Originally Posted by
nall
IIRC, they do actually lose money because pre-paid debit cards are not subject to the federally-imposed interchange fee cap.
Some pre-paid debit cards ARE subject to the inerchange fee cap. It's true that Simon cards from Metabank are not regulated and thus have no fee cap--but how does that translate into a loss for Wal-Mart? A cap is just that--Wal-Mart most likely has negotiated rates far below the standard merchant processing rates for small businesss. A fee cap is the maximum amount that can be charged; there is no minimum amount. It's all negotiable.