On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 08:40:57 +0100 Paul Corfield
said...

Finsbury Park (WAGN), Wimbledon, Queens Park, Barking, Walthamstow
Central, Upminster should all fall within the scope of NR stations that
will be able to retail Oystercards.

Finsbury Park has two separate ticket offices - one run by WAGN & one
LUL. I doubt the WAGN ticket offices will sell Oystercards...

--
Phil Richards
London, N4

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 10:37:08 +0100 Helen Deborah Vecht
said...

Amex & Diners charge merchants higher commission than Visa & Mastercard IIRC.

Also they are slower at paying up the retailer who has to set up separate
merchant accounts with Amex & Diners. The rest (Visa, Mastercard, all the
debit cards etc.) usually all come under one.

Of course Amex & Diners card holders (or "Members" as they prefer to be
called) come out with the statement "The perks are much better" as a
standard response each time this point is raised.

--
Phil Richards
London, N4

"Phil Richards" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 10:37:08 +0100 Helen Deborah Vecht
said...

Amex & Diners charge merchants higher commission than Visa & Mastercard
IIRC.

Also they are slower at paying up the retailer who has to set up separate
merchant accounts with Amex & Diners. The rest (Visa, Mastercard, all the
debit cards etc.) usually all come under one.

My understanding about Amex is that the retailer can choose:
- to pay the same fee as with Visa and MasterCard and wait longer for
payment.
- to pay a higher fee than with Visa and MasterCard and receive payment in
the same timescale as Visa and MasterCard.

Either way, the retailer is worse off than accepting Visa or MasterCard.
I'm not sure what Diners Club do.

Of course Amex & Diners card holders (or "Members" as they prefer to be
called) come out with the statement "The perks are much better" as a
standard response each time this point is raised.

Yes, but we don't forget how those better perks are funded.

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 07:37:51 +0100 Nicholas F Hodder said...

Either way, the retailer is worse off than accepting Visa or MasterCard.
I'm not sure what Diners Club do.

Correct, that probably answers your question as to why LUL (amongst
others) have made a commercial decision not to accept them.

Of course Amex & Diners card holders (or "Members" as they prefer to be
called) come out with the statement "The perks are much better" as a
standard response each time this point is raised.

Yes, but we don't forget how those better perks are funded.

By the retailer who chooses to accept Amex (or Diners) and accepts a cut
in his profit or commission margin or delays his cash flow.

IMO it needs more of the big retailers to start pulling out altogether of
accepting Amex & Diners. Budget airline Ryanair recently made a big
announcement that they stopped taking Amex. IIRC they never did accept
Diners.

If the consumer wants the goods he'll usually pay for them by some other
way such as Visa/Mastercard or bank debit card. If that started to happen
perhaps Amex & Diners might have to start thinking about their charges
passed on to the retailer.

--
Phil Richards
London, N4

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:20:36 +0100, Phil Richards
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 08:40:57 +0100 Paul Corfield
said...

Finsbury Park (WAGN), Wimbledon, Queens Park, Barking, Walthamstow
Central, Upminster should all fall within the scope of NR stations that
will be able to retail Oystercards.

Finsbury Park has two separate ticket offices - one run by WAGN & one
LUL. I doubt the WAGN ticket offices will sell Oystercards...

Yes I know it has. I also know that the WAGN office has to retail LUL
tickets as a joint station. It would be complete lunacy not to equip it
for Oystercard sales as it would overload the LUL office if it wasn't.
There would almost certainly be issues over commission and apportionment
as well if LUL opted to use technology to divert sales. There are
agreements about such things.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!