The power of VISA - after 1st of November
 

We have already talked about if the VISA rules are local to USA or if they are International... different opions, and I guess only time will tell, who is right.

However I remember not too long ago that VISA banned Bestiality and other extreem themes from processing, however months later you can still buy access to these types of content with your VISA card (heck I have even seen American Express on some Bestiality sites like www.Bestiality.com - join page http://www.dataworld.nl/join-1 , while no other "normal" adult sites in US can process American Express).

I know that the new rules might be aim at these type of situations, however I have problems seeing a world wide ban be in effect from 1st. November. And thus only the sites following the new rules will be hurt, while the sites which have made different setups can still go by their day2day operations.

VISA could have setup different programs aim at the areas they wanted to get rid off, but releasing all of these different rules at one time, then they have made more panic at normal sites who want to play by the rules, then at the sites which are used to be on the edge.

I foresee that VISA will loose bussiness longterm by this move - adult transactions might be a "drop in the ocean of VISA transactions", but it will forever change the mind at many site owners about how they will push different payment options at their sites. Truth is that VISA is a great world wide payment option, but if you have a english/international speaking website, then you are probably making most of your money from the top10:

USA
UK
Canada
Australia
Germany
Switzerland
France
Spain
Italy
Japan

Once in a while you might get a signup from another country, but the above countries probably counts for 90-97% of your signups and recurrings today.

Well the good news is that most of top10 countries have other/more payment options, than international credit cards like VISA:

Online checks/ACH
Direct bank transfers
Invoicing
Dialers
Local credit cards

These are already ready in most of the top10 countries.
And in due time systems will be in place where MC/VISA will have to share the join page with these other payment options.

MC/VISA could really have taken the pot, and replaced cash in the real world, however working against and not with the companies will only make room for other transaction types. When they close their doors for adult, then their custormers will be forced to look at the different payment options, and they will probably use them (ex. today most transactions on adult sites in Germany are with dialers and online checks - credit cards is only a small player).

What makes VISA/MC strong today is the last 6 years of recurrings, but faced with loosing all of those recurrings, because of new not well thought out rules, then site owners will take new payment options in - its only a matter of time...

The power of VISA today is real, but if recurrings are lost, then do not think that the new breed of adult sites will base their business on VISA/MC - especially when there are other easy to use systems in place!