Walmart Canada to stop accepting Visa payments from July over “unacceptably high” fees
Walmart's Canadian arm has said it will no longer accept Visa cards in its stores after the retail giant failed to reach a deal with the company over its "unacceptably high" fees.
Following an evaluation of credit card transaction fees in both Canada and the rest of the world, the charges applied to Visa transactions were deemed to be too high, Walmart Canada said in a statement yesterday.
However, Walmart also said it was "optimistic" a deal could still be reached with the card services provider.
"Walmart's purpose is to save customers money so they can live better. We are committed first and foremost to this purpose, which requires us to keep costs as low as possible," Walmart said in the statement.
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"To ensure we are taking care of our customers' best interests and delivering on our promise of saving customers money, we constantly work to reduce our operating costs, including credit card fees. Unfortunately, Visa and Walmart have been unable to agree on an acceptable fee for Visa transactions."
Visa will no longer be accepted in the company's Thunder Bay store, located in Ontario, from July 18. The change will then be rolled out "in phases" across the rest of Canada.
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The company said it pays over $100m (£70m) in fees to accept credit cards each year, but did not provide a further breakdown on how much goes specifically to Visa.
Credit charge fees to retailers are typically between one and 2.5 per cent of the cost of what's being sold, though the fees also depend on factors such as the type of card being used and what kind of retailer the card is being used in.
Walmart operates more than 300 supercentres in Canada and more than 400 retail branches in total across the country.
Visa has been approached for comment.