Comments on: GST hike + NETS fee hike = Opportunity for profiteering

By: mrbiao

mrbiao — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:07:38 +0000

We are walking backwards here. While in many other developing (and developed) countries, they are moving towards a cashless society, we will be moving towards a situation where people are faced with 2 options: to pay more, or to carry more cash. It’s not doing any good for the economy. When people pay more often in cash it will also increase business costs where merchants have to make more frequent trips to bank in the money.

The only people who will profit from this are merchants (who raise prices to cope with the fee increase) and the banks who have stakes in NETS. But it’s hard to predict too, NETS may in fact lose business as a result of less frequent usage.

The latest news has it that NETS lowered the planned tariff increase. Goes to show that they realised what a stupid decision it was.

By: Rush Hour III

Rush Hour III — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:30:17 +0000

True, NETS has been a staple for many Singaporeans for many years but its time to let the free market run its course. There will be pain in the short run. We are already short of Singapore bred companies in the world stage. Want this one to die too? Lets give NETS a chance to go global and when they are in the global big league, they can then sponsor community events majestically like what we have come to expect from VISA and MASTERCARD.

By: Nets Raises Charging Transactions « A Mind of My Own

Nets Raises Charging Transactions « A Mind of My Own — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:37:54 +0000

[...] Increase was noted in May by mrbiao. It’s obvious that profiteering is the issue here. Another thing to note is that transactions [...]

By: mrbiao

mrbiao — Wed, 23 May 2007 15:56:58 +0000

In the direct debit market, the more likely competitor are mastercard and visa where they serve the debit card segment which serves the same purpose as NETS.

However, I don’t think the competition by debit cards is strong enough to bite off a significant chunk of NETS. Consider for big ticket items like computer peripherals at Sim Lim Square – retailers don’t usually take MC or Visa (without illegally imposing surcharges), but they do take NETS because of the low charges.

With this fee raise, the impact will be most apparent at Sim Lim… people will need to carry thousands of dollars in cash to buy a computer, shops will see a larger portion of sales done in cash basis… and I wonder whether this will eventually lead to higher crime rates in the area when thiefs and pickpockets realise how much cash is going around there.

By: wil

wil — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:50:44 +0000

competitors could also mean EZ-link.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:20:05 +0000

NETS is dead.

“international competitors” means VISA.