Thread: Fictionwise is having a sale
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Old 04-03-2008, 12:51 AM   #22
moz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Darqref View Post
Micropay is a system to get around credit card transaction fees.
Specifically, the credit card fee charged to the retailer (Fictionwise in this case) is decided by a formula like "30 cents plus 3% of the total value", which for a small transaction gets ugly for both sides - you buy a 50 cent story and get charged 80 cents (or Fictionwise charge you 50 cents and only get to keep 20 cents). Either way it's not good.

This, incidentally, is why people like me carry AmEx cards. AmEx have the highest transaction fees of any readily available card so they're an excellent way to punish retailers who have an effective monopoly. Since I don't actually have that problem ery often I don't bother, but when I was regularly forced to buy overpriced food and fuel from local monopolists, I used one for exactly this reason.

Australia is moving towards making it mandatory to disclose credit card fees and making it legal to pass those on to customers. The major cards are deeply angry about this because their contracts forbid both actions. The reasons are hopefully obvious.
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