Local Retailers Get Help With Credit Card Fees

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The Vermont state Senate approved legislation Wednesday that is designed to help retailers get control over soaring transaction fees that are imposed by credit card companies.

via WPTZ.COM

Video – 5 Things You Should Know About Credit Cards

Understanding how the CARD Act affects you most

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By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.Com

March 30, 2010
There are new rules in place for credit card companies and, in the long run, consumers stand to benefit. But it just makes sense that credit card customers need to understand the most important rule changes contained in the CARD Act and what their impact will be. Here then, are the “5 Things You Need to Know About Credit Cards.”

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/03/video_credit_cards.html#ixzz0jfSN53U4

Credit Card Reform in Action

http://www.MarkFiore.com Watch the latest animation on credit card reform. If you love your credit card company, you’ll love this inside look at the credit card reform act that will take effect soon. A Mark Fiore political animation. Credit reform animation: don’t leave home without it.

[via YouTube]

President Obama Signs Major Credit Card Reform Bill

It can be difficult to think of an issue that touches more people, or can get a rise out of more people, than credit card fine print, fees, and staggering interest rate hikes. The President signs legislation to put an end to all that. May 22, 2009. (Public Domain)

[via YouTube]

Open for Questions: Credit Card Reform

Austan Goolsbee of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers answers questions about credit card reform submitted live and in advance through CreditCards.com

STOP SENDING ME CREDIT CARD OFFERS!!

I am SO SICK of getting these credit card offers in the mail. Visa, Mastercard, Capital One, Discover, all of them. I know for a fact that 80% of these companies would deny me anyway – my credit is in the toilet.

Make a video response to this and address it to the credit card companies. Tell them that you want them to STOP SENDING YOU OFFERS IN THE MAIL. It wastes a LOT of paper, and we can’t even recycle it because if you dispose of it correctly by shredding it (to avoid identity theft), you can’t recycle it because recycling companies usually don’t accept shredded paper.

Let’s get the power of the YouTube community behind this! Maybe they’ll listen if enough voices are heard!

[via YouTube]

Support an End to Unfair Credit Card Practices

Tired of unfair time constraints for consumers to make payments, unfair allocation of payments among balances with different interest rates and unfair balance computation methods?

You can help stop these unfair practices and more by submitting your comments to http://www.yourmoneynowonline.org/com…,com_performs/formid,9/.

The Federal Reserve Board (Board), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and the National Credit Union Administration will read all comments and make a decision about these rules soon

UnfairCreditCardFees.com (video)

FRONTLINE “The Card Game” | Excerpt 1: Disclosure | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontli… How much is your credit card really costing you? In this excerpt from The Card Game,” former Providian Financial CEO Shailesh Mehta explains how the industry uses “stealth pricing” to confuse customers and drive up profits. Airs Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 9PM on PBS (check local listings).

As credit card companies face rising public anger, new regulation from Washington and a potential perfect storm of economic bad news, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman (Secret History of the Credit Card, Black Money) examines the future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy in The Card Game. A joint project with The New York Times, the film features industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates as they square off over new regulation and the possible creation of a consumer finance protection agency.

Via PBS

Mad Tv – The Credit Card song

Dirty Credit Card Secrets

Financial Contributor Vera Gibbons spoke with Maggie Rodriguez on CBS about secret credit card company rate hikes.

Interchange: Largest and Fastest Growing Credit Card Fee

FMI  Interchange  Credit Card Fees  Food Marketing Institute

Understanding Credit Card Processing Interchange Fees

Shuster testifies about his credit card interchange fee legislation

STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN BILL SHUSTER BEFORE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES CREDIT CARD OVERHAUL AND H.R. 2382, THE CREDIT CARD INTERCHANGE FEE ACT OCTOBER 8, 2009…

Credit Card Industry Defeated for Now

Hidden penalties, sudden interest rate hikes, and deceptive language are just a few of the questionable tactics used by credit card companies to extract money from increasingly stressed consumers. …

Hate your Credit Card Bills? MAXED OUT – NOW ON DVD

A commercial spoof for a bank that takes your money.

Viral Video: “Hell No, You Can’t” (Except He Did)

In a nutshell: A mash-up of Will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” online video from the primaries and Republican Rep. John Boehner screaming on the floor of the House, referring to the Obama administration’s healthcare bill, “Hell no, you can’t!”

As it turned out: Yes, he did.

Debit Card Interchange Relief (via CSP)

Specter expected to introduce legislation to restrict swipe fees

WASHINGTON — Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), in an effort to help retailers, plans to introduce a bill that could serve as an amendment to the Senate Financial Services bill which could restrict interchange/swipe fees imposed on debit-card transactions, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America said that said in its latest issue of PMAA News From Capitol Hill. In recent weeks, the Merchants Payment Coalition (MPC) has demonstrated that debit card transactions are very similar to electronic check clearing and that banks should treat the transactions similarly. Electronic check clearing transactions are not subject to interchange fees; therefore, there is no justification for debit cards to be subject to unfair credit card swipe fees. “This is very good news for all PMAA members,” said PMAA chairman Gerry Ramm. “I have asked the PMAA staff to begin organizing a national grassroots effort to support the Specter amendment,” he added. The bill Specter wants to amend is the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 that was introduced on Monday, PMAA said. Specter’s bill will mirror legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), said the Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC) in a statement. The group, which represents the interests of the banking and credit-card industry, opposes such legislation, saying that it “will shift the cost of accepting debit and credit cards onto consumers and will allow merchants to effectively surcharge their customers who choose to pay using debit, credit or charge—a practice that is currently illegal in several states.” Frank Pinto, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers, said, “This bill is chock full of mystery and innuendo that all add up to one thing: consumers will pay more so merchants can pay less. When retailers accept cards in their stores, they receive profits, customers, guaranteed payment and a golden key to e-commerce—and they shouldn’t have their customers pay for this cost of doing business.” Trish Wexler, spokesperson for the EPC, said, “This is an egregious assault on consumer protection. The bill is disguised as a measure to allow for cash discounts—something that is already allowed by federal law and by all card network contracts—but would instead open up the door for bait-and-switch advertising schemes, charging additional checkout fees at the register, and discrimination against certain cardholders.” (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.) And click here to discuss this story and credit-card fees in general. Via CSP

Retail Groups Urge Credit Card Reform in Senate Banking Bill (via NACSOnline)

Legislation unveiled by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd omits credit card interchange fee reform.

 

WASHINGTON – This week Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled a financial regulation overhaul bill that omits an important issue to convenience and petroleum retailers, consumers and small businesses in general: credit and debit card interchange (or “swipe”) fee reform.

Last year, Dodd announced his intention to draft legislation addressing the country’s outrageous interchange fees. It seemed to many that the broad financial overhaul bill would be a natural home for the swipe fee fix.

Retail groups in Washington, while disappointed that this issue was left out of the legislation, expressed a strong desire to work with Dodd and members of the Senate Banking Committee to address swipe fee reform.

“What we are seeing is merely the first draft of the legislation,” according to Lyle Beckwith, NACS senior vice president of government relations.  “This bill is far from complete and we can expect to see more iterations and many amendments offered as it moves through the Senate process. All of this tweaking could allow for swipe fee language to be included.”

“Financial services reform isn’t complete without swipe fee reform,” said Mallory Duncan, general counsel for the National Retail Federation. “Chairman Dodd has acknowledged the impact of these fees on consumers in the past, and we hope to see them addressed in the final version of this legislation.”

Dodd’s legislation faces a tough road ahead — no Republicans are backing the bill yet, and numerous interest groups from the financial services industry are crying foul over provisions that either have been included or excluded. Dodd, however, is confident the bill will pass, although he recognizes some issues remain. “Over the last few months, Banking Committee members have worked together to try and produce a consensus package,” Dodd said. “Together we have made significant progress and resolved many of the items, but a few outstanding issues remain.”

The Hill reports that a full Senate Banking Committee markup is scheduled the week of March 22 and Senate Democrats are hoping to pass the bill before the Memorial Day recess.

Above content from NACSOnline; For more on card fees and what NACS is doing, visit the NACS Issue Page.

NRF Urges Dodd to Address Swipe Fees in Bill (via CSP)

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation (NRF) expressed disappointment that a wide-ranging financial services reform bill unveiled earlier this week by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) does not address the $48 billion in credit-card swipe fees paid by merchants and their customers each year.

“Chairman Dodd’s bill takes many steps to curb the excesses of the financial services industry, but the failure to address swipe fees is a glaring omission,” NRF senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan said. “These fees drive up prices for the average family by hundreds of dollars every year and depress the ability of main street merchants to thrive and grow.”

“Financial services reform isn’t complete without swipe fee reform,” Duncan said. “Chairman Dodd has acknowledged the impact of these fees on consumers in the past, and we hope to see them addressed in the final version of this legislation.”

Visa and MasterCard banks charge merchants a fee called interchange each time one of their cards is swiped to pay for a purchase. With the fee averaging about 2%, “swipe fee” collections totaled $48 billion in 2008, triple the $16 billion collected when NRF began tracking the fees in 2001. Visa and MasterCard rules effectively force merchants to pass the fees on to consumers by requiring them to be included in the advertised price of merchandise and making discounts for cash, checks or cheaper forms of plastic difficult. As a result, the average household paid an estimated $427 in higher prices in 2008, up from $159 in 2001.

Dodd included a provision in last year’s Credit CARD Act requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study of interchange fees. The study concluded that credit-card swipe fees have been increasing despite card industry claims that they have remained steady, that the fees drive up prices for consumers and that consumers could see lower prices if they were reduced. Dodd has also said that he would consider legislation barring Visa and MasterCard placing restrictions on merchants’ ability to offer a discount for cheaper forms of payment such as cash, checks and debit cards.

Three major bills that would address swipe fees are pending in Congress. H.R. 2695, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Senate companion bill S. 1212, sponsored by Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) would require Visa and MasterCard banks to negotiate with merchants over the fees rather than continuing to impose them on a unilateral basis. H.R. 2382, the Credit Card Interchange Act, sponsored by Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) would require increased transparency, give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authority to prohibit interchange practices that violate consumer protection or anticompetition laws and make cash discounts easier.

NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, convenience stores, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry’s key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees—about one in five American workers—and 2008 sales of $4.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations.

Read more

Heidi Montag Says No to Plastic

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Heidi Montag speaks out about the horrors of having to pay for plastic surgery with a credit card.

Presidential Financial Reforms

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Barack Obama gets a surprise visit in the night from ex-Presidents Bush Sr., Bush Jr., Clinton, Ford, Reagan and Carter to get a few pointers about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and why it’s so important.

Credit Card Foreign Exchange Interchange Fees

Back from New Zealand and Australia.  Most merchants specifically asked if I wanted signature or PIN.  One restaurant had a $15 min sign and explained their fees were too high; imagine that – at 0.55% vs 1.70% in the U.S. and interchange fees are STILL too high.

 At one location, I was provided the option to have a purchase on one of my Visa cards to be processed in USD.  I was told by the merchant that it would be done at $122 USD. See photo attached.

In this case, I opted to have the transaction process in the foreign currency to see if there was a difference.

The transaction posted to my Visa account for a total of $122.18 USD ($118.62 + 3% foreign transaction fee if I would have chosen to have the transaction done).