Credit Slips points out another reason we loathe the Life Takes Visa campaign. You know, the one where everyone moves in blissful synchronicity, swiping their debit cards for small items, then the party stops and everyone glowers at the tardbucket who pays for stuff with cash.
Out the side of one face, Credit Slips writes, the credit card industry tells Washington that consumers, “make bad decisions that leave them financially overextended. Nothing should be done for these consumers because they are nothing more than the victims of circumstances of their own making.”
Then out the other face the credit card companies turn around with campaigns like Life Only Takes Visa that seek to perpetuate and extend, “the free-wheeling, mindless use of credit cards that the industry so often decries.”
Disconnect much?
Life Only Takes Visa, You Losers [Credit Slips]
PREVIOUSLY: Visa Tap-N-Go Ads Piss Us Off
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Cash is never declined, never needs to be re-scanned because it didn’t go through, doesn’t require the POS to start a dial-up connection to wherever…I don’t even see how the credit card conga line would work any better than cash.
I find it even funnier that not a couple hours after I posted my last comment about that Barbie credit card play set that the Consumerist posted a full article about the same thing.
Weighing in on this as a college student, I have this much to say: When I use cash, it means that I love the business enough to give them cold, hard money with zero fees and zero delay. ***** and moan some more and I’ll make sure they won’t have to go to the bank for pennies for a year!
@INconsumer:
Retailers must factor credit card charges into their price – it’s a reality of doing business. My price as a consumer is going to include those hidden charges regardless of what choice I make – why shouldn’t I make the choice that rewards me back a little? If we all start using cash tomorrow, prices don’t go down, corporate profits just go up.
I fully understand that I’m playing the bank’s game, but at least it’s an I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine proposition.
@PaymentJoe:
“…Visa would prefer you not use a debit card.”
I would bet that their strategy is to use the debit cards as a gateway drug to the credit card lifestyle they are rally promoting.
@noktulo:
No, they encourage you to spend money on a Visa (TM) card. They encourage the belief that life takes (read: requires) Visa. They are trying to build up these myths – Visa cards are more convenient than cash, Visa cards are easier than cash, Visa cards are more responsible than cash…. Because they know that consumers will, on average, spend more when they check out with plastic as opposed to paper. This is why fast food industry jumped on the plastic bandwagon 6 years ago. This is all their slow and steady and constant attempt to force these ideas into your head through their marketing. And if marketing didn’t work, then they wouldn’t be spending billions on it per year. The argument is valid and it is something that the Consumerist should be concerned about.
Besides all of that, the commercials are totally false. Even if there were a large difference in checkout times between cash and plastic, it’s totally negligible.
The main factor in slowing down transactions is always human error. If I fill in everything but the payment amount in a check while my groceries are being scanned, then it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to write in $X.XX and hand the check to the cashier. If I have my cash or credit card out in advance, same deal.
Of course, there are still quite a few stores with old scanning equipment that take time to dial into the network and clear your purchase. Other stores have old equipment that takes a while to process a check. Cash is really the only payment method that doesn’t rely on the quality of a store’s infrastructure — you can pay cash even if someone’s working out of a metal cashbox, and still get in and out in about the same time.
I use my credit card for almost all of my purchases. I just don’t like the implication that using other forms of legal tender makes me an inconsiderate jerk, or a weirdo, or whatever. Some people will have trouble dealing with any method of payment — taking forever to fill out a check, counting pennies or trying to switch bills on the cashier, staring at the swipe machine like they’ve never seen one before — but that doesn’t mean any method of payment is superior.
@wineinger: A couple of points: (1) Just because it’s faster at Starbucks, doesn’t mean it’s faster everywhere. A cashier with a change machine that requires a signature for a credit card is slower than simply handing over a five dollar bill. (2) If you’re able to swipe and go at the Starbucks, so can the guy who steals your wallet.
@jacques: I just saw this ad, jacques, and I came to this thread to see if anyone else had noticed it. (Here’s a link for those who haven’t seen it.) How outrageous! I’d say that there’s no mistaking the clear implication: only fags use cash and (by implication) if you want everyone to know that you’re a manly man, you’ll rack up credit card debt. Way to go, Visa, another high point in consumer advertising!
@satoru: Costco does $47B in sales annually. I would imagine Amex is quite happy to cut their transaction % charge in order to be the exclusive credit card for a business that size with an average transaction of >$450.
In addition, Costco heavily promotes co-branded Amex cards, which generate a lot of business for Amex outside of Costco’s warehouses.