Bank for International Settlements calls for reform of data governance The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – a meta bank for the world's central banks and facilitator of cross-border payments – has advocated new governance systems that promote owner control of data and transparency over its use. In a report released on Thursday, the BIS argued that market failures mean that restoring de …
UK apparently permits companies require "card only" for transactions now. Let me tell you how this works from a foreign perspective.
I use a card, it has to be an accepted one, Indonesian card are not accepted, UnionPay only sometimes. So I'm stuck with Visa's Plus network and Mastercard Cirrus cards.
The local card processing company charges 10-15% conversion fee to the currency of the bank account.
The credit card company (Visa Mastercard) don't want to be held responsible for that ripoff, so they print out a disclaimed on the receipt and require a signature: "I accept that Mastercard are not responsible for the conversion rate of this transaction signed....". If you cannot sign the receipt then you cannot use the card, it is rejected. e.g. M6 toll road has gone card only and does not have a screen or a way to print receipts or accept signatures.
So UK has added a hefty penalty to it's tourism industry, and it's made its card payment systems unreliable and its cash worthless. It's prices are notional prices only, foreigners pay far more than those prices.
A pre-agreed transaction, for example a meal, that's already completed at an agreed price, and simply awaiting payment, suddenly changes price and the buyer has no option but to pay. I had cash, but the cash was worthless.
Sterling cash worthless.
Covid19 was the excuse, but typing a pin on a screen to accept a ripoff exchange rate is also a disease vector.
You need to restore the value of cash, or when/if UK goes totally cashless, card companies will rip you off too, far more than the 2-3% they do now. 1 pound sterling is 1 pound sterling. You need to anchor your prices to the your currency again, and establish the value of the pound. Or bend over and lube up for the card companies.
Today its tourists getting ripped off by the card companies, and you lot only getting a slight fee, but where do you think the profit increases will come from, if you go completely cashless? They'll rip you lot off too.
I'm don't know about £1 sterling = £1 sterling: in the last 6 months in the UK I've paid from £3.20 to £7 for a pint of beer, so even with cash there are people ripping me off.
Your point about keeping cash is important. There are more and more places now where you can't get anything without a smart phone. The menu's online only and you have to open an account with the caff and pay online. My folks have got big button phones and can't do that.
Most banks charge a currency conversion fee, from the currency of the transaction location to the currency where the paying account is held.
So if you're paying with a CIMB card (to pick my wife's bank), it first has to be on either the Visa or Mastercard network. Then, once you've paid your £25 for a meal, your bank will not only give you a shitty conversion rate, it'll charge you a few % on top, so that 25 quid easily becomes over half a million rupiah, rather than ~440k rph per market rates. 10-15% seems a bit steep, to be honest, but it's the bank holding the account (eg CIMB) that charges that, not the card network.
On a side note, most banks worldwide issue debit cards (Maybank, my old bank, certainly do, CIMB as well), so I'm not sure why you reference credit cards explicitly.
The point is, the problem lies with your bank, not where you spend the money. Incidentally, if you were trying to use cash, how did you get it? If from an ATM, you'd have been charged an even bigger exchange rate. If from a bureau de change, in London or Surabaya, there's still a fee, it's how they make their money.
It has it's own issues, but a card such as Revolut might help out, since it appears as a normal credit card with contactless or contactless + pin for larger transactions, no receipt required, and in most countries you can top up your account with a local currency transaction from your own bank. Then they perform currency conversions at interbank rates.
Yeah, unless the establishment made it clear from the outset that only card payment was accepted, then that is not part of the contract and cannot be legally enforced. So simply offer "you want payment, here's my legal tender - take it or leave it".
If they do make it clear up front, then make a think of sitting down, getting the menus, etc - then when you find it's card only make a big think of "sorry, I don't use card only venues so if you won't take cash we'll go elsewhere". When you leave, they then have to clear the table, clean it, and reset everything.
Right, in other words, they are asking someone else to solve the problem.
I guess I'm glad that someone is looking into this, but if the BIS has any clout, shouldn't it be at the forefront of this effort (meaning putting money into it) ?
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