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In mobile payments coup, pioneer Square scores Starbucks deal

Dodd/Frank tried to force vendors like Starbucks to absorb the cost of processing credit card transactions. As with most government regulations, the law of unintended consequences kicked in. Unless the bought off members of Congress knew this would happen. Humm.

The problem is Square charges the customer 2.5 percent of the transaction costs as a processing fee. Buy $10 of coffee you get hit with a 25 cent processing fee. Buy $40 of coffee for the office gang, you get charged $1 by Square.

Which saves Starbucks a ton of money on transaction fees and more than triples the cost of a credit transaction to the customer compared to if the feds continued to let vendors like Starbucks pass the cost of a conventional transaction onto the customer as part of the cost of doing business.

Thanks big government.

The little guy gets screwed again while big corporations increase profits.

2.5% transaction fee is ridiculously expensive.

Since Sweden announced its plans for a cashless society bank fees have sky rocketed. Having a simple debit cards can run 200 Krona a year (about $26.00), but the number of additional fees is getting to be absurd.

They get charged an average 80 cents a transaction and that cost is rising almost monthly. Think of how many transactions you make a month. Can you afford 80 cents a transaction when you might do 90 transactions a month? That is just 3 transactions a day. $72 bucks extra just to buy your morning coffee, lunch and afternoon coffee.

The average Swede now pays over $100 a month in bank/transaction fees for the convenience of being cashless.

My exwife managed to run up $50 + a month in ATM and debit fees because she hated carrying cash.

They have also seen a spike in computerized fraud as online and mobile banking tools have become a big target for hackers.

There is also the privacy concern. Do you really want every single transaction you make tracked by big brother?

Big government types want cashless societies because it gives them more power. They do not care how much it costs the citizens or even if it helps drive them into poverty.

http://www.thelowdownblog.com/2012/03/sweden-going-cashless-with-mixed.html

In the uk many years ago when petrol (gas) stations started to accept credit cards the oil companies put an extra charge on credit transactions people then just used cash until the government said they could not charge more for credit cards.
I think that the pricing was restructured to take extra into account so cards are the norm now. I am not sure if you can give discount for cash but this would defeat the point. Me, I will pay cash for small items tea coffee or whatever but avoid starbucks very good quality but expensive, unless you are paying then will meet you outside but remember if going to cinema meet invited friend inside