Selective Payment Card Acceptance

Melissa McGrath writes for the Idaho Statesman that WinCo Foods has started accepting debit cards - but not credit cards. McGrath quotes Mike Reed, a WinCo spokesman, who says "debit cards don't charge nearly as much as credit cards. The costs of (debit cards) are pretty close to check-handling fees." WinCo is, to some extent, following the strategy of Costco who only accepts PIN-debit or American Express cards. Other merchants try to "steer" consumers to PIN-debit transactions because of the cost savings vs. signature debit or credit cards. The settlement in the merchant litigation vs. Visa and MasterCard in June 2003 allowed merchants to accept either only debit cards or both debit and credit cards with those brands. Debit cards are also now clearly marked as being debit cards so merchants can quickly identify them.