InsideNoVa: Credit Card 'Swipe' Fees an Unfair Burden
Credit card fees are now most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor and drive up prices more than $1,000 a year for the average family, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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The Lever: Airline Unions Aim to Preserve Sky-High Credit Card Fees
“The large banks that issue these credit cards have complained and run to everyone they do business with to say, ‘You’ve got to oppose this, the sky is falling,’” said Doug Kantor, (MPC Executive Committee member and) general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, which supports the credit card reforms.
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NerdWallet: What to Expect if the Credit Card Competition Act Passes
“Swipe fees are the second-highest operating cost, on average, for these businesses. Only labor is a higher cost,” says Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). “A big piece of that is that the fees automatically rise with inflation. As we see inflation in the economy, merchants’ costs go up. Convenience store owners are left chasing their tails to try to maintain some profitability with these rapidly rising fees.”
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NACS Daily: New Swipe Fee Coalition Forms
Doug Kantor, Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee member and NACS general counsel, said, “Consumers, hard-working union members and small businesses alike are tired of high credit card fees and the money big Wall Street banks take out of their pockets. Swipe fees cost the average family more than $1,000 per year. It’s time for Congress to protect consumers, workers and small businesses from the central price-setting of the Wall Street giants.”
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WIBW-TV: New Bill Introduced to Infuse Credit Card Industry with Competition
“All of Main Street appreciates the incredible support that Senator Roger Marshall provides every day,” Doug Kantor, General Counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), said. “Senator Marshall’s Credit Card Competition Act is the most significant piece of legislation under consideration today to help small businesses across the nation. Credit card swipe fees multiply the effects of inflation and hit small businesses the hardest. It’s time for Congress to follow Senator Marshall’s lead and choose their constituents over Wall Street bankers.”
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Convenience Store News: U.S. Senator Talks Swipe Fees with Casey's Leadership Team
Marshall was joined by Tom Brennan, chief merchandising officer of Casey's; Doug Beech, senior assistant general counsel and director of government relations for Casey's; and Doug Kantor, NACS general counsel (and MPC Executive Committee member).
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Great Bend Tribune: Marshall Discusses Price Gouging Credit Card Swipe Fees
“All of Main Street appreciates the incredible support that Senator Roger Marshall provides every day,” Doug Kantor, General Counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), said. “Senator Marshall’s Credit Card Competition Act is the most significant piece of legislation under consideration today to help small businesses across the nation. Credit card swipe fees multiply the effects of inflation and hit small businesses the hardest. It’s time for Congress to follow Senator Marshall’s lead and choose their constituents over Wall Street bankers.”
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Digital Transactions: Some Merchants Take Issue with the CCCA
Claims that only large businesses with high credit card volume would benefit from the CCCA are false, counters Doug Kantor, an executive committee member for the Merchant Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. To support his claim, Kantor points to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small as well as large businesses, in which 94% of respondents say they prefer to have a network choice when it comes to routing card transactions. “Sure, 6% have doubts, but there will always be a group that disagrees, you won’t get 100% of merchants in agreement on this,” Kantor says. “[Network] competition will lower card prices and we have seen it in other countries, even in countries where American Express has a presence.” Kantor adds that small businesses pay more in card acceptance fees than their larger counterparts do now and that CCCA can reduce card acceptance costs for small businesses. “Small businesses pay double what larger businesses do when it comes to card acceptance,” Kantor says. Kantor also argues that the SBPA is merely a mouthpiece for the EPC, which represents card issuers and has been vocal in its opposition to the CCCA. “The SBPA is a sham organization put together and supported by the card industry.”
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Digital Transactions: A New Merchant Groups Voices Opposition to a Bill Aimed at Credit Card Acceptance Costs
“Small businesses are hit the hardest by swipe fees because they pay the highest rates and have the fewest resources to do anything about it. We hear from them every day, they have come to repeated merchant fly-ins in Washington and have held countless meetings with lawmakers in their home states,” Doug Kantor, an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, says by email. The MPC has lobbied hard for the CCCA. “Hundreds [of merchants] have signed letters to Congress calling for action, and their concerns have been voiced in scores of op-eds and letters to the editor across the country,” Kantor notes. “The new alliance is clearly a front for the card industry and is not the voice of American small businesses.”
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MarketWatch: Could Congress Really 'Kill' Credit Card Rewards?
Supporters of the Credit Card Competition Act also argue that, even with cheaper payment networks, financial institutions will still use rewards to market to and compete for customers. “Rewards are determined by the bank that issues a card, not the network that processes the transaction,” said (MPC Executive Committee member) Stephanie Martz, chief administrative officer and general counsel for the National Retail Federation. She called airlines’ criticism of the bill “a scare tactic to mislead Congress.” “The amount of revenue banks would lose is a small fraction of total swipe fee collections, far from enough to put an end to rewards,” she said.
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