American Banker: Senators Prepare Bill to Crack Down on Credit Card Swipe Fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition, a Washington-based organization representing retailers, said credit card interchange rates have been steadily increasing in recent years, despite improvements in digital technology. Credit card swipe fees currently amount to about 2% per credit card transaction, costing merchants about $138 billion last year, the MPC said.
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Wall Street Journal: Senate Bill Takes Aim at Visa, Mastercard Credit Card Fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents merchant trade groups and lobbied for the bill, says merchants should have the choice to send credit-card payments over networks that set lower fees.
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CNBC: 'Burdensome' Credit Card Swipe Fees Could Add $2.5 Billion to Back-to-School Spending, Merchants Say
This year, total back-to-school spending is expected to match the 2021 record high of $37 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. The so-called swipe fees banks charge merchants to process credit card transactions on those purchases could total $2.5 billion during the peak shopping season, the Merchants Payments Coalition recently said. “These fees have been soaring for years but are particularly burdensome when families are hit with the high inflation that has weakened buying power this year,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores and an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Consumer Electronics Daily: Credit Card Fees Expected to Add $2.5B to BTS Supplies Cost
“Swipe fees are a hidden tax on almost everything Americans buy regardless of whether they pay with cards or cash,” said National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor, a member of the MPC executive committee. Such fees have been “soaring for years” but are particularly burdensome during periods of high inflation, Kantor said. Because swipe fees are a percentage of the transaction amount, the fees automatically go up as prices go up, “driving inflation even higher,” Kantor said. “Banks and card networks are raising prices on the backs of American schoolchildren trying to get an education,” Kantor said, urging Congress to “to require competition that would bring these fees under control.” MPC believes banks should set fees independently and should compete to offer the lowest fees
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Merchants Say Credit Card 'Swipe' Fees Will Add $2.5 Billion to Back-to-School Spending
“Swipe” fees banks charge merchants to process credit card transactions will contribute an estimated $2.5 billion to the cost of everything from crayons to computers as American families hit with rising inflation send their children back to school and college this year, the Merchants Payments Coalition said. That amounts to almost $20 in swipe fees for the average family.
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American Banker: Banks Hit Back at Merchants Over Inflation's Role in Swipe-Fee Debate
“So you have the problem of retailers having to chase their tails,” Doug Kantor, a member of the Merchant Payments Coalition’s executive committee and general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores, said in an interview Thursday. “If they raise prices to cover inflation, then they’re hit with higher fees, and then they have to raise their prices again to cover the higher fees,” he said.
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NACS Daily: Swipe Fees Add to Inflation for Americans Celebrating July 4
Swipe fees will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of everything from food to fireworks as Americans struggling amid rampant inflation celebrate Independence Day this year, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition, of which NACS is an executive committee member.
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Credit Union Times: Forget Rain: Swipe Fees Will Ruin July 4 for 'Patriotic American Families,' Says Group
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which has been outspoken over card swipe fees, said the charges are going to “add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of everything from food to fireworks as Americans struggling amid rampant inflation celebrate Independence.”
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Digital Transactions: Merchants and Issuers Are Pouncing on Inflation -- But With Dueling Results
The Merchants Payments Coalition on Wednesday issued a release contending that interchange fees “drive up prices [merchants] charge consumers,” exacerbating the impact of inflation. Interchange, the Washington, D.C.-based group argues, represents merchants’ second-highest operating expense, after labor. All told, swipe fees on purchases made with credit and debit cards last year totaled $137.8 billion in the United States, up 25% in one year, according to the MPC.
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Merchants Say Credit Card 'Swipe' Fees Will Add to Inflation for Those Celebrating Fourth of July
“Swipe” fees banks charge merchants to process credit card transactions will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of everything from food to fireworks as Americans struggling amid rampant inflation celebrate Independence Day this year, the Merchants Payments Coalition said.
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