Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Credit Card Branding Confusion (WayTooHigh.com)

With the holiday retail season in full swing, some newly co-branded Visa® and MasterCard's® are a giant headache for retailers. Just today, one of our retail photo customers presented us with her credit card. It was a store card from Gap Inc. and the electronic processing terminal declined the transaction. The customer then presented us with her Nordstrom's card, which did have a Visa imprint on the front. Without close inspection, it was challenging to differenciate the two.

Why is this important?

While the Gap card was without interchange charges, the Nordstrom's Visa co-branded card cost us the signature interchange rate.

Even Cardholders are Perplexed by Debit vs. Credit Cards (WayTooHigh.com)

[Commentary: WayTooHigh.com]