Financial Protection

Small merchants fight back against bank claims on card swipe fees

Convenience store owners across the country are fighting back against rising credit card “swipe” fees. In the Naples, Florida Weekly, Brian Konkel, owner of 5 local convenience stores, writes:

“In recent years, I’ve been forced to confront everything from an unprecedented pandemic to — just a couple months ago — a catastrophic hurricane. Despite all of this, there’s a problem that threatens to undo all the progress our small business has made in the face of persistent challenges: skyrocketing credit card swipe fees. “

Recently, I’ve seen similar articles in Idaho, Louisiana, California and other states. Small businesses facing the increasing costs imposed by banks and credit card networks are baking the costs into higher prices. Mr. Konkel continues:

“The biggest issue is that I have been forced to raise prices for consumers on many of my products, across all five of my stores. This isn’t something I want to do, but Visa and Mastercard’s greed has given us no other option. […] Swipe fees are now estimated to cost the average American family more than $900 a year.”

One way to rein in the card duopoly is to enact the bi-partisan Credit Card Competition Act championed by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (IL). Here’s more: PIRG supports proposal to rein in Visa-Mastercard payments network duopoly.

We expect it to be re-introduced soon in the new Congress.

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