Consumers Petition for Lower Credit Card Swipe

Video: Credit Card Bill of Rights WUPW

Credit Card Companies Raise Fees (NBC)

Remember Visa, MasterCard, credit card issuers THREAT: if interchange fees lowered = less benefits, more annual charges.THEY’RE DOING IT NOW

Watch this NBC Nightly News segment (Aug 16). Click here.

Recent Tweets From WayTooHigh

Follow WayTooHigh.com on Twitter

WayTooHigh: Visa and MasterCard operate like price-fixing cartels and violate federal antitrust laws.

 

WayTooHigh: Q: Why should retailers be taking on a ride when affinity reward credit cards R used? A: Consumers ultimately pay = NO FREE REWARDS

 

WayTooHigh: Visa, MasterCard make bulk of their money from charging fees to financial institutions that issue the cards http://ow.ly/io8j

 

WayTooHigh: Bank of America Says Three Directors Quit as Exodus Totals 10 http://ow.ly/iM7h

 

WayTooHigh: All About the Visa and MasterCard Promotional Gift Card Scheme (repost) http://ow.ly/kdY6

 

WayTooHigh: Q: How can banks (MasterCard / Visa) site “competitive pressures” regarding need for soaring credit card rates? They own the Monopoly board!

 

WayTooHigh: You know it’s a good day for consumers and retailers when Visa publicly expresses extreme disappointment: http://ow.ly/kdXF

 

WayTooHigh: Q: Why hasn’t MasterCard, Visa, Chase, CitiGroup, BofA, etc… not been shut down for collusion and credit card price-gouging. A: Dunno

 

WayTooHigh: More Scheming by Visa and MasterCard. Anatomy of How an Electronic Gift Card “Works:” http://ow.ly/kdWc (new post)

 

WayTooHigh: MAJOR SCAM: Visa, MasterCard gift cards issued rather than checks. They keep micro-payments remaining, because you can’t exceed your balance

 

WayTooHigh: @nancytrejos– As credit card companies lower reward benefits merchants interchange fees should be too, WE (consumers) pay those rewards

 

WayTooHigh: Looking forward to watching NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday – my hero, Rachel Maddow takes on someone I can’t stand, Dick Armey

 

• 
  WayTooHigh: Rob Reeg. pres Global Technology & Operations for MasterCard Worldwide, frightens consumers http://ow.ly/izsH with misinformation

• 
  WayTooHigh: credit card companies cut ad spending 50% (Brandweek) = less risk and lower mkting costs, yet record interchange fees? http://ow.ly/k8UC

• 
  WayTooHigh: Why should retailers be taken on a ride when affinity reward credit cards are used? Consumers ultimately pay = NO FREE REWARDS
• 
  WayTooHigh: media spending for credit card ads PLUNGED 50% means LOWER interchange change fees as marketing was part of the cost, so why HIGHER fees?
• 
  WayTooHigh: As recession-weary consumers are swearing off their credit cards, credit card brands are swearing off advertising http://ow.ly/k8Ua

   

• 
  WayTooHigh: Network Rivalry Sparks 10-Year Quadrupling of PIN-Debit Pricing (via Digital Transactions) http://ow.ly/k8mc
• 
  WayTooHigh: only justification [for soaring interchange fees} is when you have an anti-competitive business model and you can illegally fix prices
   
• 
  WayTooHigh: Improved processing technology and the weak economy should be driving card-acceptance prices down http://ow.ly/k8lP (Digital Transactions)
   
• 
  WayTooHigh: RT @Denrael: @WayTooHigh there is competition but challenge is getting wallet space [Not really, MasterCard and Visa wield 80% Market Power]
   

• 
  WayTooHigh: Bank of America drops arbitration requirement (via AP) – http://ow.ly/k7KK (new post)
• 
  WayTooHigh: When I sued Visa, MasterCard + its member backs for illegal price-fixing of credit card fees back in ’05, never imagined power of Twitter

• 
  WayTooHigh: Bank of America Says Three Directors Quit as Exodus Totals 10 http://ow.ly/iM7e
• 
  WayTooHigh: Stop Unfair Credit Card Fees Tell Your Elected Representatives To Act On Interchange Fees http://ow.ly/iEOe
• 
  WayTooHigh: FIGHT CREDIT CARD FEES: Write Congress – Share this link with fellow merchants http://ow.ly/iENK
• 
  WayTooHigh: Circle K Circulates Petition Chain placing petition protesting credit-card fees in its convenience stores http://ow.ly/iEN1
• 
  WayTooHigh: More consumers using debit cards (50.4%) over all noncash sales (AP), but ScanMyPhotos.com and many merchants process it at higher CC rates
• 
  WayTooHigh: New to ScanMyPhotos.com: For updates on our antitrust lawsuit against Visa, MasterCard, major banks See: http://ow.ly/k4Wj
• 
  WayTooHigh: Had media interview w/ biz pub. Explained credit card companies get away with high rates because they = monopoly, fix-prices, NO competition
• 
  WayTooHigh: RT @7ElevenCedarPk: NYTimes article on 7-Eleven and the petition for unfair credit card fees. http://bit.ly/5fgCx
• 
  WayTooHigh: The fees – known as credit-card interchange fees, or swipe fees – are unfair to us and deceptive to the donors. http://ow.ly/jwd8
• 
  WayTooHigh: Congress must support “Credit Card Fair Fee Act,” especially in a recession. Takes ~$60 bln out of banks unfair rev into consumers pockets
• 
  WayTooHigh: Maria Aspan (American Banker) says Citigroup will charge annual free for some credit cards. even as Interchange fees at record high
• 
  WayTooHigh: credit card company merchant interchange swipe fees ARE wiping independent businesses off the map in neighborhoods across the U.S.

   

• 
  WayTooHigh: TARP Recipients Fighting To Keep Charging Exorbitant Credit Card Fees (via Huffington Post) http://ow.ly/gVvH
• 
  WayTooHigh: Obama administration planning broad reworking of fees financial firms pay for their federal regulation, (WashPost) http://ow.ly/k0aJ
• 
  WayTooHigh: Visa and MasterCard issuers collectively set credit card interchange fees in secret. These fees can’t be negotiated

• 
  WayTooHigh: A central bank study in March recommended changes to Brazil’s credit-card market to make it more efficient http://ow.ly/jjm1
• 
  WayTooHigh: U.S. retailers and consumers refuse to be treated worse than New Zealand, Canada, Australia and other countries. http://ow.ly/jVvR
• 
  WayTooHigh: 4-party credit card payment systems is broken; interchange fees no longer cost-based, floods banks with $ at expense of consumers
• 
  WayTooHigh: Competition – what Visa, MasterCard, banks know little about, is why 0 interchange fees will benefit consumers = lower costs
• 
  WayTooHigh: Did you know that when you make a non-profit charitable donation, Visa, MasterCard and credit card issuers MAKE $$$ off the top.
• 
  WayTooHigh: Tulips, Silver, Housing Market and Oil Speculators Have Nothing on MasterCard and Visa {July, 08, WTH) http://ow.ly/g1aY #18000
• 
  WayTooHigh: Commerce Commission And Visa Reach Agreement To Settle Credit Card Interchange Fee Proceedings http://ow.ly/jLmK
• 
  WayTooHigh: Why Won’t Visa Give U.S. Competition & Transparency Promised to New Zealand on Credit Card Fees? (via @NCASOnline) http://ow.ly/jVvd
• 
  WayTooHigh: Retailers are asking the public to help them eliminate a credit card interchange fee that often gets passed on to users http://ow.ly/jVuD
• 
  WayTooHigh: How Credit Card Companies Are Changing the Fine Print (via Mary Palon, WSJ) http://ow.ly/jVsw
• 
  WayTooHigh: Banks are like health care industry, LOADS of misinformation on credit card interchange fees. Credibility at zero.
• 
  WayTooHigh: Many non-profit charities HURT by MasterCard and Visa credit card fees. Forced to pay upwards of 5% interchange fee for few manual charges

   

• 
  WayTooHigh: Credit Score Shell Game: As High Scores Vanish, Borrowers’ Luck Runs Out (via Nancy Trejos Washington Post) http://ow.ly/ftrP #18000
• 
  WayTooHigh: Businesses incurs a fee anytime a customer swipes a card. http://ow.ly/j0eY

  

• WayTooHigh: Credit Card Issuers’ trick: Ads showing “fun” ways to design photos on credit card = distraction, should be URGING you to READ terms #18000
• 
  WayTooHigh: Three bills have been introduced in the 111th Congress that address the issue of interchange fees http://ow.ly/jNRA

   

• 
  WayTooHigh: It’s Visa and MasterCard that should thank consumers every time they use a debit / credit card at stores: http://ow.ly/iftW
• 
  WayTooHigh: From MasterCard Inc. Q2 Earnings Call, NO explanation about price-fixing and intl interchange fees that are 1/3 that in U.S.
• 
  WayTooHigh: NZ Commerce Commission settled out of court w Visa in deal that will change fees charged on all retail transactions in NZ http://ow.ly/jLA1
• 
  WayTooHigh: Commerce Commission And Visa Reach Agreement To Settle Credit Card Interchange Fee Proceedings http://ow.ly/jLmA
• 
  WayTooHigh: Our economy lost trillions POST Bush’s $300 p/ person stimulus program. But, Republicans silent on anything but attacking current plan.
• 
  WayTooHigh: SHAME on Visa, MasterCard, credit card companies for misguided effort to shift message from BANK GREED to chain store profiteering.
• 
  WayTooHigh: Congress must support “Credit Card Fair Fee Act,” especially in a recession. Takes ~$60 bln out of banks unfair rev into consumers pockets
• 
  WayTooHigh: Visa, MasterCard look abroad for growth (via Reuters) [Even thought U.S. interchange fees ~3x more than abroad?] http://ow.ly/jIw9
   
• 
  WayTooHigh: Stop Unfair Credit Card Fees Tell Your Elected Representatives To Act On Interchange Fees http://ow.ly/iEOa
   
• 
  WayTooHigh: When anticompetitive and illegal interchange fee price fixing ends, family-owned restaurants, dry cleaners, etc. will be SAVED

More Scheming by Visa and MasterCard

About three months ago, I bought new tires and was pleased to learn that it included a $50 rebate. But, the hoops to redeem that incentive were challenging.

Here is what happened:

Rather than receive a $50 check (which would have no interchange fee), a Visa-branded credit card was mailed and JUST received.  The credit card issuers have created a giant windfall scheme for themselves at the expense of consumers.

The rules for redeeming the card is extensive and means that if there is a micro-balance, they keep it. I did a previous posting on this situation.

Premier Shopping Mall Agrees with WayTooHigh.com

All About the Visa and MasterCard Promotional Gift Card Scheme

 

To access the funds on the electronic payment card you MUST present the card to the service station attendant inside when you fill up. Don’t try to insert it into the gas station pumps’ electronic card reader. It won’t work.  Another rule is: “Please note. Ask the attendant to swipe the card after you have filled up to assure the success of your transaction.” Yeah, right!  Try doing that, as clerks must swipe the card to reserve payment up front.

For regular checkouts, “you must always select ‘Credit’ when making purchases. You are authorized to make purchases that do not exceed your available balance.” This is a pure SCAM. Who makes an exact $50 purchase?  Try using the “gift” card at a restaurant. Imagine being on a date, presenting the card and having the server explain that you can’t! Either way, the merchant is charged the much higher credit card interchange fee, rather than the debit card flat rate.  If it was a check that we deposited into our bank account, there would be no fees and we easily would have the entire gift valued, rather than these games which reduces the value.

My guess is many consumers get frustrated and use part of the balance and dispose or file away the card and thus the issuer gets to keep the balance.  What happens to the company that tendered the rebate “gift card?  Did they pay full price to the card issuer, or a discount?  I can only imagine the amount never redeemed.

Another scheme and pure profit center for the credit card issuers.

Network Rivalry Sparks 10-Year Quadrupling of PIN-Debit Pricing (Digital Transactions)

Excerpt:

Improved processing technology and the weak economy should be driving card-acceptance prices down, according to Mitch Goldstone, president and chief executive of ScanMyPhotos.com in Irvine, Calif. “The only justification is when you have an anti-competitive business model and you can illegally fix prices,” says Goldstone, the lead plaintiff in a pending class-action lawsuit against bank card interchange. “That’s what it’s all about.”

 

Click here to read entire Digital Transactions article. (Aug 14, 2009)