Credit Unions Today: Just Look North for Reasons to Reduce Swipe Fees, Merchants Group Says
The Merchants Payments Coalition continues to keep up the pressure behind its efforts to get the Credit Card Competition Act enacted, with its latest argument being that an agreement in Canada to lower credit card “swipe” fees shows that the fees could be reduced in the United States as well.
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NACS Daily: Canadian Deal Shows Swipe Fees Could be Lowered in U.S.
“If Visa and Mastercard can afford to reduce their swipe fees in Canada, there’s no reason they can’t do the same here,” said Doug Kantor, NACS general counsel and MPC executive committee member. “U.S. merchants and their customers pay twice as much as Canadians and seven times as much as Europeans. It doesn’t make sense that the country that invented the credit card and is home to the two largest card networks on the planet has the highest swipe fees in the industrialized world."
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CStore Decisions: Swipe Fee Deal to Save Canadian Retailers $1 Billion Over Five Years
“If Visa and Mastercard can afford to reduce their swipe fees in Canada, there’s no reason they can’t do the same here,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said.
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Digital Transactions: Lower Interchange Deal Struck in Canada
The MPC, a trade group for merchants that advocates for lower interchange rates, was quick to suggest something similar could be done in the United States with a call to action by Congress to step in.
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U.S. Merchants Say Canadian Deal Shows Credit Card Swipe Fees Could be Lowered Here
MPC said an agreement in Canada to lower credit card “swipe” fees shows that the fees could be reduced in the United States as well.
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CStore Decisions: Mother's Day Could See Large Credit Card Fees for Consumers
MPC estimates that $6.14 per shopper will go to banks and card networks rather than the merchant when customers pay by credit card. That’s the equivalent of two roses out of a typical 24-stem Mother’s Day bouquet where each flower costs about $3. If all Mother’s Day purchases were made with credit cards, swipe fees would account for $799.7 million of the total.
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Digital Transactions: Merchants' Cost Burden for Card Acceptance Has Long Been Flat, a Card Industry Group Argues
But merchant advocates contend card acceptance remains a steadily rising cost burden in the aggregate for retail businesses. “Swipe fees have been exploding over the last several years. In fact, fees were $22 billion higher in 2022 than they were in 2021,” says Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, long a critic of acceptance costs, in a statement sent to Digital Transactions News in reaction to the EPC’s data release. “To put that in perspective,” Kantor continues, “the total annual revenue of the National Football League is $19 billion. Just the increase in swipe fees was more than NFL revenue. The credit card industry can try to confuse things with misleading data, but their fee increases are huge and are hurting Main Street and American consumers.” Kantor is also a member of the executive committee of the Merchant Payments Coalition, an advocacy group.
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NACS Daily: Swipe Fees Could Cost Consumers Almost $800 Million This Mother's Day
Based on those numbers and the 2.24% average swipe fee for Visa and Mastercard credit cards, MPC estimates that $6.14 per shopper will go to banks and card networks rather than the merchant when customers pay by credit card. That’s the equivalent of two roses out of a typical 24-stem Mother’s Day bouquet where each flower costs about $3.
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Consumers Plan to Spend $35.7 Billion on Mother's Day, but $800 Million of That Might Go to Swipe Fees
“Everything from greeting cards and flowers to dining out and jewelry will cost more this Mother’s Day because swipe fees drive up prices,” said Doug Kantor, MPC’s executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores’ general counsel Doug Kantor. “Motherhood is a sacred institution to most Americans but for the credit card industry it’s just another opportunity take an inflated percentage of every sale.”
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Credit Card Fees Could Cost Consumers Almost $800 Million for Mother's Day
Rising “swipe” fees big banks and credit card networks charge merchants to process transactions could cost consumers nearly $800 million this Mother’s Day, MPC said.
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