Merchant Lynx - Credit Vs. Debit
It's time to kick that cash to the curb and make way for plastic. Merchant Lynx, Credit and debit cards now account for the majority of in-store purchases in the U.S.
Merchant Lynx, According to a recent study by the American Bankers Association and Dove Consulting, credit cards account for 21% of purchases, debit cards, which can be signature-debit or PIN-debit, garner 31% of the volume, while pre-paid or gift cards take 2%. Signature-debit purchases, through Visa or MasterCard, require buyers to sign a receipt. These transactions can settle within hours or a few days. PIN-debit purchases, which require buyers to enter their personal identification number into a keypad, are withdrawn in seconds.
Just as the paper versus plastic debate looks all but decided, the fight for your wallet has become an almost dizzying battle among card industry giants.
The tussle has several fronts and too many constituents to count. There are the merchants--stores like Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), Safeway (nyse: SWY - news - people ) and Sears (nyse: S - news - people )--which reached multibillion-dollar settlements with Visa USA and MasterCard in 2003 over allegations that the card conglomerates were gouging them on high-fee signature-debit purchases. There are outstanding lawsuits between processor First Data (nyse: FDC - news - people ) and Visa USA, related to First Data's desire to keep certain card transactions within its network. There are fights between regional ATM/PIN-debit operators and national networks.