We are in the midst of a global war on cash. In fact, a few countries, including Sweden and Canada, are already almost completely digital. Payment providers and banks created this war for one goal – corporate profit. They are nudging companies and businesses toward a strictly digital society without making them aware of the associated risks, such as increasing swipe fees and processing rates.
The average cost of processing payments for US businesses[1] that do between $10,000 and $250,000 in annual payments volume is between 2.87% and 4.35% per transaction. Other estimates – from the National Retail Association[2] – suggest that credit card swipe fees average around 2% but can be as much as 4% for some premium rewards cards, and vary according to a merchants’ card volume and other factors. Applied to millions of transactions each day, they total approximately $80 billion a year nationwide.
While merchants and businesses are being told that going digital is a safer and more streamlined process, they are nothing but misinformed and misguided by credit card companies.
This past summer, Visa announced a $10,000 reward to 50 eligible restaurants that committed to giving up cash entirely.[3] Enticed by this offer, many small-business owners were taken advantage of when credit card companies charged them huge transaction fees every time a customer charged their card. It’s through the lack of information provided by credit card giants that when small businesses go completely digital, they’re blinded by the rising processing fees they’re charged later on. In fact, according to Square, for US businesses processing between $10,000 and $250,000 in sales per year, additional fees are on average 28% to
