Consumers are often bombarded with credit card offers. There are kiosks at airports and malls, advertisements on tv, junkmail in your mailbox, and of course advertisements online. It’s no wonder credit card applications seem like a breeze. Many credit cards let you sign up online and get approved in less than five minutes.
When most people think of millennials, acronyms like FOMO (fear of missing out) and YOLO (you only live once) come to mind. Millennials have been labeled financially irresponsible by many. When you think of millennials, you probably picture them with wallets full of credit cards. Perception is often reality, but not in this case.
Fintech (short for financial technology) is reshaping the financial industry. Mobile payments arriving at Canada’s big banks is only the beginning. If you wanted to know your credit score, previously you had to pay Canadian credit bureaus Transunion or Equifax up to $24 – not anymore. Thanks to Fintech firms like Borrowell and Mogo, you can access your credit score online for free.
Another credit card relationship has gone sour. This one involves some pretty major players – Canada’s largest drugstore chain and biggest bank.
Shoppers Drug Mart and RBC are parting ways on their co-branded Shoppers Optimum MasterCard and debit card. As of right now both cards are no longer available. If you’re one of the 200,000 existing cardholders, you’ll be making the switch over to “other RBC banking products” in the fall.
Credit card interchange fees are once again making news headlines. In what has been dubbed as the battle of Goliath versus Goliath, Walmart and Visa are in a battle over interchange fees .
Walmart is upset over high interchange fees. Walmart says is spends more than $100 million each year on interchange fees for credit cards like Discover, MasterCard and Visa. The big box retailer has threatened to reject Visa cards at its more than 400 locations in Canada, starting at its Thunder Bay stores on July 18. This would be a big blow to Visa, as Walmart is one of its biggest clients.
Walmart Canada announced over the weekend that starting July 18th, their stores across Canada will no longer accept Visa cards. Some experts suggest this move is a way to force Visa to lower the fees charged to Walmart for purchases made with Visa cards.
If no deal is reached, it might make sense for Walmart shoppers to switch to a MasterCard to take advantage of credit card benefits versus other payment methods. Here are some options to consider:
