Walmart’s Canada-wide Visa ban starts today in Thunder Bay

July 17th, 2016  |  Canadian Business

Walmart to Visa: it’s on. Sunday, July 17 was the last day Thunder Bay shoppers could freely swipe their Visa cards at their local Walmarts.

Back in June, Walmart threatened to stop accepting Visa in its Canadian stores. Today, the wealthy retail giant put its threat in motion: Visa is officially banned from three Walmart locations in Thunder Bay, Ontario. And Walmart warns that this is just the beginning of a nationwide overhaul to the payment options available in its stores.

Why the Visa ban? For months, Walmart has been demanding lower merchant fees from Visa. Meanwhile, Visa maintains that it’s already offered Walmart the lowest rate offered to any other merchant in Canada. The massive companies have yet to reach an agreement.

As this feud moves down to the consumer level, Visa is keeping its poker face in check. According to The Globe and Mail, the credit card company offered a statement saying, “Until an agreement can be reached in this commercial dispute, we encourage shoppers to use their cards at the more than 5,200 stores in Thunder Bay that accept Visa,”

Recent polls point to a similar message. In a survey by the Angus Reid Institute, almost 50% of Walmart customers who usually pay by Visa said they would be less likely to shop at Walmart if their cards were no longer accepted.
So the question remains: which company will cave before Walmart rolls its Visa ban out to all 400 of its locations?