Always paid credit card on time, has my bank made money?

[glowacks]

The standard for credit card sales now is that you get the money 2 business days after the transaction. Viewing my client’s sales records and credit card deposits, this is basically always the case. Sales on Monday get deposited Wednesday. Sales on Friday through Sunday get deposited Tuesday, or Wednesday if Monday’s a holiday.

Regardless of whether it’s possible for people to get their sales deposited the same day, this is how the industry works now.

[k9bfriender]

Assuming that I remember to settle at the end of the day, the funds show up before I wake up the next morning.

Other than weekends and holidays of course, when the computers take the day off. A Friday settlement does show up when I wake up on Saturday morning, but Saturday’s doesn’t show up till Monday.

[iamthewalrus_3]

@Somethingwitty1

Correct me if I am wrong, American Express was always a “charge card” rather than a “credit card”. As in you were required to pay off the balance every month. And they seemed to make money.

I think they did charge merchants more than visa/Mc. And now Amex does offer “credit cards”. but the basic green Amex is still a “charge card” as far as I understand.

The economics of payment in the 1950-1980s were very different, so it’s quite possible that Amex made money just being a charge card then, but no longer would now.

I expect that if they still have a charge card offering, it is mostly a loss-leader that’s establishing a relationship with people who are not interested i credit cards.

@Schnitte

Not an awful lot, but it’s steady, easy, risk free, and at low expenses

It’s not risk free. I’ve never paid credit card interest or a late fee, but I have had my card used fraudulently several times over the years. Assuming that the merchant followed the proper procedures (which are very limited to reduce payment friction), the credit card company eats those losses. There are other risks I’m sure, that’s just the first one that comes to mind.

[Great_Antibob]

@iamthewalrus_3

I expect that if they still have a charge card offering, it is mostly a loss-leader that’s establishing a relationship with people who are not interested i credit cards.

They do, but there are typically (depending on the card) annual fees that run from the hundreds to thousands of dollars. They get their cut, one way or another.

[md-2000]

@k9bfriender

Back in the 80’s, a business had to take a carbon copy of your card, and then actually send it in to the credit card company, then wait for them to send back a check.

Amex may have just been slower at processing, or may have lower priorities towards small businesses like a bus service in a ski resort.

Today, funds can be deposited the same day as the charge is made. Many still don’t take Amex, as they do have a higher processing fee.

By the 80’s, it was common that the slips were collected and flown down to islands in the Caribbean, where they were processed. The results were transmitted back. One common job back then was data entry, a rote job that was easy to train people for - but fast efficient keypunchers were in high demand. It was convenient to have a place to do data entry where wages were significantly less that the USA.

In that setup, even Amex should have had no problem with a rapid turn-around. I don’t remember it taking more than a week, tops, between when a charge was made and when it showed up on the bill. (If your CC bill cut-off was say, the 10th of the month, you would see charges you’d made 2 days before. Even allowing an extra week before they printed and mailed the bill, that was at most 1 week turn-around.)