# Walmart Canada will no longer take VISA cards!



## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

We had this problem at Home Depot, but they now take them again. No Frills won't take them. Maybe others too? 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/walmart-canada-visa-1.3630956


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

It is a business decision. Perhaps the current grocery wars, which are expected to heat up even more, are part of the reason. Margins are falling. We will use our MC card instead.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Everyone should have both a Visa and a MC for 2 reasons: 1) Not every business takes both, some only one or the other, and 2) if one card is compromised, one always has a fallback. Particularly important when one is travelling away from home.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Costco also only accepts Mastercard.

Every company is promoting their own branded cards and Mastercard seems to have the lead in the retail market.

Rogers Cable replaced their rewards system based on $$ spent on the monthly bill with a credit card which earns benefits.

We weren't interested in their credit card so basically just lost the rewards.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

My guess is that they will try it in Thunder Bay. If it flops, ie results in a significant amount of lost sales/revenue, they will drop it. 

Walmart might also be playing chicken with Visa to see if Visa blinks first.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

sags said:


> Costco also only accepts Mastercard.
> 
> Every company is promoting their own branded cards and Mastercard seems to have the lead in the retail market.


Which makes sense in why Walmart would only accept Mastercard, i.e. they obviously want you to use their Walmart branded Mastercard. Obviously they can't prevent you from using other Mastercards though.

They are being pretty transparent about it. They say they are dropping VISA because of unacceptably high fees, yet they still accept American Express? The one card that few retailers accept due to their high fees. I assume they must be higher than VISA.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Not necessarily. The big mega corps negotiate with the CC companies. I read recently that Amex shareholders got upset over a deal Amex made with someone....on razor thin margins. IOW, it depends.


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## coptzr (Jan 18, 2013)

It is a good idea to have more than one brand of credit card. You don't need huge limits on them, but at least you would have the payment option. Lately what I am being told more by cashiers at Walmart is 3 strikes and you're fired. They are being vigilantly watched and reviewed for pricing errors. Price matching is more restricted to local competitors within the same town or like 25km radius. Have had 2 of them tell me they had 1 and 2 strikes against them, I told them to take their time, if anything questionable just go with original Walmart price, wouldn't want someone to get a strike against them for $0.50 price match difference.
When I was building manufacturing equipment I was told by 2 companies that Costco had the tightest pockets. They provide huge orders by very tight margins, which supports their position of not accepting VISA. It was only in the last couple years they even began accepting Mastercard.


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## RCB (Jan 11, 2014)

They'll be shooting themselves in the foot. The last thing I'll do is get a credit card we dropped because so many places didn't accept it.

I personally don't like Walmart as a company, and this doesn't improve the situation. Their business model has really damaged the choice for shopping in my small city. We're now stuck between Walmart and Sears. What I can't get at Canadian Tire, I'll get at Sears, Mark's or Sportchek.

Retail is really getting pushy. It's interesting that both Walmart and No Frills flog their own MC, and won't take Visa. That's ok, Metro is across the street, if necessary. And the Your Independent Grocer (Loblaw) stores have been pushing a little too far lately, too.


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## coptzr (Jan 18, 2013)

This will be a painful transition. Basically asking those with little money to apply for another credit card. Reality is a lot of their customer are using older cards, sometimes the 2nd or 3rd one down line which is not maxed out yet. No one walking in their door will admit to it, but most are not well off and I would like to see the numbers for how many pay with cash at the present moment. To confirm this, ever seen what happens when a sign goes up saying "debit/credit machine out of order, must use ATM"?


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^ And Walmart Canada now is charging for their plastic bags ... coincidence or maybe they need to satisfy their shareholders quickly?


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## coptzr (Jan 18, 2013)

I was at Walmart today for couple price matching items and cashier asked "Would you like to buy bags today?", I only go once per month maybe, thought this was a new thing. Never even looked at how much they charge for them.


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## NorthKC (Apr 1, 2013)

As a good portion of the customers don't have a lot of money to begin with, I can't see them easily qualifying for yet another credit card. This will drive a lot of customers away.

This is exactly why I always keep a MasterCard and a Visa card in my wallet.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

There's always the Australian solution. Have the government cap merchant fees on all credit cards, creating a level playing field. The downside is that in Australia most "Rewards" cards disappeared.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

There's always the Australian solution. Cap merchant fees on all credit cards, thereby creating a level playing field. The downside is that "Rewards" cards disappeared in Australia as a consequence.


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

I like it one point against the war on cash.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

That's right. There is one well established "standard" of payment in the country, and it is cash.

Credit cards are supposed to be convenient. If you can't use one card (say a visa) everywhere, that's not convenient.


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## GizelleGizelle (Jun 10, 2016)

Why???? Because of high transaction fees??? I don't believe that MasterCard or AmericanExpress fees are less higher


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

GizelleGizelle said:


> Why???? Because of high transaction fees??? *I don't believe that MasterCard or AmericanExpress fees are less higher*


 ... not unless they can negotiate a lower fee with VISA ... obviously Walmart Canada's management is looking at improving their bottomline or worrying about keeping up their share-prices aka year-end bonuses?


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## GizelleGizelle (Jun 10, 2016)

Beaver101 said:


> ... not unless they can negotiate a lower fee with VISA ... obviously Walmart Canada's management is looking at improving their bottomline or worrying about keeping up their share-prices aka year-end bonuses?


You're right, I don't think it's a big deal to negotiate a lower free with VISA. They are one of the biggest corporations in the end of the day


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## Mechanic (Oct 29, 2013)

Most businesses can negotiate a lower rate with Visa if they have the volume. Mastercard always charged me more than Visa when I was a merchant. Then there was Amex, lol, it got so bad that I stopped taking Amex. I would never dream of charging for a bag though, if you bought my merchandise I would happily bag it and I paid around 25cents a bag as I recall. The bag charges in the stores really irritates me, they should put an extra cent on popular items instead, I hear lots of grumbles about the bag charges at other stores too.


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