Industry News

05/10/2009 - Although businesses can certainly get by without a merchant account, accepting credit cards has become an almost necessary part of business in today's increasingly paperless world.

The Canadian Bankers Association estimates that there were 68.2 billion credit cards in circulation in 2008, while the average number of debit card purchases per person hit 104.5 in 2007, making Canadians the highest users of debit cards in the world.

As a result of this trend, Canada has become a card-centric society - credit or debit cards are now required in many situations, such as with the purchase of travel tickets (and with traveling itself), as well as for online retail and security deposits.

"Life without carrying a balance on your credit card is possible," Scott Hannah, president of Vancouver-based Credit Counselling Canada, told the Financial Post. "But for the average person, getting along without a credit card has become darn hard."

Although this high prevalence of credit and debit cards has been implicated in Canada's mounting consumer debt concerns, the Post notes that payment cards are a win-win for consumers and businesses alike - consumers benefit from the convenience of the buy-now-pay-later setup, while merchants benefit from the knowledge that the purchase will always be paid, whether by the consumer or the bank.

Therefore, businesses that do not accept debit or credit cards may find themselves falling behind as the payment processing industry becomes increasingly paperless.