NEW YORK, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. credit card company Visa has gained market share through an upside down system of raising fees, a former chief executive officer said.
Since banks were responsible for issuing credit cards, they leaned towards issuing cards that gave them the highest fees, The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.
In addition, although debit cards that required PIN numbers were cheaper than ones that required a signature, the prevalent system, accounting for 61 percent of all card-swipe transactions, involves customers signing receipts, the Times said.
In 2003, Visa paid $2 billion to settle an antitrust suit, but it is hard to say the settlement encouraged competition in the credit card business, the newspaper said. Visa commands 73 percent of the signature-based debit card business and 42 percent of the PIN-based market.
The cost, generally passed on to customers, has angered retailers.
"A dollar is no longer a dollar in this country. It's a Visa dollar. It's only worth 99 cents because they take a piece of every one," said Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation.
