I came across an article by Evan Schuman reporting that Home Depot is about to deploy contactless technology throughout the chain. At the same time, BestBuy is considering pulling the technology.
What I found interesting is that the reason BestBuy is pulling back is the higher interchange rate charged by Visa when contactless cards are used. Much higher!
It isn’t exactly that Visa charges a higher rate for contactless. It’s that a Visa regulation prohibits use of a PIN with contactless Blink cards and that’s what triggers the much higer rate.
Apparently Home Depot is getting all the POS devices at no cost. The manufacturer is paying for the hardware and MasterCard is “making a bunch of money” available to the retailer for doing their version of contactless, PayPass. Home Depot will, no doubt, see some ROI because of the move. BestBuy, on the other hand, is loosing money to Visa’s higher costs.
Merchants need to think twice before deploying contactless technology in a brick and mortar environment.
Similar Posts:
- Real Time Keylogging
- Credit card quote of the week
- 7-Eleven Protesting Credit Card Fees
- Interchange Fees May Drop
- Banks predicted to loose $5 Billion in revenue
