Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Recent advertisement for Visa - what a joke
by
The Pharmacist
on 03/09/2021, 08:23:39 UTC
As jackg has pointed out, they are losing market dominance. 20 years ago if you wanted to buy something in a store or online, you could pay in cash, Visa, or Mastercard. Now you can use Google Pay, Apple Pay, Microsoft Pay, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Advanced Cash, dozens of other banking or payment apps, and now bitcoin too.
I don't doubt any of what you wrote, but I still question whether it's advantageous for Visa to be advertising to the public.  It isn't like an advertisement for Coca-Cola or Twinkies, where the ad is designed to create a craving in the viewer for the product.  Nobody is going to crave a Visa card after watching a Visa advert, know what I mean?  I'm just not sure that creating brand awareness through a TV-type ad really helps a service like theirs.  I could be wrong, of course.

Anyway, banks are already addressing banking issues themselves such as lack of a valid ID or a permanent address.
That's good to hear, though I don't know any of the details of what banks are doing.  What I do know is that there are a lot of people who don't have permanent addresses--whether they're living on the street or in a shelter--and who need banking services.  Fortunately in those cases if they receive assistance from the government (at least in the US), they can deal with social service offices in their local county and can usually get a food stamp card which also functions as an ATM card if they get cash benefits.