Walmart to Stop Accepting Visa as a Form of Payment
Kate Musgrove
This morning, Walmart Canada quietly released the news that they would no longer be accepting Visa cards as a form of payment. The press release states that "the fees applied to Visa credit card purchases remain unacceptably high" and that Walmart's commitment to their customers requires them to keep their costs as low as possible. Of course, no consumer is paying directly for the credit card fees associated with their purchase, and it seems unlikely that Walmart will reduce their prices by 1.5% throughout the store once they have stopped accepting Visa.
Walmart plans to stop accepting Visa cards in Thunder Bay, ON stores on July 18 and then roll out the change in phases across the country. It seems unlikely to me that Walmart will sever their relationship to Visa entirely; indeed, it seems much more likely that Walmart is simply pushing Visa to negotiate better fees. (Visa, for their part, released a statement that read, in part, "Walmart made this business decision despite Visa offering one of the lowest rates available to any merchant in the country.")
What do you think is going to happen? Will the whole thing blow over, or are we looking at no longer being able to shop at Walmart with a Visa card? And would the change stop you from shopping there? Vote below or leave a comment and let us know!