MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Mitch Goldstone
Ph: 949-474-7654 Email: Goldstone (at) ScanMyPhotos.com
Rally to Stop Skyrocketing Credit Card Fees on Gasoline
Ask Congress to support the Credit Card Fair Fee Act
Irvine, CA — June 29, 2008 – In honor of July 4th consumers and gas station owners alike will demand independence from Visa and MasterCard’s hidden credit card fees that add another 8-10 cents a gallon on top of already skyrocketing gasoline prices.
Service stations owners and consumers are paying record credit card fees as Visa, MasterCard, and their member banks reap the windfall from the 100% increase in the price of gasoline since 2007.
About two dollars of every $100 the consumer spends in stores or buying gasoline goes directly to the credit card industry in the form of the interchange fee, the biggest credit card fee you’ve never heard of. Interchange started as a fee to pay for credit card processing; it has skyrocketed in recent years. American businesses and consumers paid $42 billion in total fees just in 2007.
With $4-plus gasoline, the credit card industry typically makes 8-10 cents per gallon in interchange fees, far more than the service station owner if he or she is making any money at all. (Many owners are currently losing money on every gallon they sell.) Americans shell out as much as or up to $2 per fill up to the credit card industry every time they fill up. Except for OPEC, nobody makes more money from skyrocketing gasoline prices than Visa and MasterCard. The cost of a cashless society is way too high if you let the credit card industry set the price.
Interchange fees are set in secret by the credit card industry. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act is a solution that would create a competitive market outcome and bring transparency to the broken credit card market by allowing merchants a seat at the negotiating table.
WHO: WayTooHigh.com – The Credit Card Interchange Report
WHAT: Consumers and merchants rally to stop unfair credit card fees on gasoline
WHEN: Thursday, July 3, 7.30 to 9.00 AM
WHERE: Chevron station at Corporate Park Plaza –––– corner of Jamboree and
CONTACT: Mitch Goldstone, editor, WayTooHigh.com – The Credit Card Interchange Report and president & CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com
92 Corporate Park Plaza, Suite B, Irvine, CA 92606
949-474-7654, Goldstone (at) ScanMyPhotos.com
My StumbleUpon Page