The R.B.A. and credit card fees.

[bob10]

RBA lets banks off the hook on credit card fees | The New Daily

[Eevo]

i might be misunderstanding something
but if you dont like the fee's, dont sign up?

[bob10]

i might be misunderstanding something
but if you dont like the fee's, dont sign up?

You should read the article, to understand the content

[Eevo]

You should read the article, to understand the content

so the article title is misleading then.

[bob10]

I'll help you out a bit. The rest is up to you.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has handed the major banks an early Christmas present, worth at least $500 million a year, after deciding not to cut the average interchange fee on credit card transactions.

The draft decision was announced on Thursday along with a string of planned reforms aimed at overhauling fees on credit and debit cards.

Consumer advocates were disappointed by the announcement because the RBA had been expected to force banks to slash so-called interchange fees on most credit card payments from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent.

[Eevo]

ive read the article and my original comment still stands.

[bob10]

Excellent! You would have read the paragraph " what are interchange fees ", so now we can move on

[Battler]

Paying with a debit card to be cheaper

While that is true; yesterday I booked a flight and there was no option to pay with a debit card (or at least I could't find one). So I copped a $.7.70 credit card fee.

I guess the real question is why the RBA didn't cut the interchange rate?

[Eevo]

I guess the real question is why the RBA didn't cut the interchange rate?

cause the people who benefit from it not being cut have a lot of control over the RBA

[Battler]

cause the people who benefit from it not being cut have a lot of control over the RBA

And it's not just the RBA they have control/influence over.

I guess it's the same reason why the RBA didn't cut the cash rate this month. At the moment we have the lowest level of business investment for a long time (8 years I think). Admittedly this is largely due to the mining sector scaling back.

If business doesn't invest it won't grow, the economy will stall and unemployment will rise.

The other interesting thing is, if you take mining out of the equation Australia would then be in recession. And some are saying we are only halfway through the mining downturn!

So why didn't the RBA cut the cash rate to stimulate the economy this month; or indeed last month?