Originally Posted by
moondog
When accepting foreign credit cards without a fee, someone has to eat the interchange costs. As such, many pure arbitrage opportunities (I e. things that amount to buying cash) have been excluded.
Originally Posted by
tauphi
Even with a chunky fee you may not be able to recoup the capital cost of supporting credit cards in the first place.
I have no idea what you guys are trying to tell me. My post was about buying an IC card in Macau, which as of now can only be done at vending machines in select locations (ferry terminals, Barra transit interchange, airport) and only via Alipay etc. The IC card costs MOP$100 and carries a stored value of MOP$70. So the card issuer already pockets MOP$30 to pay for the card and distribution cost. You're telling me the cost of fitting the vending machine to accept bills and handling those bills would be cost-prohibitive?! Even more so because a good chunk of customers would pay with HK$100 or even CNY100 notes, providing for a nice currency conversion profit. FWIW, as it stands right now, you can drop cash into fare boxes on buses (MOP$6 or HK$6) and buy single-use tokens at lightrail stations, using cash (MOP only) or Visa/MC (and likely others, didn't check). No tapping credit cards at the gates. Seems to me that allowing the purchase of IC cards via cash at the 1:1:1 exchange rate is the smartest thing these guys could do.
Originally Posted by
percysmith
Macau can follow if they want to boost tourism into non-Chinese tourism into the suburbs - though, given how Macau is set up, is that actually a development aim?
Casino buses are good for most tourism areas.
The MO government has
paid for my last couple ferry tickets via a promo designed to bring in overseas visitors, so there does appear to be an aim to boost non-Chinese tourism -- whether these non-Chinese folks are supposed to gamble or engage in sightseeing I don't know. I suspect most of these will be daytrips from HK, with a focus on casinos, but even those folks might hop on the 26A to Fernando's. That said, transportation in Macau has always been a bit of a nightmare, with long waits for taxis, a convoluted bus network run by different companies, and what feels like very inefficient traffic flows. The new light rail is a bit of a head scratcher to me, with a route that's not particularly useful for locals or visitors (it's pretty much convenient only for those staying at Grand Hyatt and heading to MFM or YFT). Anyway, sorry for taking this thread OT.