Originally Posted by
ericdabbs
So you work in the industry to come up with this number? Also its 20 cents per transaction regardless of the amount? I don't buy that. Doesn't matter if debit card fees are much lower. That is still a fee. We know that CVS already does not pay the often misquoted 1.9 - 2.9% processing fees on CC but yet they opted to get rid of it anyway. It won't matter how low the fees are because due to the sheer volume of MSers buying the lion share of reloadable cards all over the US. Even if it was 0.20% to 0.40% for debit card it all adds up. If it was just that cheap regardless of transaction amount, then give me a reason why CVS wouldn't do it?
The point is the memo states that the reason is increased card swipe fees. If the VR at CVS was previously profitiable, breakeven, slight loss, whatever, with a CC before the increase, clearly its now considered enough of a loss with the increase that its not worth doing anymore (per memo statment), however, there is no way that paying with a VR with a CC BEFORE the increase was in anyway shape or form cheaper than a debit card transaction, and i highly doubt debit card transactions have risen to the level OVER what the fees for paying with a CC used to be, so if VRs were being nixed on the sole reason of increased fees, and they still desired selling them, debit cards would still provide enough of a margin for them to keep them. But they arent allowing debit card purchases either, its cash only. So the increase in fees is clearly not the main reason for disallowing purchase, its just being used as the reason.