Credit vs Interac Debit – What Do You Pull Out? #YourChoiceMatters

With the holidays fast approaching I am on a serious budget plan. This year may be my toughest budget to date as we now have Bella who’s birthday just so happens to fall TWO DAYS after Christmas! Ya, that is a whole lot of fun. Okay truth be told, I have never had a Christmas baby and all I can keep thinking about is how extremely exhausted I am come December 27th after all the holiday parties, the travelling around city to city visiting family and friends, the food – for the love of god just thinking about all the food alone makes me tired and yet somehow I have to this year push through that “after-party” exhaustion I only thought I got rid of after my young, wild and crazy party days were over and find that spunk to throw this little princess an amazing first birthday completely separate of the holiday that will have just passed! If any of you have Christmas babies and want to send me love, prayers and maybe a few tips so I don’t end up in a strait jacket by the end of it all I would be forever grateful!

Okay enough whining about how crazy the holidays will be for me this year and back to that pesky budget! I am a saver, my partner the spender so I maintain a tight budget year round. Although I do hold two credit cards in my name, mainly for emergency purposes – like last year when we were without power for 5 days at Christmas and had to stay in a hotel, I try not to use them unless it is absolutely necessary. Sometimes when shopping online the only option to pay is with a Mastercard or Visa – and many times those same merchants don’t quite yet get the Debit Visa part of our bank cards. So in those instances I use my credit card.

I am a huge advocate for using my own money, my partner using his own money and to anyone that will listen to me to use their own money. I have talked about wants vs needs and sometimes in life if you don’t have the money for a want it is not as horrible as not having money for a need down the road. Using your own money means you are not paying someone interest, the price you purchased that item for is the price you paid – not $20.00 more because you put it on a card with outrageous interest fees. When out shopping in-store whether it is for my weekly groceries or presents for the kids I am always pulling out my Interac Debit card. I prefer to pay with my own money and I know the merchants appreciate it too. You are probably wondering why the merchant appreciates the customer paying with Interac Debit or Interac Flash card vs a credit card right.

What so many Canadians don’t know is that the payment choice we choose to make does matter to those businesses, that the way we choose to pay makes a monumental cost-savings difference to a merchant’s bottom line.

When we as consumers pay using a credit card instead of Interac Debit, the merchant may pay up to 8 times more in payment acceptance costs than they would for payment made with Interac Debit. For example, a small business with $1 million in sales could save more than $10,000 per year if their customers pay using Interac Debit or Interac Flash for their purchases vs using a credit card.

When customers pay using Interac Debit, a merchant pays about $0.06 per transaction to its payment processor – a single flat fee, regardless of retail purchase price. From that amount, Interac Association receives a fee of $0.006362. In comparison, if the customer chooses to pay using their credit card, the merchant pays anywhere from 1.5% to over 3% of the items retail cost for interchange alone. That doesn’t include other possible processing fees they may be subjected to. As a result, on a purchase of $100, based on current rates, a merchant pays between $1.50 and $3.00 for the interchange on a credit card transaction, but only a flat fee of $0.06 for an Interac Debit transaction. This could seriously make or break some very small businesses in reality and it could actually be a huge factor in why some small businesses may not accept credit card payments at all.

Small businesses like my partners family produce store, much like the one below in the video below, do appreciate when you pull out your Interac Debit as it saves them on fees so they can give back to their communities and more!

When I think of the many small businesses in my city, the ones I love to eat at and shop at I realize how incredibly important it is to them as a business how I pay for my purchases. I will always pull out my Interac Debit card before my credit card and not just because I am a crazy, budgeting, spend my own money type of person but also because I know my payment choice affects them and their bottom line. As a small business myself I know just how tough it is to have mountains of fees and expenses and if I as a consumer can lower that for a small business that I love I will!

Interac Debit is a secure payment acceptance option for merchants and you as the consumer. Chip-enabled Interac Debit and Interac Flash cards are extremely secure and are protected from fraud tactics such as skimming, duplicating and electronic pick-pocketing. Given the possible available data is payment transaction codes, not account-related details, and transactions are online and in real-time, no information can be captured by criminals to conduct fraudulent transactions or create identity theft. You are also protected under Interac’s Zero Liability policy.

Interac is hosting an awesome Twitter party on Wednesday December 3, 2014 at 9:00PM EST with Co-Host SJ Consulting. RSVP below for the party, I hope to see you there!

Date: December 3rd

Time: 9:00-10:00 PM EST

Hashtag: #YourChoiceMatters

Host: @Interac

Co-Host: @SJConsulting_CA

Panelist: @SoberJulie, @ThisLilPiglet, @SimplyStacieNet, @MommyMatter, @MyChaos, @OlderMommyStill, @XtremeCouponMom, @BigDaddyKreativ, @theinspiredhome, @mommykatandkids

Prizing Eligibility: Open to Canadian residents who participate in the ‪#‎yourchoicematters‬ Twitter Party administered by SJ Consulting on Wednesday, December 3rd between 9:00 and 10:00PM EST, using the hashtag #yourchoicematters.

RSVP Below by adding your Twitter name (ie. @XtremeCouponMom) in the URL field and your Twitter link (ie. https://twitter.com/XtremeCouponMom) in the Name field.

Disclosure: I am participating in the BRAND campaign managed by SJ Consulting. I received compensation in exchange for my participation in this campaign. The opinions on this blog are my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, company, provider or party in question.