#debit cards

[thesuperheroesnetwork]

Texts From Superheroes

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[textsfromsuperheroes]

Texts From Superheroes

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[allthegeopolitics]

Australia announces plans to ban debit card surcharges

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says move would help ease cost of living for households.

Australia has announced plans to ban debit card surcharges that the country’s central bank estimates are costing consumers nearly 1 billion Australian dollars ($671m) a year. Australia’s centre-left government said on Tuesday that it would seek to ban the “unfair and excessive” charges from the start of 2026 subject to a review of card payments by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his first priority was to ease the cost of living for households and the proposed ban would be “another step to protect Australians.”

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

Department of Justice sues Visa, alleges the card issuer monopolizes debit card markets

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses

Mae Anderson at AP, via NewsNation:

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.

The complaint filed Tuesday says San Francisco-based Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network. According to the DOJ’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions. “We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.”

In a statement, Julie Rottenberg, Visa’s general counsel, said the lawsuit doesn’t take into account the “ever expanding universe of companies offering new ways to pay for goods and services.” “Today’s lawsuit ignores the reality that Visa is just one of many competitors in a debit space that is growing, with entrants who are thriving,” Rottenberg said. She added the lawsuit is “meritless” and the company will defend itself “vigorously.” The Biden administration has aggressively gone after U.S. companies that it says act like middlemen, such as Ticketmaster parent Live Nation and the real estate software company RealPage, accusing them of burdening Americans with nonsensical fees and anticompetitive behavior. The administration has also brought charges of monopolistic behavior against technology giants such as Apple and Google.

DOJ sues Visa in an antitrust lawsuit on the basis that the card issuer has de facto monopolized the debit and credit card markets.

See Also:

The Guardian: US sues Visa for monopoly on debit-card use affecting ‘price of nearly everything’

[luesmainblog]

just incase anyone doesn't know

when you use a credit card, you're not paying at that moment. you are putting the charge on a Bill that you will be paying layer; it's essentially a bar tab, but for anything you use that card on. "Unlimited" does not mean infinite money. it means the credit card has no limit on how much you're able to add to your bill before it stops working. on most cards, you have a Limit where once you reach it, you need to pay it off before you can use the card again. on an Unlimited card, that limit doesn't exist; you can wrack up $5,000 on your bill and it won't say a thing. but you DO have to pay that bill. it's basically the same as if you'd asked a friend to pay for your stuff with the agreement that you would pay her back. a credit card is not magic plastic that pays for things without you having to use your own money. it is your responsibility to pay for that bill once you get it, and if you fail to do that for long enough, you will wrack up Debt. this is why it's very dangerous to use a credit card when you don't have the money to pay for it right then and there; you will have to pay it over time, and you may end up paying MORE than it would have been because of late fees. Credit Cards are essentially a scam to get you into debt if you're bad with money. if you're looking for a card you can use that just instantly pays it so you don't have to worry about it, you want a DEBIT card. this is a card directly linked to a bank account. you usually get one automatically when you open an account.

[just-greta]

Anyone into tarot cards lately? This one's kinda dope!

[your-mom-friend]

A lesson in Credit Card safety, brought to you by my dad

I say credit card, but this also applies to debit cards. This is also mostly about scam callers

Cards from any bank have a common code. For example any credit card from Bank A would start with 0123. any Debit cards from Bank A could start with 0124. A credit card from Bank B might start with 4321.

Point being, a scammer can call you saying there's an issue with your account, and that you card number starts with, say, 0123. It gives the impression that they know what the other 12 digits of your card are. They do not. It's an attempt to bait you into telling them. If it's your bank then they'll be able to tell you all but the last 4 digits. the last 4 digits of your card, and the 3 digit code at the back of your card, are known to you and you alone. Give this to nobody. take no pictures and the only record of it's existence should be the card itself. If you tell the scammer "I have a credit card at Bank A" then they'll be able to tell you the first 4 digits. don't give them anything else.

There are a lot of things scammers might do to get your card number or phone number. Recently I got a call from someone claiming to be police, and I got out of that by saying I don't have any bank account, after which they ended the call.

Scammers will do a lot. They'll, and I say this from personal experience, try to get your sympathy by having a crying kid in the background to give the impression of a harried work-from-home parent that needs a break. Don't fall for it.

If you are on the line with them in the "I'm from the bank to fix your account" scenario, they might send you a One-Time-Password (OTP) and tell you to give them the OTP, and this'll give them access to your phone.

On one occasion, a scammer called a little kid, claiming to be his dad's friend. The kid said his dad was asleep, and the scammer got the kid to take out his dad's wallet and give him the credit card information and the next day his account was cleared entirely. He was able to report the fraud and get his money back but the point still stands.

If the call is from any legitimate source, they'll be able to give you information themselves. If they ask for you to confirm your email ask them to tell you the email they have on record and you can confirm it. Same goes for phone numbers and card details. If they're actually from a bank they should be able to confirm it themselves.

You can also, like my dad, just be a bastard about it. My dad once got a call saying that they were from X Bank and they were going to close his account, and he just said "okay do it" and ended the call. then he looked me dead in the eyes and said "I don't have an account at that bank".

All of this might sound like obvious information to some, but if I've learned one thing, it's that sometimes the obvious doesn't strike us, and sometimes we don't have someone to teach it to us. So I'm gonna pass along this wisdom to y'all.