Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Illinois Bans Swipe Fees on Sales Tax and Tips, But Banks are Battling It
“Banks are desperate to deny reality,” said Doug Kantor, Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel. “They want the court to ignore the fact that banks don’t set swipe fees and that Visa and Mastercard do. Banks hide behind price-setting by those credit card giants — and now the credit card giants are trying to hide behind banks in court to overturn a sensible law. It is simply unfair for merchants to pay swipe fees on tax and tip money that they must give to the state or employees. The credit card giants should stop punishing merchants for providing a service to the state and employees.”
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CSP Daily News: Can stablecoins cut c-store swipe fees?
At more than $187 billion, credit and debit card interchange fees reached another new record last year, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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MPC Backs Merchants’ Call for Court to Uphold Illinois’ Ban on Swipe Fees on Sales Tax and Tips
Attorneys representing merchants urged a federal judge to reject banks’ lawsuit seeking to overturn Illinois’ ban on swipe fees on sales tax and tips.
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Big-Bank Profits Rising as Merchants And Consumers Seek Relief from Credit Card ‘Swipe’ Fees
Rapidly rising profits at four of the nation’s largest banks show the need for Congress to address the growing credit card “swipe” fees banks charge merchants to process transactions, MPC said.
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Big Bank Profits ‘Rapidly Rising’ While Small Businesses Suffer the Swipe-Fee Consequences
“Whether it’s annual fees charged directly to consumers or processing fees charged to merchants that drive up prices consumers pay, banks are taking more out of our pockets every day,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Retail Federation Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz said. “Some Wall Street banks have profit margins 10 times as large as those seen by retailers, and they make those profits on the backs of small businesses struggling to keep their doors open. Congress needs to stand up for Main Street by bringing competition to our nation’s broken payments system.”
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CNN: Credit card rewards benefit the rich the most. Here’s who actually pays for them
“Credit card companies (are) working to serve the most affluent customers more and more,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the trade group National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). These companies “try to get (high earners) more rewards at everyone else’s expense by pushing those costs on to everyone.”
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Punchbowl News: Credit card lobby gets spooky on swipe fees
We should note that the banks aren’t the first to dive into the Halloween milieu for this issue. The Merchants Payments Coalition warned that swipe fees would cost U.S. families “over $300 million” on Halloween-related expenses last month. (“A nightmare on every street,” they said.)
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MPC Hill Blast: The ABCs of Big Bank Logic Are … Anything But Competition
Once again, big banks have shown they will go to any length to avoid competition. It’s not enough that they want to keep cartel-style price-fixing on credit card swipe fees without any competition. Now they want to prohibit consumers from getting any kind of rewards or interest from alternatives like stablecoins — just to avoid competition.
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RV Travel: Is it right we have to pay a banker every time we visit a popular national park?
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) cited findings from payment consultants CMSPI that showed in 2023 that the swipe fee rate for Visa and Mastercard credit cards averaged 2.91% of the transaction amount (we at RVtravel.com pay a little more than that).
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CNBC: How stablecoins could change the way Americans shop in stores
“There’s tremendous potential in stablecoins. It should disrupt, to some extent, the traditional payment space we have today with credit and debit cards,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). “It has the promise of faster, cheaper, more efficient and frankly, more convenient transactions for consumers and businesses.”
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