Legislators Urge Visa, Mastercard to Cancel Swipe-Fee Increases
“It’s very significant that lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress have come together to stand up against the global card giants to protect small businesses and consumers,” said Anna Ready Blom, a member of the MPC executive committee and NACS director of government relations. “This shows that this is an issue that crosses political lines. This is about the card industry continuing to profit on the backs of Main Street merchants and hard-working American families at a time when they can least afford it.”
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Letter Shows Both Republicans and Democrats Support Credit Card Swipe Fee Competition Amid Rising Inflation
The Merchants Payments Coalition today welcomed a letter from bipartisan members of the House and Senate asking Visa and Mastercard to withdraw credit card swipe fee increases set to take effect this month, and agreed that the increases would drive up prices paid by consumers already facing high inflation.
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The Hill: Merchants Want Competition Over Credit Card Fees, Not Price Controls
As Congress focuses on soaring inflation, banks and their surrogates have recently claimed lawmakers want to set a cap on the billions of dollars in credit card “swipe” fees Wall Street banks charge Main Street merchants each year. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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There Was No Stopping Credit Card Fee Hikes This Year
Merchants are incurring tens of millions of dollars in additional interchange, or "swipe," fee increases that the big credit card companies Mastercard and Visa are deploying.
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Visa Changes Rules for Gas Stations to Avoid $125 Pump Limit
Merchants have been decrying the firms’ plans to increase swipe fees. This week, the Merchants Payments Coalition trade group asked the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services to examine the fees. “It’s just especially troubling given the level of inflation right now,” Stephanie Martz, general counsel of the National Retail Federation and an executive committee member for the Merchant Payments Coalition, said in an interview. “We’re clawing our way to hang onto our slim margins as is. Given that these fees sometimes exceed what our margins are, we have to pass some of those rate raises onto consumers.”
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Merchants Call on Congress to Examine Swipe Fees
MPC sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee, asking the committee to go beyond examining overdraft fees. “MPC applauds the committee’s action, but we believe a full examination of fees costing consumers billions should also include the billions of dollars big banks and card companies charge to process credit and debit card transactions,” wrote MPC in the letter. “The banking industry collects seven times as much in swipe fees as it does in overdraft fees and the impact on American families is far more widespread. Swipe fees are a hidden tax paid every day by nearly every American consumer, not just those who overdraw their accounts.”
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Merchants Ask House Committee to Add Swipe Fees to Examination of Bank Fees ‘Costing Consumers Billions’
The Merchants Payments Coalition today asked the House Financial Services Committee to go beyond overdraft fees as it looks into bank fees “costing consumers billions,” saying credit and debit card swipe fees should be considered as well.
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Merchants Advocate Says Visa, MC Swipe Fees Taking Eggs Out of Easter Baskets
“Banks and card companies will be grabbing eggs out of the Easter basket again this spring through the rising fees they charge to process credit card transactions,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Retail Federation Vice President for Government Relations, Banking and Financial Services Leon Buck said. “Not even the Easter Bunny is exempt from these fees."
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Swipe Fees Cost Each Consumer 2 Dozen Easter Eggs
Credit card swipe fees could cost the average consumer the equivalent of two dozen eggs this Easter and total hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Credit Card Fees Swipe More Than Two Dozen Easter Eggs and Cost Consumers Millions on Easter Purchases This Year
Hidden “swipe” fees charged by big banks and credit card networks to process transactions could cost the average consumer the equivalent of two dozen eggs this Easter and total hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide, the Merchants Payments Coalition said today.
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