Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business: Retail advocate urges Congress to rein in credit card fees
Banks and credit card companies are swimming in profits and one business and consumer group is urging federal lawmakers to pass a bill aimed at curtailing the credit card swipe fees paid by families and businesses that have fed those profits. Fees to use a credit card for purchases cost the average family more than $1,000 a year and also increase costs for businesses, said the Merchants Payments Coalition
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Fortune: Save more than $1,000 a year by switching to the envelope budget
According to the Merchants Payments Coalition, payment processing fees removed over $27 billion from the coffers of retailers across the country during the 2024 holiday season alone, and $172 billion for the full year in 2023.
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Digital Transactions: Maryland Is the Latest Batter to Take a Swing at Regulating Interchange on Sales Tax and Tips
Also testifying at the hearing was Doug Kantor, a Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. Arguing for passage of the bill, Kantor said levying interchange on sales tax and tips is unfair to merchants because they don’t keep those portions of the transaction. “The merchant collects sales tax for the state, but interchange is taken out of the amount on the receipt, which creates a shortfall the merchant must cover,” Kantor said. Kantor also told lawmakers that claims state laws regulating interchange would be too hard to implement are false. “The industry has admitted it can be done and Cost Advisor has said its processor can implement this in Illinois by July,” Kantor said. “Even a senior Visa executive told the Georgia legislature this can be done, he just didn’t see the value in doing it.” Cost Advisor Inc. helps merchants reduce their card-acceptance costs.
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Chain Drug Review: Merchants Payments Coalition supports Maryland’s bill to end swipe fees on sales tax
“The credit card industry price-fixing swipe fees is bad enough, but taking a slice out of tax dollars before retailers can hand them over to the state of Maryland is unconscionable,” said Doug Kantor, MPC Executive Committee member and General Counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Retailers have to make up the difference, and that ultimately drives up prices for consumers. It is time for this abuse to end.”
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RV Business: OHI, Owners Advocate for Credit Card Competition Act
This week, members of OHI leadership along with 14 campground members from across the country joined forces with the Merchant Payments Coalition in DC to advocate on Capitol Hill for the Credit Card Competition Act, legislation that will provide competition in the credit card swipe fees marketplace and ultimately save small businesses like RV parks and campgrounds thousands of dollars each year.
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Digital Transactions: Expecting A CCCA Revival, Opponents Spell Out the Bill’s Economic Impact
“This study is a piece of warmed-over fantasy that presents discredited assumptions about the CCCA’s impact on rewards cards,” says Doug Kantor, an executive committee member for the Merchants Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Card issuers earn more than $300 billion annually in interest income and cardholder fees and pay out just $41 billion annually in rewards.” Issuers could pay “six times” what they currently pay in rewards and “still have plenty of profit left over,” Kantor adds.
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La Grada: Confirmed – Visa credit cards are changing for good – here are your new fees
During his statement before the committee, Doug Kantor, who represents retail groups that support the proposed legislation, mentioned Visa’s intention to raise fees. Kantor is a member of the Merchants Payments Coalition’s executive committee and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. According to Kantor’s testimony during the hearing on November 19, Visa is raising its fees once more this coming January. Usually, the networks only raise fees in April and October.
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Fox Business: How credit card swipe fees are affecting shoppers
All told, these fees cost retailers more than $170 billion a year. That's up from 2001 when fees were about $20 billion a year, according to the NRF. But they aren't absorbed by the retailers. Instead, they are "built into the price of virtually everything we buy," Doug Kantor, member of the Merchants Payments Coalition Executive Committee, told FOX Business. Today, households are taking on more than $1,100 per year because of these fees. Kantor said these fees are a huge hit to buying power. Given that they "are a percentage of the amount you spend, we've seen it really explode in the face of higher inflation," Kantor, who also serves as general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores, said. According to Dylan Jeon, senior director of government relations at the NRF, the increased use of credit cards has driven up the total amount of fees charged. Another key factor, Jeon added, is that Visa and Mastercard control about 80% of the credit card market. "What that market leverage has allowed them to do is basically raise fees or implement new fees really at their own discretion," Jeon said. "There's really no competitive pushback. There's no reason for them to work with retailers or other merchants to find more common-sense fees and fee structures because, again, they're the two biggest and main players in town."
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KPHO-TV, Phoenix: Valley business owners raise concerns over credit card swipe fees
Credit card company Visa announced this year it will be increasing swipe fees. Critics like the Merchants Payments Coalition say this will only add to the stress small businesses face. "Small business are really getting crushed by these credit card fees. The fees have gone up dramatically. In fact, since 2010 the fees have quadrupled on Visa and Mastercard credit cards." -- Doug Kantor, Merchants Payments Coalition
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NewsMax: Credit Card Fees to Threaten Small Business Margins in 2025 Read Newsmax: Credit Card Fees to Threaten Small Business Margins in 2025 | Newsmax.com Important: Find Your Real Retirement Date in Minutes! More Info Here
The Merchants Payments Coalition said credit cards companies earned a record $172 billion in swipe fees in 2023 and cost the average family $1,100.
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