Florida Daily: Consumers Will Pay Millions in Credit Card Fees This Valentine’s Day
This Valentine’s Day, U.S. consumers are expected to spend an average of $185.81 on jewelry, greeting cards, candy, flowers, clothing, etc. But the Merchants Payments Coalition says consumers will pay more in credit card “swipe fees.” When buying that Valentine’s greeting card or two or three pieces of chocolate, MPC says based on the average 2.24 percent rate for Visa and Mastercard, consumers will pay an extra $4.16 per person in swipe fees. “Rising swipe fees banks charge merchants to process credit and debit card transactions could cost consumers almost $578 million in higher prices as they celebrate Valentine’s Day this year,” said the MPC.
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Credit Card ‘Swipe’ Fees Could Cost Consumers Nearly $578 Million on Valentine’s Day
“Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants, but that special meal out is going to cost a little more for the restaurant and the customer this year, thanks to higher swipe fees,” said Brennan Duckett, MPC Executive Committee member and National Restaurant Association director of technology and innovation policy. “Whether it’s eating out, buying flowersor choosing an engagement ring, soaring swipe fees drive up the price of everything U.S. consumers buy and impact what couples can afford.”
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Credit Unions Today: Featuring a Consumer Getting Punched Again & Again, Merchants Launch TV Ad in Support of Credit Card Bill
A new TV commercial has been unveiled by the Merchants Payments Coalition that argues banks are “taking a swipe” at consumers with credit card swipe fees that cost the average family over $1,000 a year.
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Digital Transactions: More Salvos Emerge in the Battle Over a Credit Card Networking Bill
Late Monday, the Merchants Payments Coalition fired the latest salvo in its campaign to pass the CCCA, a television commercial that literally shows a consumer getting punched hard in the face by a character representing big banks each time he makes a credit card transaction. The “slap,” as the commercial describes the blow, is meant to metaphorically represents the painful cost of credit card fees to consumers and merchants.
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Payments Dive: Why ‘Pay-By-Bank’ Faces Adoption Hurdles In U.S. Retail
“Real-time payments ought to be available at the point of sale — it’s just a matter of banks allowing that to happen,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores and an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Southern Jewelry News: Merchants Call Credit Card 'Swipe Fees' Biggest Bank Scam
Credit and debit card “swipe” fees are among the issues Congress should examine as lawmakers look into banking scams, the Merchants Payments Coalition said today. “There are many banking scams, but swipe fees are the biggest scam of all,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores Senior Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith said. “Everyone pays higher prices because of swipe fees regardless of whether they use a credit card or not, but they don’t even know it. Taking $1,000 from every American family each year without them knowing it is a huge hidden scam.”
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Digital Transactions: 20 Years of Payments Coverage
The CFPB isn’t the only regulatory agency turning up the heat. The Department of Justice has opened its own probe of Visa Inc.’s and Mastercard Inc.’s debit card practices. Even Congress is getting in on the act with the re-introduction of the Credit Card Competition Act, which takes aim at lowering credit card swipe fees by giving merchants a choice of network, other than Visa and Mastercard, over which to route credit card transactions. “Regulatory enforcement has clearly been picking up,” says Doug Kantor, an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. One area where Kantor sees regulators turning their attention lies in anti-trust issues, which means large companies. “There is a growing concern in general in government about large companies,” says Kantor. “As more scrutiny comes, there will have to be changes to the way the payments industry operates.”
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Convenience Store News: Federal Reserve Extends Comment Period for Debit Card Swipe Fee Changes
Numerous retail groups, including the National Retail Federation (NRF), the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Merchants Payments Coalition, applauded the proposal (to lower debit card swipe fees) but raised concerns that the revisions do not go far enough, as Convenience Store News previously reported. "This is a significant reduction that will save money for retailers and their customers, and we welcome the progress that has been made," said NRF Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel (and MPC Executive Committee member) Stephanie Martz. "Nonetheless, it still doesn't get to the 'reasonable' level Congress sought and it isn't proportional to banks' falling costs."
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Trade Groups Back Law to Tackle Credit Card Swipe Fees
In an open letter sent last week, trade groups like the National Retail Federation, the Merchants Payments Coalition and the National Small Business Association again threw their weight behind the bipartisan and bicameral Credit Card Competition Act, sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Representatives Lance Gooden (R-Tex.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca.).
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NACS Daily: Thousands of Companies Call on Congress to Fix Swipe Fees
Almost 2,000 companies and nearly 300 trade associations called on Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act as lawmakers returned to Washington this week, the Merchants Payments Coalition said.
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