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Visa To Offer Person-To-Person Payments

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-for-paypal-to-invest-in-some-accountability dept.

angry tapir writes "Visa has announced it is planning a new service that will let US customers send money directly to one another, presenting new competition to PayPal. Visa already lets people send money to Visa accounts in many other countries, but this will be the first time it will offer the service in the US."

6 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Credit card fees by Compaqt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You'd think with the enormous increase in processing power experienced over the past 4 decades, the amount of money required for operating the credit card networks would have plummeted.

    So why are credit card fees still anywhere from 2% on up (borne by sellers)?

    And is it (much) more expensive to send $100 vs. $10?

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Credit card fees by Tridus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because there's no particular reason for them to lower the fee?

      VISA's not in the business of saying "well gee we have too much money today, lets cut the fees!"

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
    2. Re:Credit card fees by somersault · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Would you go to your employer and say "Hey, I've figured out how to save money on my bills at home, could you cut down my salary by 10% to compensate for that please?"

      --
      which is totally what she said
    3. Re:Credit card fees by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In theory, a competitive market will result in the price of a commodity or service equalling its marginal cost of production.

      The fact that the amount the CC guys skim off the top of transactions(in addition to their loan-sharking business) has barely budged despite what are almost certainly declining costs leads one to suspect that the market may not be especially competitive.

      The phrase "cosy duopoly", in fact, tends to spring to mind...

  2. PayPal advantage? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From TFA:

    As the leader in global online payments for the last twelve years, PayPal has unmatched advantages that we believe put us ahead of the competition...

    For example. Since we're not regulated like a bank or real credit merchant, we can do things like freeze or disable your account simply because we feel like it or someone complained about you, or whatever. Don't worry though, customer support will explain everything and get you sorted out in a jiffy.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  3. Why did it take so long? by Just_Say_Duhhh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Paypal mapped it out years ago. The fact that Visa (and AmEx, Discover, etc) haven't been all over this idea by now makes me wonder if they're even paying attention.

    I, for one, welcome competition amongst our financial overlords

    --
    I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.