Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #430

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Visa Offers Restaurants $10,000 ...If They Stop Accepting Cash
by Jackie Wattles
They're calling it the "The Visa Cashless Challenge."
The plan is to convince small business restau- rants, cafés and food trucks to stop accepting cash, forcing cus- tomers to pay with credit cards or digital pay- ments.
"Visa will be awarding up to $500,000 to 50 eligible US-based small business
food service own- ers who commit to joining the 100% cashless quest," the credit card company wrote in a press release.
If a restaurant ops in, it'll get a $10,000 gift
from Visa (V)to help pay for tech- nology upgrades, the company said. Those tech upgrades could mean installing platforms that that accept pay- ments from phones, smart watches or other devices.
Visa has a clear incentive: Credit card companies charge process- ing fees and tack on other charges to businesses that accept their cards as pay- ment.
But those fees can cut painfully into the margins any small busi- ness, and it could even mean life or death for a small mom and pop shop.
Marco Carabjo, a credit expert, wrote in a
2013 U.S. Small Business Administration blog post that fees for credit card transaction can cost busi- nesses up to 5% of their revenue. Visa claims it has proof that cutting out cash can help small busi- nesses. The company said it conducted a study that found if restaurants in cities across the United States stop accepting cash, they could bring in billions more each year. In New York City
alone, Visa says the study shows, "businesses could generate an additional $6.8 billion in revenue and save more than 186 million hours in labor" per year. That report has yet to be released.
When asked if Visa will expand its "cashless" push to small businesses beyond the restaurant realm, Visa's merchant solutions head, Jack Forestell,
said the the cur- rent program is "part of a broader strategy and set of initiatives." Forestell says Visa is betting that people want "freedom from carrying cash."
Both the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Restaurant Association did not respond to CNNMoney's request for com- ment.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine