Will ditching the ‘honor all cards’ rule matter?

This news addresses a potential shift in how your business accepts credit cards versus other payment methods. For years, Visa and Mastercard forced merchants to follow the 'honor all cards' rule. This meant if you accepted a basic Visa credit card, you were forced to accept their high-fee premium cards too. As part of a massive legal settlement, these networks have agreed to drop this requirement. In theory, this gives you the power to reject expensive credit cards while still accepting affordable ones. However, for most retailers, this victory is more symbolic than practical. Payment experts warn that actually implementing a 'selective' card policy at the register is a nightmare. Most customers don't know the difference between a standard card and a high-fee rewards card. Turning away a customer at the point of sale because their specific Visa card carries a 3% merchant fee instead of a 1.5% fee risks losing the entire sale and damaging your reputation. Furthermore, the networks are likely to create new rules that make it difficult to steer customers toward cheaper options. While the settlement technically opens the door for merchants to lower their overhead, the technical complexity of identifying card types in real-time remains a massive hurdle. For now, operators should view this as a potential future tool for leverage rather than an immediate change to daily operations.

Source: Payments Dive

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