If you haven’t heard, Nets will hike fees on July 1, with merchants having to paying transaction fees of up to 1.9 per cent of purchases, up from the current 0.35 to 0.55. Wonderful isn’t it, we have an upcoming GST increase, ministers pay increased (already … maybe even pre-rated who knows), and now NETs increase, soon so will Starhub’s football coverage … and god knows what else.

NETS CEO Poh Mui Hoon: ‘This is not a consumer issue at all since merchants are not allowed to pass on the charges to consumers.’

Right, my dear Ms. Poh … have you ever shopped at shops whereby they ask if you are paying by Cash/Nets or credit card? Because selecting credit card would earn you the line “then we gota charge you x% more to pay the service charge on the card”

“Nets has said that it will be squeeze out of the market if it didn’t raise fees. “

Wow, considering they have 6 million Nets card holders island-wide, and 83% of of Singapore residents use the Nets-linked cards for their purchases, I wonder who in the World is gona squeeze them out of the market? Perhaps the credit cards, which I would say at least half the population would never be able to afford.

‘We are still the most competitive card around. I will match any rate that is lower than ours,’ she promised.

How can you not be the most competitive card around when there is no competition to speak of in the first place? I wouldn’t even want to count debit or credit cards because you have to sign up for it, and there are charges related to it … cashless society? dear banks, please start installing more ATMs.

Related:
Businesses, consumers unhappy with NETS fee hike (Straits Times)