Express? That's because they charge quite a bit more to merchantes, 50% more than Visa or Mastercard. Anyway, we're letting American companies tax us and we love them because we get rewards when we use cards. But it's just a shell game because we pay more up front because businesses need to charge more to make up for payment processing charges. They get to sit in the middle and rake in the money.

Now the alternative in Canada is Interac. Interac charges a set amount per transcation. How much? 2 to 5.5 cents. Unless you're going through Apple or Google Pay, and then it's a percentage again.

Interac is also Canadian.

Want to stick it to Trump? Stop using credit cards (and Google Pay or Apple Pay) and switch to Interac. Want to make Canada better? Stop using credit cards and switch to Interac. Is it going to be inconvenient? Yes. Online shopping will be much harder but I have seen online Interac payments before and we can ask our favourite Canadian merchants to accept Interac online.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] knightly@pawb.social 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My personal opinion is that the convenience isn't worth the unspoken costs, much less the overt ones. Credit card processors already charge merchant fees on top of the interest charged by the banks that issue those cards, but they also get all your personal data associated with that card. It's more than enough to be worth selling to advertisers, so anyone who cares to spend a few bucks can buy your purchase history and build a profile. Name, address, contact info, the coffee shop you visit regularly and when you can be found there, the daycare you send your kids to, etc. It's very not-safe, especially when the government decides your type of person is now unpersoned.

More fundamentally though, I think the problem comes down to money itself. The use of any form of currency as both a store of value and a medium of exchange creates a multitude of perverse incentives to the detriment of society. Families work best when money isn't coming between them, and I think that principle is generalizable to our species as a whole.

[–] fishtaco@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 hours ago

The Guardian published a story today about how Sweden's move to a cashless society is backfiring on them.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Well, when on business trips, I can't just have a bunch of cash with me, so I could pay for hotels and every eventuality
Is there any way around that?

[–] knightly@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Best I can think of is taking a traveler's check to a local bank or currency exchange.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Hm...ok, thanks

I'll evaluate my alternatives

Also, sometimes buying something online, because I quickly need the hardware, only really works with credit cards.
All though real time money transfers at least start to speed up the traditional way ...