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Trying to ditch Visa. Are Canadian store credit cards Canadian?

For example is the Canadian Tire card just a Visa or MasterCard in disguise?

I'm switching to interact for as many transactions as I can but I would like to be able to cancel my visa if there's an alternate.

10 comments
  • Until we get a CBDC, Visa and MasterCard would remain our only access to the digital payment system, outside of the use cases that take Interac. Unfortunately in Canada it's likely that CBDC would still necessitate accounts in commercial banks. Ideally we'd want Bank of Canada to provode any Canadian citizen with a simple chequing account that they can use to transact with any other Canadian citizen or business via CBDC, with zero transaction fees. I doubt the Big Five are gonna let that happen without getting themselves to skim something off the top.

  • I think you’ll find that many store cards are really Visa or Mastercard.

    Many Canadian store cards used to be owned by the stores. Some of the department store ones were very profitable.

    However, many firms ‘rationalized’ by getting out of what was seen as a financial services business line to focus on their core retail. Weston’s with PC Financial is an exception - but for many consumers there are other reasons not to go with Loblaws/PC branded financial products.

  • Almost all store cards are Visa or Mastercard branded as they rely on those payment processors to handle payments and for their security mechanisms

10 comments