The Impact of Increased Credit Card Usage on Costs Incurred by Merchant Establishments in Singapore

Abstract

The research aims to help merchant acquiring institutions gain a better insight on what merchant establishments in the Singapore market perceive of the costs they incur due to credit card acceptance. The research attempts to study the Singapore market and establish if increased credit card usage does increase costs for the merchant establishments that accept credit cards, this will help to acquire institutions in Singapore have a better understanding of merchant perceptions and what drives or deters credit card acceptance in the Singapore market. The survey was based on an interview of merchant establishments and the views of the merchants and was not based on their financial data. As a first step, the variables used in the survey were tested for interdependence using Chi-square tests; subsequently data reduction using factor analysis was performed and finally linear regression to establish a relation between dependent and independent variables. Merchant establishment believe accepting credit cards and increasing volume is costlier compared to another form of payment, but have mixed awareness about interchange fee. It also indicated that interchange fee and cardholder benefits are independent of the merchant establishments. The study only broadly attempts to gauge merchants view if increased credit card usage has increased costs for them.