The six month feud between Visa and Walmart has finally come to an end. Both companies recently announced the agreement. It didn’t take long for Walmart to start accepting Visa again – Visa credit cards were accepted the very next day on Friday.
2016 was quite a year! There were plenty of surprises. The UK voted to leave the EU in the historic Brexit vote and Donald Trump was elected to the White House. It wasn’t a quiet year for credit cards either. There were plenty of credit card news stories that made headlines. (Choosing the top ones to feature in this article was challenging to say the least!) Without further ado, here are the top three credit card news stories from 2016 and how we came out ahead as cardholders.
Are you sick of your reward points expiring? Pretty soon that practice will be illegal in Ontario – and we have Air Miles to thank.
Air Miles has been making news headlines a lot lately – for all the wrong reasons. The popular travel rewards program came under fire for its controversial expiry policy that would see travel reward points older than five years start to expire in the new year if left unredeemed. Facing mounting pressure from cardholders, the government and the media, Air Miles recently did an about-face, nixing the expiration of its reward points.
Facing mounting pressure from cardholders, the media and the government, Air Miles caved and cancelled its controversial expiry policy. Air Miles parent company LoyaltyOne, said that it cancelled the expiry rule due to “feedback from collectors” and an “uncertain legislative environment across Canada.”
The battle between Visa and Walmart over credit card interchange fees just got more intense. Visa is now offering its cardholders in Thunder Bay, Ontario, a $10 rebate when they use their Visa card to spend at least $50 at any supermarket.
Credit card interchange fees have been in the spotlight lately. Interchange fees may be invisible to consumers, but they sure aren’t for merchants. Canadian merchants pay among the highest interchange fees worldwide – between an estimated $5 and $7 billion annually. Merchants have long been lobbying for lower interchange fees. Merchants got their wish a couple years ago. With the federal government threatening to step in and regulate interchange fees, starting in November 2014 MasterCard and Visa voluntarily agreed to cap their interchange fees at 1.5 percent for the next five years.
