Yep, this. Many American processors and gateways do not handle Canadian or other non-US credit card transactions because the laws regarding credit card security are more strict (better) than they are in the US. Processors and gateways that make the effort to comply with international laws (which do differ from country to country) and potential tax issues do charge a premium for the service. Thus the cost to the retailer might be MUCH higher, and if the retailer pushes through millions of transactions and only a small percentage of them are international they aren't recouping the cost of processing domestic charges through an internationally-equipped processor at the international rate.
But the pre-paid Visa idea is a great one, for future visits!
Originally Posted by
ecmoore
From what I've been able to glean, it's mostly the CC Processor that's the problem. It's an extra feature, and not every credit card processor offers it. Moreover, it's something that processors can change - they can, midstream, decide not to provide that feature (which appears to be what happened with JA - I was told that they used to be able to do it.) So while it's not strictly Jo-Ann's fault - they didn't make the decision themselves out of spite or something - it is their fault in that they continue to use the same processor, when there are others they could choose to switch to instead.