> Which is fine, you can offer discounts based on payment method, like at a gas station.
And then you need more more complicated signs, which often confuse people who then get dissatisfied.
You also may not be allowed to charge as much as it actually costs -- they allow you to recover the processing cost as a fee but not the cost of chargeback fraud.
> That's not AML/KYC/CTF. That's freedom of association. KYC is a legal compliance matter. That's why I suggested a 'payment network neutrality' bill that required these systemically important networks process all lawful payments - or the introduction of a state-run network.
No, they're related, and that's why your proposal doesn't work, or is just equivalent to doing away with KYC.
The government isn't allowed to penalize people based on vague suspicions and no proof, but private companies are. And that's what KYC is coaxed into service to do -- the bank wouldn't otherwise care if you're a drug dealer, but now the government can lean on them to drop anyone the bank has any vague suspicion might be, even if neither of them have any real proof.
But that system has false positives, because its burden of proof is trash, which turns into a serious problem when the thing dropping you has a dominant market position instead of you just being able to go to the bank across the street whose algorithm isn't quite as broken.
If you passed a law requiring them to do business with you unless it would be illegal, you're taking away the slack that was put there on purpose and they could only drop you if they could prove you're committing a crime -- and maybe that's good -- but good luck getting it passed, because the government likes the status quo.
> A credit card is an interest-free loan for 1 billing cycle followed by the regular APR. Part of the interchange pays for the first billing cycle where you are not charged your APR. They don't return any of that 4% BNPL fee if you pay it off early either do they?
The issue is that they're tied together. You can't say "I want to avoid the interchange fee by having you debit my checking account the same day" even if you don't even want the billing cycle's worth of float -- and for a percent or two a lot of people would take that deal if it was available, because that's an awful high interest rate to pay over 30 days.
> Still works out better for the merchant than not taking card. That's just the reality. If it weren't then they wouldn't accept cards.
That's only true if some viable alternative is available. They're stuck accepting cards because some customers wouldn't buy without them -- often because they're actually buying on credit -- but then once they do, other customers use them in order to get rewards or because the merchant isn't allowed to pass on the cost of chargeback fraud to only the people paying with credit cards.
And even when the merchant is pressured into accepting credit cards through structural factors, you still have to pay the cost of chargeback fraud through higher prices when they do -- you just can't avoid those higher prices by not using a credit card, which is even worse.
