The NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) is in the midst of it's battle over high interchange fees. As part of their ongoing PR program to fight these fees, they use Aldi as a poster boy...saying they never did take credit cards, and only accept PIN Debit Cards. Here's their story:Aldi Continues to Eschew Credit Cards
Nearly all of the grocer’s locations accept only cash and PIN debit cards.
September 16 - NACS - BATAVIA, Ill. – When most supermarket chains started accepting credit cards in the 1990s, Aldi stood firm. With around U.S. 1,000 stores in 29 states, the grocery chain mostly accepts only cash and PIN-based debit card transactions, Digital Transactions reports.
The only exception is a group of 49 stores in Oklahoma that accept the Discover credit card, charging customers a quarter “convenience” fee for the privilege. “We have no plans to expand that,” said Aldi Vice President Mark Bersted.Aldi refuses to take credit cards to control costs, given that retailers have to pay interchange fees to process credit card charges. PIN-based debit cards do not have as high a fee associated with it.
“People not using credit cards would be paying for people who do want to use them,” said Bersted. “Because of the very high fees with credit cards, we would be unable to keep our prices as low as they are.” Visa and MasterCard have made it virtually impossible for merchants to add a surcharge to credit-card transactions, but Discover and American Express Co. have been a bit more flexible in allowing retailers to recoup some of the interchange fees. Last year, Aldi started allowing payments with Visa and MasterCard signature debit cards at its stores in Florida, Minnesota and Oklahoma because of the underdeveloped PIN-debit merchant base, Bersted said.
