Small Businesses Are ‘At a Critical Inflection Point’
- A recent survey of small businesses found:
- While 71% have had increased or at least steady sales
- 44% have seen profits fall
- 91% have had increased operational expenses
- 76% have expenses rising faster than sales
- 73% said “government tends to do more to disadvantage small businesses than it does to help small businesses”
- What are those increased expenses?
- One of the top items mentioned was credit card swipe fees
- One of the top items mentioned was credit card swipe fees
- That should be no surprise
- The 2024 full-year numbers were just reported and the fees have exploded by 70% since the pandemic to $187 billion in 2024 alone
- The average fees paid by merchants on a Visa/MC credit card transaction jumped from 2.26% in 2023 to 2.35% in 2024
- The total amount of Visa/MC credit card swipe fees increased by more than 10% year over year to $111 billion in 2024
- Small businesses are getting crushed by swipe fees
- Credit card swipe fees are going up faster than other costs
- The fees multiply the negative impact of other costs because the fees are percentage-based, meaning the fee amounts grow as prices grow
- And Visa and Mastercard impose higher fee rates on many small businesses than they do on larger businesses that have more payment card volume.
- Small businesses are desperate for relief
COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR EVERYONE
IT'S TIME TO PASS THE CREDIT CARD COMPETITION ACT