TXBullion wrote:Is AMEX in candid ( or big in canada? ) thats interesting.
The big 3 (Visa, MC, AMEX) have been up here as long as I can remember (the 70s).
Visa was originally most popular because it was the one card most banks offered
but Mastercard was only offered by Bank of Montreal so not as many people had it
back in the day. During the 90s Amex got really popular because they had the
Air Miles affiliated card. Somewhere over the last 10-15 years more banks started
offering Mastercard including some cash back versions so it's gaining dominance
now. Also about a year or 2 back Costco switched their affiliation from Amex to
Mastercard, for some reason Costco will only deal with one type of CC at any given
time, maybe they get a better rate by signing an exclusive deal.
A lot of people also use the Interac debit card system, Interac was originally a
interbank banking machine network but then they expanded it to retail direct
payment terminals as well in the early 90s, it generally costs stores way less to
process than any credit card.
The Interac association runs a lot of TV ads that brainwash people into thinking
it's the same as cash...then the tards get confused when they can't use their
card at a garage sale or some equivalent situation... -_- Or even if they are
somewhere that accepts Interac they can't figure out why their card won't work
because it looks the same whether their account is empty or full thus allowing
them to belabour under the myth that they are not broke. -_-
(Someone should really make a parody commercial promoting cash featuring
situations like a black out or banking crisis and a bunch of people to whom
cash is new and novel and put it on Youtube or something... ^_-)
Discover never caught on up here (I don't know anyone that has one) because
no place other than Sears accepted it. (They only took it because Discover was
originally part of the "Sears financial network" before they sold card operations
off.)
I was at Wal-Mart today, the lady in front of me couldn't figure out why her card
wasn't working until I spotted the VISA logo on it and pointed it out. The way the
register area is set up the clerk can't really see what type of card people are using
at the PIN pad. (Most credit cards up here have the "chip and PIN" system so
you have to enter a PIN whether you are using debit or credit.