"This is surprising as I would I have expected all the payment methods would.....cost a lot less than cards" - yep, I find this strange too, especially given that in the UK, the a2a players generally operate on a value proposition of lower fees than cards, sometimes substantially lower. Maybe there is something historical about these markets, maybe lower cards penetration or something, that allows them to charge a premium?
as I say in the article I can only guess at the true reason - but it seems the payment methods are so popular, with a great UX that retailers have to accept them regardless of the cost, especially where cash usage is low. I should have added retailers are used to paying high credit card fees so the a2a payment methods can get away with setting their fees at similar levels. The Netherlands may be an exception, with very low A2A fees since credit card usage there is relatively low and the benchmark for Dutch retailers are debit cards which have had low fees going back to the original PIN debit card scheme in the 1990s (discontinued in 2012).
"This is surprising as I would I have expected all the payment methods would.....cost a lot less than cards" - yep, I find this strange too, especially given that in the UK, the a2a players generally operate on a value proposition of lower fees than cards, sometimes substantially lower. Maybe there is something historical about these markets, maybe lower cards penetration or something, that allows them to charge a premium?
as I say in the article I can only guess at the true reason - but it seems the payment methods are so popular, with a great UX that retailers have to accept them regardless of the cost, especially where cash usage is low. I should have added retailers are used to paying high credit card fees so the a2a payment methods can get away with setting their fees at similar levels. The Netherlands may be an exception, with very low A2A fees since credit card usage there is relatively low and the benchmark for Dutch retailers are debit cards which have had low fees going back to the original PIN debit card scheme in the 1990s (discontinued in 2012).