Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Alternative payments were supposed to be the great hope of retailers for either getting rid of interchange entirely or putting pressure on Visa and MasterCard to cut rates. That was true back when lots of small, early alt-payments startups were being launched, but most never got big enough to make a dent. (Square is the exception, but it’s still too focused on small businesses to get serious consideration from big chains—well, that and the fact that Square is tightfisted with customer information it collects, too.)

Hopes rose when Google and ISIS sounded like they would handle payments themselves—these were big companies with the weight to hold their own against the card brands. Then those hopes dimmed when Google and ISIS decided that accepting regular payment cards worked fine for them.

If MasterCard (and Visa, too) can cut even those middlemen out of the game, there won’t be anything left to push back against interchange except a handful of ever-optimistic startups and that mysterious cabal of retailer CFOs and treasury types who are searching for anything that will loosen the grip of card brands on the payments stream.

That’s not going to happen in the form of a simple replacement for plastic rectangles. Even the card brands haven’t been able to replace magstripe cards with Chip-and-PIN or contactless cards—that’s how firmly entrenched the traditional magstripe card is.

Then is there any hope of interchange relief? Maybe, but no one is going to do it for retailers.

Consider: Big chains have enough CRM data to do a much better job of authenticating their best customers than a signature or PIN provides. (When associates are using that data to spot loyalty customers as they walk in the door, that’s a pretty good authenticator.) Some chains are also experimenting with same-day home delivery in an effort to short-circuit showrooming and the convenience of online shopping.

What if a department-store chain tried putting those pieces together with pre-plastic-style charge accounts for top loyalty customers? Never mind the payment card. A loyalty customer could be authenticated from CRM information, including photos, and home delivery would make the transaction even safer for the retailer. The charge could then go on an account that’s debited once a month with a bank transfer.

That wouldn’t get rid of all (or even most) existing payment-card transactions. But it would certainly feel like special treatment for loyalty customers, and it would give the retailer a foothold in a different, interchange-free way of charging purchases.

Of course, that would also be heresy to exactly the CFOs and treasury people who most want to get rid of interchange. They’re the people who outsourced store charge cards to Visa and MasterCard, back when they thought interchange wasn’t worth worrying about.

It’s clear they’re worried about it now. But it’s also clear that the card brands are willing to take on challenges to their business—and literally take them apart.