[mercutio2]

This used to be true. But the 2025 Interchange Fee Settlement abolished the “Honor All Cards” regime. Perhaps, I know it’s crazy, but… perhaps segmenting the market into extremely high-spending customers, normal pay-every-month-relatively-low-fees, and no-frills, was a smart move by the big issuers? My sense is that alienating big spenders (whose interchange fees tend to be in the 4% range) is just not worth it?

All I can say for sure is no store I’ve ever encountered has operationalized the newfound ability to differentially reject some cards yet. I am starting to see grittier establishments offer 5% cash discounts more frequently than they used to, and I’m always happy to pay cash when they do.

But when there’s no discount, why would I forgo better accounting and 3-5% back in points?

[titanomachy]

Costco in the US has, for as long as I’ve shopped there, only accepted visa or debit.

[mercutio2]

This is orthogonal to the Interchange Fee Settlement.

The settlement allows stores to decline different *classes* of Visa cards. It was always possible to accept Visa but not MasterCard, etc. What was not previously possible was to query, before the transaction “what will the fees be” and reject cardholders presenting high-fee cards from a network you have a relationship with.

That is now allowed, by consent decree. But so far no one is doing it.

[__david__]

That’s only fairly recently at my Costco. For years and years it was only American Express and debit.

[UltraSane]

I'm pretty sure this is because they negotiated a very good rate with Visa in exchange for being exclusive.

[_whiteCaps_]

Interesting. In Canada they only accept Mastercard in store.