It’s not unusual for an arcade/FEC customer to walk up to the player card station and put another $10 or $20 on his game card using his Visa credit card as payment. Use of credit cards on vending machines, of course, is even more common these days. Overall, people are using their cards rather than cash more and more often, even for tiny purchases like a cup of coffee.
In the jargon of the credit card business, coin machine operators are “merchants,” and like card merchants everywhere these days, they’re sometimes victims of fraud committed by customers using stolen or counterfeit cards. When the real card owner spies the bogus charge on his Visa bill and complains, the merchant can get what’s called a “chargeback” debit, even for small amounts.
NAMA, the national vending association, now advises that effective July 22, 2016, Visa will block sending all U.S. counterfeit fraud chargebacks priced under $25.00! Claiming that Visa’s decision will save the coin machine business a significant amount of money while also minimizing transactional disputes, NAMA also advised of yet another step in the operator’s direction.
“Effective this October, card issuers will also be limited to charging back 10 fraudulent counterfeit charges per account, and will assume liability for all fraud on the account thereafter.” The two chargeback blocks will be effective until April of 2018. “Following these changes, merchants can expect to see 40% fewer counterfeit chargebacks and a 15% reduction in U.S. counterfeit fraud dollars being charged back,” NAMA quoted a Visa statement. Hurray for our side!