BENTONVILLE, Ark.—In the wake of a June 2016 announcement by Walmart that shoppers in Canada would no longer be able to use their Visa cards at the retailer due to a dispute about transaction fees, the company is now reporting it has reached an agreement with the card association.
In mid-2016, as CUToday.info reported, Walmart cited “unacceptably high" card transaction fees when they announced their decision to no longer accept Visa cards in Canada, reported Bill Hardekopf, CEO at LowCards.com, Birmingham, Ala.
“The company, which pays more than $100 million in credit card transaction fees, said that lower transaction fees were necessary to ‘keep our prices low and continue saving our customers money,’" said Hardekopf. “For its part, Visa told cardholders and other Canadian merchants that it offered Walmart ‘one of the lowest rates of any merchant in Canada’ and ‘they are using their size and scale to give themselves an unfair advantage.’"
Before an agreement was reached, only two markets had been affected by Walmart's ban, said Hardekopf. Three Walmart stores in Thunder Bay stopped accepting Visa in July, and in October, 16 stores in Manitoba quit accepting the card.