Payments history and curiosities

There is an exact crossover point, and most people have never worked it out.

The most widely copied price in software, and nobody set it by calculation.

Rewards are paid for out of interchange — which means out of the merchant.

The 1958 experiment that went badly wrong, got unsolicited card mailings banned, and became Visa.

The single biggest reason accepting cards costs more in the US than in the EU.

A law written to stop billing errors became the merchant's single largest operational risk.

Card testing costs you fees, wrecks your approval rate, and most merchants never notice it starting.

The vaguest error message in payments exists because a specific one would help the wrong people.

The money was never sitting anywhere waiting to come back.

The pump has to authorize before it knows what you will buy. That gap is where the hold comes from.

For decades the signature was the security check. Then all four networks dropped it at once.

The first digit tells you the industry. The first six tell you the bank.

The last digit of your card is not part of the account number. It is a checksum.

The most retold origin story in payments was described as embellished by the family of the man it is about.