Payment Trends February 2024 | FinTech News & Updates | B2B Vault - The Biz To Biz Podcast | Episode 224

You are now watching the Biz to Biz podcast with Allen and Justin.

Peace.

Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the Biz to Biz podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Richard Petty of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman. And today's podcast, we'll be talking about some payment trends. It's been a minute since we, uh, touched on it. It's actually been a long minute. Uh, holidays and stuff in the office and changes, etc., etc. So, uh, we're back to almost back to normal with posting. Sorry if I sound a little congested. I've been feeling a little weird today, actually, and yesterday, but I'm fine. I'm not gonna— I don't know, I, I do sound like crap right now, though. That's not good.

That one's not a good one. Mm-mm.

Okay. Anyway, I got my tea, so I'll be all right. Yeah, so it's really been like, we haven't did a payment trend since like December, bro.

But the weather outside is crazy 'cause it's like 50 in the morning, then it's like 80, and my sinuses get a little—

That's, I'm, yesterday was just a little, you know, I had a little, my— I was coughing all day actually in the office. But then as soon as I got out of the office and I went to the gym, I was fine. Like, I didn't cough at all.

No, but it could be like that whole— I think it's just 30-degree swap, you know.

I did an ice bath this morning.

Oh, nice. Yeah, I saw you— I saw your picture on Facebook in your tub.

Oh yeah, yeah, you could definitely get those.

That's—

that was $25. Wow.

So what do you put, just ice from the fridge in there?

No, I went and bought ice from the grocery, from the gas station.

Oh, so you know when Jacob, my son, you know, had the knee thing and you gotta use the ice machine thing?

Yeah.

So to make it last longer, I took the plastic trays from the mushrooms. Oh, and stuffed them up with water. Yeah, I got it. And froze those for big ice cubes.

I got it. Uh, well, because I don't have much room in my freezer, but I filled up like 3, uh, juice jugs, plastic bottles of water, and I freeze them and I add them in there, but it doesn't get cold enough. So you got to get it down to below 50 degrees, right? If you, if you're not, if you're taking an ice bath and you're not losing your breath, then it's pointless.

So I was putting bottles in his machine Yeah, and then the machine got clogged up because apparently as the bottles thaw out, little pieces of plastic break off, and if there's any kind of filter on that thing, like, it gets clogged up. Just for your FYI.

Well, there's no filter in it.

Oh, then you don't have to worry about that.

No, I am putting the water in my garden, but I guess that doesn't—

No, that doesn't matter.

It'll be all right. Yeah. So how you doing, man, anyway?

That's doing good. Busy week. Busy, busy.

This week went fast. It's a short week too, but It went fast.

Yeah, President's Day, went to the race last week.

It was George Washington's—

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and every other—

His birthday.

That was his birthday?

That's what I thought President's Day is.

No, they used to have, we used to have Washington's birthday.

That's what it was.

And we used to have Lincoln's birthday.

When is Lincoln's birthday?

I don't know, but then they changed it to another day and they just call it President's Day.

Oh, so maybe it wasn't his birthday.

I don't know if they go back and forth each year. Like one year it's George Washington and one year that it's Abraham Lincoln.

No, it's just Presidents' Days.

No, I'm saying I don't know if they change the date each year to each person.

Birthday? Oh, yeah.

I don't know. I can't keep up with it.

I did just read that it was George Washington's birthday.

Okay, well, George Washington's birthday.

Could have been today is his birthday. I don't know.

It's all good.

I should have did a little bit better what I was reading. But yes, I heard it was, I guess it was George Washington's birthday.

And how— what, what else is going on with you?

Uh, yeah, man, plugging away. Hopefully we could get that funnel done. Um, been doing the digital marketing course. I'm a little behind on that. I need to crank some of that out. Um, but other than that, man, hopefully I'm not getting sick. That's all I know.

I hope so. We don't want to get— we don't want to all get sick.

Yeah, no, that would be terrible.

So let's dive right in.

Let's go. So off top, we're going to talk— touch on, uh, it's so ridiculous, the cannabis and CBD thing. It, it— I can't believe it's just nothing has happened.

Yeah, they're—

another year.

Yeah, they're like, oh, the, you know, Congress and then some legislators are like the, the— they're saying, you know, Biden and Congress is missing the boat. They need to act on it, stop dilly-dallying around. And, you know, the one thing is, is processors are starting to crack down on THC zero. That's the synthetic. They don't want anybody selling that. Big news was New York handed out, I guess either yesterday—

The thing, like real quick, like the THC zero thing is crazy to me because They're, they're cracking on down on that, but you can go to a smoke shop and buy some shrooms, right? What the fuck?

I don't know, dude. Well, shrooms are natural. This is some chemically made—

but so is cannabis.

Cannabis is chemicals?

No, cannabis is organic. It's right, but the THC zero is straight man-made, right? It's not real.

Right, so there's a problem.

It's real only because it came out of a laboratory.

Right, so I guess they don't want people selling it.

They shouldn't be, you shouldn't be smoking it, eating it, or whatever.

Right, there's plenty of other good regular cannabis and hemp available. No, so New York, big thing is they just handed out another 110 dispensary licenses.

What's crazy about that too is one of my homies out there, he's like, there's dispensaries like there used to be liquor stores.

Oh yeah, they're everywhere. They're going in everywhere. There's supposed to be a distance between them, but people are not paying attention to that, just going hog wild.

Like, I mean, and every—

on top of the— and also like bodegas are all trying to get—

well, no, no, the bodegas were the original weed spots, right? But you would go to New York, you would go get the weed out of the, out of the bodega.

That's not a—

that's not a new thing.

No, but now there's good places.

They should be able to sell weed.

No, they're getting licensed now.

They should.

It's crazy.

They've been— I mean, the people that have been selling, yo, it's so messed up because— and also all of the, the people that was selling weed, right, like now they can't go and get licenses. But now all the people that— no, it's not that easy.

In New York, they're giving licenses to people who have been arrested for a certain amount, right? A certain amount of licenses.

Still big bullshit. I mean, it's, it's, it's all, it's all a force. It's all for, it's all for, it's all for show. Yeah, man, it's sad, dude. Like, it's sad.

And then in Florida, they're talking about opening up licenses, more licenses in Florida for when they release— now they're not calling it recreational, they're calling it adult use, adult use, instead of the word recreation.

Florida is just I don't— what the hell, dude? Like, Florida is the place where you can do anything and everything. Yeah, but you can just park your car sideways on a street for 6 hours and nothing will happen. You could do all kinds of wild shit in our parking lot. But I'm saying, yeah, except here. Don't park your car wrong in any way. Uh, so like, the fact that— who is so— like, it's got to be the super rich people that just— I don't want to smell pot.

Yeah, but it's not that. Like, the— you can just go to the cannabis doctor, right? You go, oh, I have anxiety, and they just give you a prescription. That's it. There's no big deal. You just pay them $150.

No, that's it. But not the, the fact that Florida is losing out on so much money. Yeah, not everybody has a medical marijuana license, and you— I'm talking tourists. You can't use your license inside.

Yeah, that's weird too. I think they should allow—

they're going to fix that, but Florida's losing the good, the way that they're like labeling this stuff and doing all this is—

Well, let's see what they do. It looks like they're gonna try to pass it though.

It's going on the ballot in November.

Yeah, it's going on the ballot, yeah. And then the other story I read was they finally, I knew 4 or 5 people who had called me over the last couple years to get a cannabis smoking lounge opened up in Nevada.

Yeah.

And they gave the first license to a place called Smoke and Mirrors. So I looked it up online. The building wasn't very impressive. It's just a regular building.

I don't know what's— it's Nevada.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, where was it? In Vegas?

Yeah, just that, just in Vegas, but not on the Strip.

I mean, every building that I was seeing in Vegas was not impressive. Yeah, it all looked from like the early '80s.

Yeah, it looked like—

it looked like I was watching Goodfellas.

It looked like a warehouse.

I mean, casino. I was watching Casino.

Yeah, it was—

it hasn't changed.

No, it hasn't changed.

What the fuck? That—

yeah, because everything's built there to withstand like dust storms and everything. So, you know, whatever. No, so they're gonna have the first— yeah, well, they get dust, they get these—

no, I, I know.

So they have to make— the construction has to be so the dust doesn't come inside the building.

Yeah, so that's why it doesn't— I get it.

That's why it doesn't look so fancy. So the— so they're gonna have the first smoking lounge. I can't wait for them.

Well, not the first in the United States.

No, first in Nevada, because Colorado— can you imagine? Like, next you're gonna go into the casinos and they're gonna have smoking lounge, you know, they're probably gonna have smoking cannabis lounges in the casinos, bro. That's gonna be crazy.

I went into the pod and sparked up fast as hell, right? I mean, nothing's gonna stop me. I, I don't know. I'm one of those guys that'll light a joint up anywhere, bro.

People light up everywhere in Vegas. When the last time I was there, I saw people lighting up on the street and everything.

I'm saying the rich people in Florida, they do not like that. But they would— but they're cool with you smoking a cigar or a cigarette, right?

And they're cool with you getting drunk and super drunk, right? What—

there's no thought behind it.

Well, let's see what happens. So this was a pretty big story, the next one. Google Pay and Android Pay— Google shutting all that down. They want everybody to switch to the Google Wallet, which came out like a few years ago.

Google Pay shutting down in June.

Yeah, in June. And the— and Android Pay. Really? Yeah.

And you're gonna switch to the Google Wallet?

They already have the Google Wallet. It already exists. So that now they're going to—

Oh yeah, for sure. That's been around forever. Right.

It's been around for two— since 2020. Yeah. So now they're going to close those other ones down. They want everybody to migrate over to the Google Wallet. Not going to— they're going to get rid of those two.

So they— what, they bought them?

It's all— I guess it was owned by Google.

Android Pay was owned by Google too.

I guess they bought it. Whenever it was, 'cause they bought Samsung Pay too. And then Samsung Pay, that didn't work anymore 'cause Samsung Pay, the way that worked is you took your phone and you put it up to the credit card machine and it triggered the swipe device in there, like made it pick up the mag stripe.

Oh really?

Yeah, and then when they came out with EMV, Samsung Pay, that went bye-bye.

I do remember hearing about that.

That went bye-bye, but that's pretty, you know, that's pretty like—

that's wild that they're just gonna call it Google Wallet, huh? Yeah, and then because it's called what now?

Apple Pay, right? Well, no, you have Google— no, Google Pay.

No, I'm saying Apple— I know what it— do you have—

yeah, Apple Pay. It's called the Apple Pay, not the Apple Wallet, right? Well, I guess it's called the wallet on your Apple phone. It says wallet, but it's Apple Pay.

It does say Wallet.

Right, but it says Apple Pay.

So I wonder if it's still going to say Google Pay.

Maybe.

Google Wallet is just a lot.

Yeah.

Whatever.

No, but there's also been like a bunch of lawsuits about what cards can go in there with them and Apple. And there's a whole bunch of stuff going on in Europe. And are they, you know, because certain companies don't want to pay them to have their cards in the Wallet. It's kind of crazy.

My hip flexor is really bothering.

And then the other big story that's crazy out there in the financial company world is Capital One buying Discover.

That, when I read that, I sent it to you immediately because that was like, wow.

Yeah, it's pretty wow.

And it's pretty wow, he says.

Yeah, it's crazy because it's— and also, if Capital One backs out, there's a $1.3 billion penalty to walk away from the deal. But however, Congress is not keen on it. And of course, the person who complains the most in Congress about all the financial companies, Elizabeth Warren, is going nuts. She doesn't think that it should do it. She says that it's dangerous, it's going to reduce competition in the market.

It's kind of weird.

Capital One was like, they were loaning money for a while and then they stopped. Like loaning money, like doing loans. And, um, buying Discover would open that back up because it would bring in banks, right? But then MasterCard is worried because Discover is connected to MasterCard, and I think Capital One is connected to Visa.

Oh really?

Yeah. So, but now Capital One is saying they're going to leave Discover alone, at least the debit portion of it. And I don't know, MasterCard, I don't think is— I think they're gonna probably try to nix this deal from happening besides what Congress is going to do.

Sounds like it has to go through the 1.3. Well, for Discover, that's not a lot of money, I guess.

No, but I'm just saying, if— I'm just saying, like, well, if Congress nixes the deal or MasterCard gets Congress to nix the deal right, to say no, it's going to be antitrust violation, whatever. It is what it is. There's no penalty, right?

But look, Discover pulls out on its own, then you got to pay.

Well, no, it's Capital One pulls out, they have to pay Discover. Oh, why would Capital One— because Capital One's buying Discover.

Why would they pull out though?

They changed their mind. It was like when Elon Musk was buying Twitter, there was a penalty if he pulled out of the deal.

I remember that. Yeah, I mean, I get all that, but why would—

I guess, yeah, after you find out what's going on, what's under the hood, you look under the hood, you go, you want to want no parts. Yeah, but, um, I don't know, based on like MasterCard complaining and Elizabeth Warren complaining, and it's not about to happen, and Consumer Protection Finance Bureau complaining about less, you know, reducing competition in the marketplace, uh, I don't know if that deal is going to be completely successful.

Doesn't sound like it. Yeah, I would put my money on it going against it, but what do I know?

You never know. You can't predict anything today.

Money talks and bullshit walks, buddy.

But it doesn't look promising.

What's up with payroll?

So payroll, there's been like a lot of talk going on. There's been like a lot of— there's a lot of talk going on about payroll and some companies doing some shady stuff with like payroll advances and sending payroll to— not, not through payroll companies, but through third-party companies. And then paying, like, paying, like, your 1099 workers through, like, a third party. And then the third party adding on, like, a lot of fees, like a 10% fee. And, you know, the— I guess Consumer Protection Finance got involved with that. And then there was some payroll companies And there was some hint that possibly Toast was going to try to do it where they were treating earned wage, right? Because that's an earned wage you're getting, right? And they were treating it like a payday loan and charging interest. And there's a big, you know, look under the hood with that, like all this fintech stuff, you know, people moving around money, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, plus like that Joe Biden has that thing, junk fee. Thing going on. So all of that's, you know, that is so—

he makes it sound so confusing, bro. He doesn't know what the hell.

No, they're all over the place with that thing. And then, oh, you know, their main focus was like Ticketmaster, all the fees, Ticketmaster.

Yeah, who gives a shit, right?

Whatever. Some people complaining.

I mean, I guess people who can't afford to go see a $3,000—

the only thing I don't like about Ticketmaster is is they jack up the prices based on how many people log on to the website to buy the tickets. And I don't think that's fair. I think the artist should set the ticket price.

Supply and demand, it's the oldest—

I know, I don't like it though. I think the artist— Supply and demand. I just think the artist should set their ticket price.

Guns and butter. Whatever. Basic economics.

I get the supply and demand, but that's just, I'm not gonna pay 3 grand to see a concert.

No, that's why I stopped going. I haven't been to a concert.

My limit is like 2, 250, and that's it. I'm not going above that.

Yeah, I was trying to take my wife to see Nas the other last— it was, it was last year.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I love Nas, man, pause, but I'm not about to spend $500.

Yeah, that's crazy.

I just can't do it.

Like, the Eagles are coming and the tickets are like $1,500. I'm not paying. What the— I've seen the Eagles a bunch of times. I mean, the one— the— I remember the first time I saw the Eagles, I think I paid $20.

Yeah, well, they've been around since I'm in high school, so yeah, I mean, I hear you because I remember like the first time I seen Wu-Tang Clan there, there it was like $15.

Yeah, exactly.

Go to the—

I remember going to stuff like Georgia Jam, Ghostface Killah, 5 bands.

Ghostface Killah, his, his, the concert, I think we paid $10 to get in.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I remember going to like Georgia Jam you would see like 5, 6, 7 bands. I saw one year like Santana, Doobie Brothers, like Summerfest in Milwaukee.

Yeah, it's like, it's a huge festival, like $20, and the all weekend you would spend $5 a ticket, right? And you could see 100 bands if you wanted to, right? Like, I—

but these prices are crazy for concerts.

Then we watch the payroll thing though, to me is back to that, is super sketch. I know that we're—

so there are some—

almost about to, you know, right?

So the payroll company we're going to be working with, they charge $2.99 for the employee to get their money early. That's it.

So that's not bad.

No, that's not bad. $2.99 flat fee. So if you already have— you earned wages for 3 days and now let's say you need a couple hundred bucks to pay a bill, you pay $2.99 and get your money. It's not bad. Then it's deducted from your paycheck, taxes, everything's all figured out. That's the right way. I mean, that's a reasonable fee.

That makes sense.

Then earlier today, I see a news story pop up on my phone. And it was the funny video.

It wasn't funny.

No, it wasn't. What was funny was afterwards, what the manager was saying was funny.

In the interview.

Yeah, in the interview. He's like, oh, some guy walks in the office and you see the surveillance camera.

And he was on the phone.

Yeah, he's on the phone and some guy's waving a gun or look like a gun.

Yeah, I couldn't really tell.

You couldn't tell if the guy had a gun or not, but he said something about safe, safe. And he goes, oh, give me your money. And the manager says, go ahead, shoot me.

And shoot me in the head, he said. To me, that's just stupid.

Right.

I mean, bro, no amount of money is worth your life.

Yeah, I just thought it was crazy. And then he goes, oh, and then the guy ran away. I just don't understand. I've been in clubs.

How the hell did he get back there?

Yeah, most people have like security doors or gates you got to get buzzed into to get into the office.

He must have knew somebody or something. Yeah, like he was a regular patron.

Yeah, he knew something, or maybe he knew a friend that worked there. That was like a little crazy. Don't rob a strip club.

I would, I would definitely—

there's big bouncers in there and you don't know who owns it.

Not in Florida, bro. I'm surprised he got out of there.

Exactly, that's what I'm surprised about. I'm really surprised. I would bust in clubs around here, let me tell you.

I know you're not making it out of there alive.

I know some managers, they'll be tackling you and—

no, they're gonna shoot you in the head, bro.

I don't know about if you shoot you, but they'll beat you up pretty— but they'll beat your ass.

I mean, I wouldn't doubt it, but you'll get your butt kicked. Believe me, down in Florida, like, everyone has a gun. You don't need a permit. You know, trying to rob somebody in Florida is wrong. I just wouldn't—

I wouldn't—

Florida and Texas, I just wouldn't do it.

Florida and Texas is two places you shouldn't be messing with people because there's a pretty good chance somebody's got a gun.

There's a 97% chance there's a gun in the car, and I'm, and I, I, I'm for certain every time.

Anyway, when I moved to Texas, I lived in Dallas. I'll never forget, I was driving around and I was like shocked because there were people with like trucks and they have like a gun rack in the cab and they had guns on there. That's— yeah, I'm like, damn. Don't mess with Texas.

Wisconsin is— you can ride with your shotgun.

And yeah, yeah, I'm saying they got it displayed in the window.

Yeah, man. My dad always told me, it better be judged by 12 than to be carried by 6, man. So, so anyway, on a lighter note, stay peaceful out there, ladies.

Yes, stay peaceful. Don't put the guns down. Don't road rage on anybody and don't rob a strip club.

Definitely don't.

Oh, and I heard a story on the news this morning that there's this big hardware store in San Francisco, and now when you walk into the store and you want to go shopping there, they make you wait at a gate and then they have a concierge take you shopping because the shoplifting has been out of control in the hardware store.

A good big, big ticket items in a hardware store, bro.

Yeah, but I'm not— yep, I'm saying obviously small enough, like someone could go pick up a $300 drill and then run out.

That's what I'm saying. Even that's just like $300, right?

So that's crazy. So now it's have concierge shopping at this hardware store in San Francisco.

Is that stopping people?

Yeah, it's stopping. They had to do it. I mean, listen, they're hiring people, so there's no self-checkout anymore. So I give it to them. They're hiring people to work there.

You know, shout out to that because self-checkout is ridiculous.

Yeah, I don't like self-checkout.

The convenience of it.

If I have one or two items, it's perfect. Great.

More than that, if it's a vegetable.

Yeah. Oh yeah. It's such a pain in the butt to weigh a vegetable. You gotta look it up, find the right vegetable.

I just go potato, bro, every time.

Potatoes are cheap.

Exactly.

They don't know.

I can't, I'm not about to, I'm just not doing all that.

I get it.

Potato, it's right there. It's just always the sign.

That's the cheapest vegetable?

No, it's, I would say it's probably close.

Okay.

A single potato?

Yeah, no, it's probably by the pound, like maybe.

'Cause I mean, a green pepper is, organic green pepper is like $5. Right. And it's purr, and you just put potato.

Sorry. Oh, that's a good trick. I have to remember that one.

I can neither confirm nor deny.

And then, um, you know, there's a bunch of stuff going on with like adding the fee to the customers, and New Jersey and New York trying to put a limit on it, and you know The Visa is trying to put a limit on it. I listened to a meeting. I don't want to— I don't want to say anything bad about Visa because— but it wasn't—

I don't understand it.

The barn— the horse is out of the barn. The car is already down the road with all this passing the fee to the customer. So they need to just leave that alone. And Visa needs to address it and stop BSing around and saying, oh, it's a surcharge. No, just, it is what it is. The Supreme Court's ruled on it. Now there's some other guy, Corner Post Convenience Store, North Dakota, and they're saying, oh, they don't agree with the Durbin Amendment from 2010 because they opened up their business in 2018 or something and they don't agree with it. So they took a case all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said they're going to rule on it. And they said if there was any kind of outcome reversing Durbin or anything else, it could put in jeopardy every regulation that any agency has adopted in the past 75 years.

Or he says, he says, down in the last, I don't know, 75 years or something. Wow.

Yeah, that could put every— all laws in danger. I don't see the Supreme Court saying that they would allow that.

No, I don't. That's not happening.

And then the last thing was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is calling Jack Dorsey in front of Congress again to talk about Cash App. And then they're also looking into these cash advance companies who are collecting 35 to 50% interest on businesses and causing tons of businesses to go bankrupt.

That cash advance stuff is terrible, bro. If you're a small business and you're in trouble, man, I highly suggest you do not go for a cash advance. Do the cabbage.

Yeah, do Kabbage, do OnDeck, get a line of credit, bar, use your credit cards. Do not get a cash advance. It's the worst thing ever.

Like for the past couple months, like Allen, like there's just the one guy, he just helped some other guy. He had 3 cash advances, yo. Like I understand we're in tough times, but you know, maybe it's time to pivot and think of a different business model. I don't know. You know, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to run their business, but what I will say is Stay away from the cash advance.

When people ask us for it, I tell them no, I don't want to be associated with it.

I mean, we get hit up constantly about it.

Yeah, but I don't want to—

we get hit up by vendors trying to sell it for us to sell it. Yeah, I know.

I will not sell that to a business owner. I would never.

No, it's just like a payday loan.

It's worse than payday loans.

But yes, it is.

It's worse. And then, you know, they give them money on top of money like I was explaining to you. And the next thing you know, the person's paying like 50% interest.

On 3 loans.

Yeah. And it's crazy. You can't, you know, people have to get a lawyer and negotiate with them and all that. But it's kind of crazy.

That's a sad—

but, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on from a legal standpoint and with businesses and Congress. And I just feel like Congress just doesn't know what to do with all these financial—

because it's an election year and it's an election year. So it's like more like eyes on that. And, you know, a lot of people are being overlooked right now and it's kind of weird.

So yeah, well, I'm volunteering. Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, need someone to come in, give you some better explanation on what's going on with this, all this fintech. I'll come down there, help you out.

All right, man. So that's the podcast, Payment Trends, February 2024. Peace out. Smash that like button, subscribe, share the channel to your people for us, please. Peace.

Carpe diem.