Originally Posted by
mikesyr18
Please look up how much community banks and credit unions dislike Durbin before commenting on it.
Your $10 billion in assets argument is a political lie that came from Washington politicians.
We're talking about companies like Bancorp and Blackhawk that issue gift cards. The supposed objections of the banks and credit unions that offer regular bank accounts aren't relevant here. (For what it's worth, I just looked up Bancorp and they have $4 billion in assets.)
It does raise an interesting point though: what will happen with gift cards if they get above the $10 billion threshold? Will the fees associated with them go up or will those companies shift their efforts away network-branded cards and towards closed-loop cards?
Originally Posted by
mikesyr18
I wouldn't be surprised to see banks/networks raise their interchange rates for credit cards after this. Merchants will get stung one way or another, whether they like it or not. I guess if the networks did that I would be okay with them raising those fees and providing higher rewards.
That may be counterproductive. At some point, even the major stores will conclude that surcharging in all of the states where it's allowed (which will likely become all of them eventually) is worthwhile--or simply go back to only accepting cash. There is an upper bound despite it not being mandated by the government.