Digital Transactions: Merchant Groups Voice Their Objections to the Latest Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Settlement Offer
What merchants are seeking is the right to negotiate interchange rates with individual cards issuers, which follow the interchange schedules set by Visa and Mastercard, says Doug Kantor, a Merchants Payment Coalition executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Merchants can’t strike individual deals with card issuers, while businesses in other markets do this all the time [with suppliers],” Kantor says.
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U.S. News and World Report: Restaurant Surcharges Could Make Your Credit Card Rewards Pointless
"As Main Street small businesses and American families continue to face economic uncertainty, the giant card networks and Wall Street banks continue to take more money out of their pockets every day," Christine Pollack, Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee member and vice president of government relations at the Food Industry Association, said.
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CardRates.com: Merchant Group Warns Swipe Fees Could Top $20 Billion Amid Holiday Spending Surge
The Merchants Payments Coalition estimates that the average family will pay approximately $21 in swipe fees during the holiday shopping season this year. The coalition suggests that if families could avoid paying those fees, they could use the money they saved to purchase more gifts or food for the holidays. “These credit card fees are so high they’re swiping a Lego set or Barbie doll from under the tree of the average American family,” Doug Kantor, Executive Committee Member at the Merchants Payments Coalition and General Counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said in the press release from the coalition.
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Retail Customer Experience: Swipe fees may cost consumers $20 billion this holiday season
"If Scrooge and the Grinch conspired on how to ruin the holidays, credit card swipe fees would be their plan," MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in the release. "These credit card fees are so high they're swiping a Lego set or Barbie doll from under the tree of the average American family. Swipe fees increase inflation and make life less affordable for everyone. It's time for Congress to stop the card companies' humbug and give Americans some relief from fees."
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Payments Dive: Card fees creep onto restaurant tabs
Merchants’ long battle with card networks Visa, Mastercard and American Express over interchange fees is seeping into financially-pinched restaurants, forcing them to impose surcharges, said (MPC Executive Committee member) Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores and a longtime legislative advocate against card fees imposed by card companies. Last month, the Texas Restaurant Association began encouraging diners to pay with cash or debit cards as a way to help reduce restaurants’ interchange expenses. “It’s really a sign of desperation,” Kantor said Wednesday in an interview about restaurants’ dual pricing. “The fees have gone up more than 70% since COVID, which is just an unsustainable pace for restaurants and other retailers.”
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: What a Waste: Americans Will Spend $20 Billion This Holiday and It’s Not for Gifts
“If Scrooge and the Grinch conspired on how to ruin the holidays, credit card swipe fees would be their plan,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “These credit card fees are so high they’re swiping a Lego set or Barbie doll from under the tree of the average American family. Swipe fees increase inflation and make life less affordable for everyone. It’s time for Congress to stop the card companies’ humbug and give Americans some relief from fees.”
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Digital Transactions: Swipe Fees Are a Drain on Consumers’ Wallets, a Merchant Group Says
Fees paid by merchants to accept credit card and debit cards will dampen consumer spending power this holiday shopping season as sellers look for ways to offset the cost, says the Merchants Payment Coalition. Swipe fees are projected to cost merchants at least $19.9 billion this holiday shopping season, up from $19 billion a year ago, payments consultancy CMSPI projects. Overall, debit and credit cards transactions are projected to account for 89% of holiday spending, CMSPI adds. For most merchants, swipe fees are their second-highest operating expense after labor costs and have risen 70% since the pandemic, the MPC says. In 2024, merchants paid a record $187.2 billion in swipe fees, adds the MPC. The group defines card swipe fees as interchange and network fees, both of which it says have been rising in recent years. The MPC argues that the cost of swipe fees aggravates inflation for consumers, as merchants hike prices or levy surcharges on credit and debit card transactions to cover the cost.
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Punchbowl News: Ho-ho-hold up on those swipe fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition is taking a holiday-themed swing at the credit card industry over swipe fees as consumers head into December. The MPC, which represents retailers and advocates for the passage of the Credit Card Competition Act, pointed to fresh data released by the consulting firm CMSPI this week suggesting that U.S. customers would fork over nearly $20 billion this season in credit card interchange fees. “If Scrooge and the Grinch conspired on how to ruin the holidays, credit card swipe fees would be their plan,” National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a statement.
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U.S. Sun: Americans urged to make payment change to avoid unpredictable surcharges & $1.5k bill – this way ‘everyone saves money’
It’s estimated Americans paid between $187.2 billion and $236.4 billion, or about $1,200 annually per family, in credit card processing fees last year, according to the non-profit Merchants Payments Coalition advocacy group.
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Marketplace: Why don’t grocery stores charge credit card fees?
U.S. companies had to pay more than $187 billion in credit and card fees in 2024, an increase from $172 billion the previous year, according to the Merchant Payments Coalition, a group that advocates for lower credit card fees.
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