this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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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.

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[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Even if we dumped all online transactions and used cash for in person transactions, there isn't enough cash in circulation. Less than 3% of US dollars are printed on paper. The rest is just numbers on spreadsheets. There is no way we could function without electronic payments. This is true in almost every country that has a central bank that engages in fractional reserve banking.

[–] Sovereign@lemm.ee -3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Are you 14? This might be the dumbest post I’ve ever read in my life. Like, love the energy bud. Just use your fucking debit card.

I have never seen the option to use or have ever heard of interac in my life.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 10 points 7 hours ago

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.

[–] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I nearly asked "What about American Express?". Sometimes I wonder how I graduated kindergarten.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] LostWon@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 hours ago

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.

[–] arankays@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] arankays@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

No. I'm comparing interac to Venmo.

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago

Ah, I see. I was comparing Interac to credit cards.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I actually need the cash back I get from my credit card though, it's more than 1000 per year

[–] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 7 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

But you do understand that if credit card cash backs didn’t exist, prices would likely fall by more than the cash back?

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

Yeah that makes sense

[–] Slagfart@lemmy.world 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

People prefer cards over carrying cash though, and you have to kinda work to collect the cashback. Most don't bother, which is why the system is profitable overall.

Honestly I think you're better off extracting money from a large corporation you don't like (if you can, it's obviously difficult) compared to ignoring them.

For example, if you really hate a company, flood their sales line with nonsensical calls. It'll usually be a domestic agent for the sales line, and in Australia at least the average cost to answer a call fully loaded, charged by a call centre management company, is around $30AUD. You also increase demand for low paid workers. If you could figure out a way to do this en-masse for a company without annoying the individual agent, you could do some serious financial damage in a way that's probably legal.

Edit: If I hated a company, and I had a lonely/senile relative, I would give them a special phone where every button on the phone called the sales line. That way the elderly relative gets a chat and keeps their brain active, and you get to cost the company hundreds of dollars a day. The sales agent is also unlikely to be bothered by an occasional chat with a senile person to break up their day.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 38 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] villasv@lemmy.ca 21 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

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

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 3 points 9 hours ago

No one has enough money, and this trend will get worse as this trade war goes on. Unless you can replace the credit buffer this initiative is a non starter.

To many people are living partly on a credit card, we need to ether replace it with an non american credit card, some other form of credit (LoCs are harder to get at the moment) or find a way to get more money to Canadians.

[–] Charlxmagne@lemm.ee 12 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

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.

[–] knightly@pawb.social 51 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

I work for an American credit card company, and my advice is to ditch credit and debit cards entirely. Use cash.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] knightly@pawb.social 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] SendPrudes@lemm.ee 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

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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[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 16 hours ago

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.

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 13 points 16 hours ago (9 children)

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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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 hours ago

3 times in my life I took out a consolidation loan to corral all those costs and pay them off. Credit cards are both a blessing and a curse. Gov't should provide credit services at a reasonable, non-compounding, interest rate.

Between credit card companies, finance companies and the banks, the interest they extract yearly would put all the space billionaires to shame.

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

See, not using Google Pay is something even I, a non-Canadian, European person can do. doingmypart.jpg!

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[–] UraniumForBreakfast@lemm.ee 66 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Ahh, so as an American my only option is cash. 😔

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 43 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

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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[–] ninthant@lemmy.ca 26 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

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.

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 25 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] ninthant@lemmy.ca 11 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

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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[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 27 points 17 hours ago (7 children)

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.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 13 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (11 children)

I'm European. We don't get credit card benefits, we just get stolen from. Everyone uses them nonetheless.

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[–] wirebeads@lemmy.ca 26 points 17 hours ago

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.

[–] scott_anon_21@lemmy.ca 15 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

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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[–] IslandLife@lemmy.ca 15 points 16 hours ago

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.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 22 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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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