#543
The Payment Predicament
Published:
Jun 08, 2024
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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In an era in which innovation should be creating the space for more optionality at lower costs, the opposite shift seems to be occurring in the world of payments. Instead, consumers have been getting squeezed from all angles.
The move to cashless establishments, especially accelerated during COVID, has been a particular problem for low income and older consumers that don’t always have access to alternative forms of payment. The solution? You may jump to the logical answer of accepting cash once again - especially given the historical precedent of paying with cash to receive a discount - but you’ll have to guess again. Rather, businesses have installed reverse ATMs, charging fees of $1-6 to ingest cash and produce temporary debit cards.
Even premium cardholders are not exempt from these challenges. Amex fees have historically limited its acceptance, but this issue has worsened recently. At the Money2020 conference in Amsterdam this week, we found ourselves having to put away our Amex cards, with only Visa, Mastercard or Maestro being accepted for coffee purchases around town. Adding to this trend, major marketplaces like eBay have announced they will stop accepting Amex too.
This begs the question - will Visa and Mastercard continue to eat the world, or is there some other payment solution that will emerge as the happy medium between merchants and consumers?
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The Payment Predicament
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