Comment by kristofferR
2 months ago
Not a total duopoly, almost all cards in Norway are dual network - the local network BankAxept + Visa/Mastercard, the cheapest option (BankAxept) is selected invisibly for the users when possible while the cards still works flawlessly all places that only accept Visa/Mastercard globally.
Big businesses only pay 0.0475% + ~0.003 USD per transaction for BankAxept: https://bankaxept.no/hjelp/priser-for-bankaxept
8/10 card transactions in Norway are BankAxept. I think many other countries have similar solutions, and if not they should implement them. It won't end the duopoly, but it does decrease the consequences.
Canada has something similar (Interac), but the transaction marketshare has been steadily eroding to credit cards. (Since credit cards offer credit + credit/cashback, and extra fees for paying by credit cards are very rare.)
Interac is a debit network in Canada, and the merchant fees are impressively low. They're generally under $0.10 as a flat fee, not a percentage (credit cards would cost the merchant around 2%). https://www.interac.ca/en/payments/business/understanding-fe... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac
One consequence of the flat fee is that at some retail stores, if you pay by debit, you can ask for "cash back". For example, if you buy $20 of groceries and ask for $100 cash back, the cashier will charge $120 to your debit card, you will have fully paid for your groceries, and the cashier will give you $100 in paper money as if he were an ATM.
Obviously, "cash back" is a terrible idea if the merchant allowed the customer to pay by credit card.
Cash back was/is a thing in Sweden for a long time, but I have not actually seen it used in ages, or mentioned. We simply don't use cash much these days.