Quote from: leannemckim46 on September 10, 2014, 11:26:45 PM

Quote from: murraypaul on September 10, 2014, 09:53:35 AM

Quote from: leannemckim46 on September 08, 2014, 11:19:15 PM

Quote from: galbros on September 08, 2014, 09:54:44 PM

The costs are often hidden because they are paid by the merchant. I think in the USA it is customary to pay a small fixed fee, say .29 USD plus a percentage, say 2% of the transaction amount. As you can see, for many transactions, bitcoin at .0001 btc or .05 USD, is a great deal. Debit cards are less expensive.

Debit cards are actually more expensive as they use a smaller, less efficient network. Also more data needs to be transmitted when a debit card is used (the customer entering the PIN which is transmitted to the bank in encrypted format, who will reply if it is valid or not). It has been reported that debit card transactions usually cost much more credit card transactions.

Debit cards merchant fees are lower because:
- the bank is not exposed to the customer's credit risk. (Not paying their bill)
- the bank is not exposed to the merchant's credit risk. (Not liable if the merchant fails to deliver the goods, or goes bust)
- the bank is not providing extra services such as insurance

If the merchant changes the incorrect amount or if the card was stolen then the bank would need to recover the money from the merchant.

As they would with credit cards.

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The bank charges interest from the customer to account for their credit risk, this is not reflected in the merchant's cost of accepting a credit card.

It reflects increased risk for the card issuers, therefore they will attempt to pass that cost on to merchants.

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Debit card networks are much smaller then credit card networks so they are unable to reach an economy of scale.

Both Visa and MasterCard process both debit and credit cards.

Can you find any evidence for this claim:

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It has been reported that debit card transactions usually cost much more credit card transactions.

If you mean cost to merchants, that is the opposite of what everybody else says.