The Merchants Payments Coalition issued the following statement in response to today’s successful vote against Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-MT) amendment

“Merchants and consumers across the country owe a huge thank you to all of the Senators who reaffirmed the swipe fee reform law in the face of unprecedented pressure from Wall Street banks. For nearly a decade, the country’s biggest banks and credit card companies have worked tirelessly against these long-awaited reforms, and Main Street has finally prevailed. Today’s vote sent a message to the big banks and their allies that the Senate is prepared to support Main Street by protecting these critical reforms.
“The Federal Reserve can now proceed with its rulemaking to curb swipe fee abuse, and we look forward to seeing the final rule so that Main Street retailers and consumers can start seeing some relief from out-of-control debit fees on July 21.” 
 
###
 
The Merchants Payments Coalition is a group of convenience stores, retailers, and small business owners whose membership associations represent approximately 2.7 million stores and 50 million employees. For more information, go to http://www.unfaircreditcardfees.com or visit us on Twitter. 
 

Henry Helgeson, CEO of Merchant Warehouse is wrong on electronic payment interchange #swipefees

CardLine’s PaymentSource quoted Henry Helgeson, CEO of a processing company called Merchant Warehouse, Inc. where he spouted the same old invalid argument that giant banks want American’s, Congress and the Federal Reserve to believe merchants will not pass on to their customers the billions in savings from the new Durbin lower debit fees.

Surprisingly, Mr. Helgeson acknowledges that his company WILL
pass on to its merchant customers the lower debit fees, even though they
are not required to.  As a merchant (retail and eCommerce business owner) I am perplexed that Mr. Helgeson would risk his entire company, his merchant customers and perhaps soon-to-be former customers by taking sides with the giant banks by spouting their propaganda.  MasterCard and Visa’s member banks reap nearly $62 billion dollars a year from these merchant interchange swipe fees, which were designed forty years ago to cover antiquated carbon copy analog payment network.

Unlike the electronic payment network member banks which are without real competition (MasterCard and Visa wield 80% market power), merchants will all be compelled to rebate all saved interchange fees.  Merchants will not JUST lower prices, but we will hire more employees, invest in infrastructure and transparently benefit the economy rather than just the banks’ vaults.  Even so, the legal argument is being clouded by the bank’s multi-million dollar advocacy campaign.  The last thing Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and thousands of other banks want you to know is that the argument is not about refunding savings to consumers, but rather it is all about anticompetitive illegal price-fixing.

As a lead plaintiff, suing MasterCard, Visa and major banks in what could be the largest anti-trust litigation in our nation’s history, I have been leading the battle against them for half a decade. For news and commentary updates follow WayTooHigh.com and Twitter

Mitch Goldstone
President & CEO
ScanMyPhotos.com

Federal Reserve Board Press Release: Proposed Rule That Would Establish Debit Card Interchange Fee Standards [#SwipeFees]

Press Release

 

Release Date: December 16, 2010

For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday requested comment on a proposed rule that would establish debit card interchange fee standards and prohibit network exclusivity arrangements and routing restrictions.

The Board’s proposal would implement the debit card interchange fee and routing provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Debit card interchange fees are established by payment card networks and paid by merchants to card issuers for each transaction.

The proposed new Regulation II, Debit-Card Interchange Fees and Routing, would establish standards for determining whether a debit card interchange fee received by a card issuer is reasonable and proportional to the cost incurred by the issuer for the transaction. These standards would apply to issuers that, together with their affiliates, have assets of $10 billion or more. Certain government-administered payment programs and reloadable general-use prepaid cards would be exempt from the interchange fee limitations.

The Board is requesting comment on two alternative interchange fee standards that would apply to all covered issuers: one based on each issuer’s costs, with a safe harbor (initially set at 7 cents per transaction) and a cap (initially set at 12 cents per transaction); and the other a stand-alone cap (initially set at 12 cents per transaction). Under both alternatives, circumvention or evasion of the interchange fee limitations would be prohibited. The Board also is requesting comment on possible frameworks for an adjustment to the interchange fees to reflect certain issuer costs associated with fraud prevention.

If the Board adopts either of these proposed standards in the final rule, the maximum allowable interchange fee received by covered issuers for debit card transactions would be more than 70 percent lower than the 2009 average, once the new rule takes effect on July 21, 2011.

The proposed rule would also prohibit all issuers and networks from restricting the number of networks over which debit card transactions may be processed. The Board is requesting comment on two alternative approaches: one alternative would require at least two unaffiliated networks per debit card, and the other would require at least two unaffiliated networks per debit card for each type of cardholder authorization method (such as signature or PIN). Under both alternatives, the issuers and networks would be prohibited from inhibiting a merchant’s ability to direct the routing of debit card transactions over any network that the issuer enabled to process them.

According to the recently released 2010 Federal Reserve payment study, debit card use in the United States now exceeds all other forms of noncash payments and, by number of payments, represents approximately 35 percent of total noncash payments.

Comments on the proposal are due by February 22, 2011.

Federal Register notice: 636 KB PDF

Statement by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke

Statement by Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen

2010 Banking and Consumer Regulatory Policy

 

How Card Issuers Sneak Around New Laws (Consumerist)

Crafty credit card issuers aren’t going to let a little thing like the law get in the way of their profits. Nope, they’re finding creative ways to get around the pro-consumer CARD act and maintain their grip on your pocketbook.

READ ARTICLE: Via Consumerist. http://consumerist.com/2010/06/how-card-issuers-sneak-around-new-laws.html

VISA’s Lobbying Effort to Stop Financial Reform Hits a New Low — WASHINGTON , May 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ —

VISA using children, firefighters and seniors to justify fleecing small employers and consumers

WASHINGTON , May 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Dennis Lane, single store 7-Eleven Franchise owner and national spokesman for the campaign to Reform Swipe Fees NOW!, released the following statement regarding VISA’s response to the U.S. Senate’s passage of sweeping financial regulatory reform.

“The credit card industry has officially hit a new low in their campaign to block financial reform.  To justify fleecing small business owners like me, they are now hiding behind seniors, veterans, firefighters and even children to justify their business practices.  Their unprecedented multi-million dollar lobbying having failed, they have now resorted to using human shields in a last-ditch effort to scuttle reform that will benefit millions of small businesses and their customers.”

From VISA’s statement upon passage of the Senate financial reform bill (S. 3217)

• “Those who rely on prepaid cards for government disbursement, such as child support, could be particularly hard hit.”
• “…could especially harm community banks and credit unions that depend on interchange to offer competitive banking services to firefighters, police officers, teachers, veterans, congressional staffers and other customers.
• “This could be especially devastating for those on a fixed income who rely on prepaid cards for government disbursements such as social security.”

“Each of these suggestions is ridiculous, and VISA knows it. Rather than hurt workers and families, swipe fee reform will help small businesses grow, improve wages and benefits, and lower prices for consumers.  But with its lobbying efforts failed, it’s become increasingly clear that the card industry is willing to say just about anything to protect the billions they are making exploiting small business.

“We need Congress to finish what it has started. For reform to be complete, it must include interchange reform.  For our economy to grow again, we cannot allow VISA and the nation’s largest financial institutions to continue siphoning away billions each year from hardworking small business owners.”

About Reform Swipe Fees NOW: Reform Swipe Fees NOW is a project by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA).  The project unites U.S. business owners, small and large, in a campaign for fair credit card swipe fees.

SOURCE Reform Swipe Fees NOW

VISA’s Lobbying Effort to Stop Financial Reform Hits a New Low — WASHINGTON , May 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ —.

U.S. Senate Passes Commonsense Swipe Fee Reform to Aid Small Business and Consumers

Main Street merchants applaud Senate for taking immediate action to help retailers

and their customers across the nation

WASHINGTON— The Merchants Payments Coalition, representing 2.7 million U.S. businesses, released the

following statement after the U.S. Senate voted to include commonsense swipe fee reform in the Restoring

American Financial Stability Act of 2010 through an amendment introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin. Specifically,

the measure will ensure the debit card transactions are reasonable and proportional to the cost of processing the

transaction:

“Tonight, the Senate stood up to the credit card companies and big banks and stood strong for Main Street

businesses and our customers. Swipe fees have spiraled out of control in recent years, and this amendment is

necessary to rein in these excessive fees and ensure that Main Street receives a fair shake. These fees are harmful

across the board – from large businesses to small retailers to American consumers.”

“Because of Sen. Durbin’s amendment and his efforts to push this measure through the Senate, business owners

and their customers are one step closer to real, tangible reform. This amendment will enhance transparency and

help protect businesses and their customers alike from these unfair, hidden fees.”

“Now that the Senate has acted in such a strong and unambiguous way, business owners across the country hope

that Congress will continue moving forward with this measure to bring fairness to credit and debit card swipe fees

– and that it eventually reaches President Obama’s desk to become law.”

###

The Merchants Payments Coalition is a group of retailers, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, fuel

stations, on‐line merchants and other businesses who are fighting against unfair credit card fees and fighting for a

more competitive and transparent card system that works better for consumers and merchants alike. The

coalition’s member associations collectively represent about 2.7 million stores with approximately 50 million

employees. For more information about credit card swipe fees, please visit http://www.UnfairCreditCardFees.com.

[via MPC Press Release]

Visa Inc. Statement: Senate Passage of S. 3217 – (via Corp Press Release)

Visa Inc. Statement: Senate Passage of S. 3217 – VISA Inc. Corporate Press Release)

SAN FRANCISCO, May 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The following is a statement from Visa Inc. in response to Senate passage of S. 3217:

“We are disappointed that legislation intended to make our financial system safer and fairer for consumers includes an irresponsible and anti-consumer amendment offered by Senator Durbin. Adopted with no debate or review of facts, the amendment allows retailers’ to shift their cost for accepting debit cards onto the backs of consumers while they continue to receive the value of electronic payments — including faster check-outs, ticket lift and guaranteed payment.

“Written and backed by lobbyists representing the nation’s largest retailers, the Durbin amendment could significantly harm consumers. Consumers could have less choice, higher costs and could experience an increase in costs for checking accounts and online banking fees and reduced debit card benefits like fraud protection and rewards. Those who rely on prepaid cards for government disbursement, such as child support, could be particularly hard hit.

“For financial institutions, this amendment could force them to reduce or eliminate valuable debit and checking account services and could especially harm community banks and credit unions that depend on interchange to offer competitive banking services to firefighters, police officers, teachers, veterans, congressional staffers and other customers.

“The Durbin amendment also gives retailers the power to set arbitrary, minimum purchase requirements for consumers choosing to pay with plastic. This means that customers who want to buy a gallon of milk or loaf of bread could be forced to buy more unnecessarily if they use electronic payments at the register. This could be especially devastating for those on a fixed income who rely on prepaid cards for government disbursements such as social security.

“The Durbin amendment is not germane to the overall Financial Reform bill legislation. We hope Congress sees the amendment for what it is — an attempt by retailers to increase their profits at the expense of consumers.”

SOURCE: Visa Inc. via Businesswire

For Visa Inc. 
Steve Burke, 703-683-5004, ext. 108 
sburke@crcpublicrelations.com

National Restaurant Association Applauds Senate Interchange Reform Amendment

[via press release from National Restaurant Association]

Provision Will Help Restaurateurs By Ensuring More Reasonable Costs to Processing Transactions

(Washington, D.C.) – The National Restaurant Association today praised U.S. Senate passage of an amendment sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that will give restaurants and other merchants a break on some payment card-processing fees set by banks and credit card companies. The Senate voted 64 to 33 to include the proposal in the financial reform bill, which is expected to pass the Senate sometime next week.
“Interchange fees are often restaurants’ third greatest operating expense, behind labor and food costs. Merchants pay about $48 billion in interchange fees every year,” said Scott DeFife, Executive Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs for the Association. “We are grateful to Senator Durbin for his leadership on this important issue, and appreciate the bipartisan support for addressing the problem of interchange fee practices that provide zero transparency or negotiation with merchants.”

Interchange fees, also known as “swipe fees,” and related contractual restrictions benefit credit card companies and card-issuing banks at the expense of merchants and consumers. The amendment would authorize the Federal Reserve to issue regulations that ensure interchange fees imposed on debit card transactions are “reasonable and proportional” to the costs of processing transactions. Debit transactions come directly from consumers’ checking accounts and are not credit, yet the interchange rate on debit transactions continues to increase.

The proposal would also permit merchants to set minimum and maximum transaction levels for credit cards. As a result, retailers would be free to choose their payment methods. Under current rules, merchants that accept credit or debit cards cannot set minimum transaction levels, although they sometimes lose money on small charge or debit transactions. Additionally, the amendment would increase competition and allow businesses to offer discounts to customers who pay with cash, checks, PIN debit, etc., which carry lower rates than credit cards.

The Association has long advocated for fairer transaction fees and is a member of the Merchants Payment Coalition, a group of retailers, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, fuel stations, on-line merchants and other businesses who are fighting against unfair credit card fees and fighting for a more competitive and transparent card system that works better for consumers and merchants alike. The coalition’s member associations collectively represent about 2.7 million stores with approximately 50 million employees. The coalition recently launched a new ad campaign to educate Congress and the public about interchange fees.

Both Credit And Debit Rise for Visa, Along with Acquirer Fees

San Francisco-based Visa instituted an acquirer price increase last year (Digital Transactions News, March 17, 2009). In a conference call with analysts, Visa chief financial officer Byron H. Pollitt Jr. attributed the data-processing revenue growth to VisaNet’s 14% transaction increase and “the continuing effect of previously enacted pricing actions,” according to the Seeking Alpha transcript service.

It looks like another “pricing action” is on the way. Referring to an April price increase by MasterCard Inc., an analyst asked Visa executives if “you have raised merchant assessment pricing as well?” According to Seeking Alpha, chief executive Joseph W. Saunders responded, “Well, we’ve already announced an increase in our acquirers fees similar to the one that MasterCard did and ours is effective in July.” A Visa spokesperson declined further comment. As they do with interchange, acquirers are likely to pass on such network fee increases to their merchant clients.

via Digital Transactions: Both Credit And Debit Rise for Visa, Along with Acquirer Fees

[Follow WayTooHigh.com on Twitter – http://www.Twitter.com/WayTooHigh

Media Statement – Visa Statement Regarding the Canadian Code of Conduct – Yahoo! Finance

[And Visa, too. Interesting that the same banks that owned Visa own MasterCard; the two giant credit card association (which say they are independent) regularly act as if they are operating from the same corner office]

 

TORONTO, April 16 /CNW/ – Visa supports the Canadian government’s goal to encourage transparency and merchant choice within the payments marketplace – two important pillars on which Visa has built its business domestically and internationally.

Visa already provides merchants much of what today’s Code of Conduct requests payment networks offer, such as full transparency of interchange rates, merchant choice on acceptance of Visa Debit cards, and the ability of merchants to offer discounts for other methods of payment. We appreciate the government’s inclusion of all payment networks to ensure merchants are equally informed through a level playing field.

via Media Statement – Visa Statement Regarding the Canadian Code of Conduct – Yahoo! Finance.

Join the conversation on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/WayTooHigh

Editorial – With Financial Reform, Whose Side Are the Republicans On? – NYTimes.com

The White House and Democratic leaders need to push back hard against Republican posturing, making it clear to Americans that robust reform is the only way to protect the system — and taxpayers — from a repeat catastrophe. When Republicans try to block reform, they are doing nothing more than shilling for the banks.

via Editorial – With Financial Reform, Whose Side Are the Republicans On? – NYTimes.com.

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

Why the credit card industry does better when their customers are doing worse

Since 1990, I have owned and operated a photo imaging business in Irvine called 30 Minute Photos Etc. and now ScanMyPhoto.com.   Times are tough for a lot of retailers just like they are for a lot of our customers.   But it’s not just the economy that make times tough for retailers and our customers.    It’s the credit card industry.  

The credit card business is designed to do better when Americans are doing worse.   Visa, MasterCard and their bank partners are arbitrarily raising interest rates on existing credit and debit card, raising credit card late fees, and even charging interest on credit card debt that is paid on time.  

But what actually cost consumers more is the huge, hidden fees on every credit card transaction known as interchange that is passed through to customers in the form of higher prices.  Two dollars out of every $100 spent in the U.S. in stores and gas stations goes to pay interchange also known as swipe fees whether the customer uses plastic or not.   

But it’s not just credit card hidden fees that are skyrocketing, debit card fees are also rising.  As Andrew Martin wrote in “The Card Game – How Visa, Using Card Fees, Dominates a Market”  in the New York Times on January 5, 2010, Visa pushed signature debit over PIN debit starting in the early 1990s because they could charge 13 times the fee for signature debit than they could for PIN debit – even though PIN debit is the more secure choice for the customer and less prone to ID theft.  

WATCH VIDEO

That’s right.   Visa decided to push signature debit even though it compromises cardholder security compared to PIN debit just to make more money for its member banks.  Visa and MasterCard also have rules that prohibit merchants from telling customers that they are paying inflated fees at point of purchase due to swipe fees.   Visa and MasterCard partner banks won’t disclose on their customer’s monthly card statements how much these fees cost them either.   And merchants are prohibited from discounting the price for customers who pay by cash, checks, or lower cost debit, such as PIN.    

 It’s outrageous behavior like this by Visa, MasterCard, and their partner banks that led me to become the lead plaintiff in what may be the largest class-action antitrust litigation in U.S. history, one designed to help rein in the credit card industry.

Interchange fees were designed 40 years ago to cover the costs for manual credit card imprinting (remember carbon copy receipts?). Today, technology and other efficiencies have made credit card swipe fees all but unnecessary.  There are no interchange fees when using store gift cards or writing checks – but due to unbridled market power of Visa, MasterCard and their partner banks there are still interchange swipe fees.  

Ten years ago, when my company first started using digital scanning, it cost $5 dollars per photo because the process was so expensive.   Today I charge 5 cents because the process has never been cheaper.  Unlike the credit card industry, I operate in a free market.  Even if I tried to charge $5 for digital scanning like ten years ago no one would pay it – they just go down the street to the next guy with a digital scanner.  

It has never been cheaper to swipe a credit or debit card.  But unlike the market for digital scanning – or for that matter gas, groceries, and all other retail goods and services — there is no competition down the street to lower the cost of card transactions.   Visa and MasterCard control 80% of the card market and their respectively card networks set the price.  That’s why credit card swipe fees, unlike retail prices, are the same in all fifty states.   No wonder the cost of swipe to consumers has tripled since 2001 to $427 per average household.     

Every other economically advanced country has either reformed interchange or is in the process of doing so.    But largely because of the power of the credit card industry in Congress, Americans pay the highest credit and debit card swipe fees in the world.   We pay four times what Australians pay for the exact same set of credit card goods and services.  So write your congressperson, write your senator, and tell them that you want them to put out the fire that is burning a hole in your pocket.

Urge Your Legistlator To Add “Interchange” to Banking Bill

Recommend: retailers and merchants urged to ask Sen Dodd to include interchange fee reform in banking bill, here is how:

The voice from actual constituents for each Banking Committee member can make a difference. Explain and personalize why merchant interchange “swipe” fees are an unfair and a hidden tax.  Ask why the rates in the U.S. are three-time that of other industrialized nations and urge that among any credit card reform is that interchange fees be included. Write letters to the editor.  Make sure your lawmakers and local media know the facts about interchange fees and how much they are costing retailers and consumers [unfaircreditcardfees.com].

Stop Unfair Credit Card Fees  Tell Your Elected Representatives To Act On Interchange Fees

Credit card fees known as interchange are hidden in the cost of nearly everything consumers buy. In 2008 alone, American consumers paid over $48 billion in credit card interchange fees. Even consumers who don’t use plastic pay more through higher prices. Visa issuers collectively set credit card interchange fees in secret and MasterCard issuers separately do the same. The fees can’t be negotiated and are not adequately disclosed to merchants or consumers.

Tell your elected representatives to stop the price-fixing by the credit card industry by providing an open and transparent process to negotiate credit card interchange fees.

Send your message now.

Who to reach on the Banking Committee:

Majority Members

Chris Dodd (D-Conn); Hartford Office: 30 Lewis Street, Suite 101, Hartford, CT 06103; Tel: (860) 258-6940 Fax: (860) 258-6958

Tim Johnson (D-SD); Banking Legislative Assistant (LA) Laura Swanson, Email: laura_swanson@johnson.senate.gov, Sioux Falls Office: 5015 South Bur Oak Place, Sioux Falls, SD 57108; Tel: (605) 332-8896 Fax: (605) 332-2824

Jack Reed (D-RI); Banking LA: Kara Stein
Email: kara_stein@reed.senate.gov; Providence Office: U.S. Federal Court House, One West Exchange Street, Room 408, Providence, RI 02903; Tel: (401) 528-5200 Fax: (401) 528-5242

Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Banking LA: Jonah Crane, Email: Jonah_crane@schumer.senate.gov; Albany Office: Leo O’Brien Building, Room 420, Albany, NY 12207, Tel: (518) 431-407 Fax: (518) 431-4076

Evan Bayh (D-IN); Banking LA: Ellen Chube, Email: Ellen_Chube@Bayh.senate.gov, Indianapolis Office: West Market Tower, 10 West Market Street, Suite 1650, Indianapolis, IN 46204; Tel: (317) 554-0750 Fax: (317) 554-0760

Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Banking LA: Michael Passante, Email: Michael_passante@menendez.senate.gov; Newark Office: One Gateway Center, 11th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102-5257; Tel: (973) 645-3030 Fax: (973) 645-0502

Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Banking LA: Matt Pippin
Email:matt_pippin@akaka.senate.gov; Honolulu Office: Prince Kuhio Federal Building, 300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room 3-106, Honolulu, HI 96850 P.O. Box 50144, Honolulu, HI 96850; Tel: (808) 522-8970 Fax: (808) 545-4683

Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Banking LA: Patrick Johnson, Email: patrick_johnson@brown.senate.gov; Cleveland Office: 1301 East Ninth Street, Suite 1710, Cleveland, OH 44114, Tel: (216) 522-7272 Fax: (216) 522-2239

Jon Tester (D-MT), Banking LA: Jason Rosenberg, Email: Jason_rosenberg@tester.senate.gov; Helena Office: Capital One Center, 208 North Montana Avenue, Suite 202, Helena, MT 59601; Tel: (406) 449-5401 Fax: (406) 449-5462

Herb Kohl (D-WI), Banking LA: Hilary Swav
Email: Hilary_swav@kohl.senate.gov, Madison Office: 14 West Mifflin Street, Suite 207, Madison, WI 53703; Tel: (608) 264-5338 Fax: (608) 264-5473,

Mark Warner (D-VA), Banking LA: Nathan Steinwald, Email: Nathan_steinwald@warner.senate.gov; Richmond Office: 919 East Main Street, Suite 630, Richmond, VA 23112, Tel: (804) 775-2314 Fax: (804) 775-2319

Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Banking LA: Andrew Green, Email: Andrew_green@merkley.senate.gov; Portland Office: One World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 1400, Portland, OR 97204 P.O. Box 29136, Portland, OR 97296, Tel: (503) 326-3386 Fax: (503) 326-2900

Michael Bennet (D-CO), Banking LA: Brian Appel, Email: brian_appel@bennet.senate.gov, Denver Office: 2300 15th Street, Suite 450, Denver, CO 80202, Tel: (303) 455-7600 Fax: (303) 455-8851

Minority Members

Richard C. Shelby (R-AL), Banking LA: Graham Smith, Email: graham_smith@shelby.senate.gov; Birmingham Office: Robert S. Vance Federal Building, 1800 Fifth Avenue North, Room 321,
Birmingham, AL 35203, Tel: (205) 731-1384 Fax: (205) 731-1386

Bob Corker (R-TN), Banking LA: Courtney Geduldig, Email:courtney_geduldig@corker.senate.gov; Memphis Office: 100 Peabody Place, Suite 1125, Memphis, TN 38103, Tel: (901) 683-1910 Fax: (901) 575-3528

Jim DeMint (R-SC), Banking LA: Hap Rigby
Email: hap_rigby@demint.senate.gov; Columbia Office: 1901 Main Street, Suite 1475, Columbia, SC 29201, Tel: (803) 771-6112 Fax: (803) 771-6455

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Austin Office:Federal Building, 300 East Eighth Street, Suite 961, Austin, TX 78701; Tel: (512) 916-5834 Fax: (512) 916-5839

Mike Crapo (R-ID), Banking LA: Gregg Richard
Email: Gregg_richard@crapo.senate.gov, Boise Office: 251 E. Front St., Suite 205, Boise, ID 83702; Tel: (208) 334-1776 Fax: (208) 334-9044

Others: Re-election in 2010

Democrates
Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Banking LA: Allen Huffman, Email: Allen_huffman@dorgan.senate.gov; Bismark Office: 312 Federal Building PO Box 2579, Bismarck, ND 58502; Tel: (701) 250-4618 Fax (701) 250-4484

Russ Feingold (D-WI), Milwaukee Office: 517 East Wisconsin Ave., Room 408, Milwaukee, WI 53202-4504; Tel: (414) 276-7282 Fax (414) 276-7284

Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Banking LA: Kevin Fink, Email: Kevin_fink@gillibrand.senate.gov; New York City Office: 780 Third Avenue, Suite 2601, New York, New York 10017;
Tel. (212) 688-6262, Fax (212) 688-7444

Pat Leahy (D-VT), Banking LA: Greg Cota
Email: Greg_Cota@leahy.senate.gov; Burlington Office: 199 Main Street, 4th Floor, Burlington, VT 05401, Tel: (802) 863-2525

Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Banking LA: Anna Taylor, Email: anna_taylor@lincoln.senate.gov; Little Rock Office: 912 West Fourth Street Little Rock, AR 72201, Tel: (501) 375-2993 Fax (501) 375-7064

Harry Reid (D-NV), Banking LA: Mark Wetjen
Email: mark_wetjen@reid.senate.gov; Las Vegas Office: Lloyd D. George Building 333 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 801 Las Vegas, NV 89101; Tel: (702)388-5020, Fax: 702-388-5030

Republicans

Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Banking LA:Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, Email: Kathy_nuebel@grassley.senate.gov; Des Moines Office: 721 Federal Building 210 Walnut Street Des Moines, IA 50309; Tel: (515) 288-1145 Fax: (515) 288-5097

Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Banking LA: Chris Cook; Email: chris_cook@isakson@senate.gov; Atlanta Office: One Overton Park, Suite 970 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30339; Tel: (770) 661-0999, Fax: (770) 661-0768

Dick Lugar (R-IN), Banking LA: Kylin McCardle
Email: kylin_mccardle@lugar.senate.gov; Indianapolis Office: 10 West Market St Suite 1180, Indianapolis,IN 46204, Tel: (317) 226-5555, Fax: (317) 226-5508

Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Banking LA: Matthew Berger, Email: matthew_berger@sbc.senate.gov; Portland Office: 3 Canal Plaza Suite 601 Portland, ME 04101, Tel: (207) 874-0883, Fax: (207) 874-7631

Susan Collins (R-ME), Banking LA: Mark LeDuc, Email: mark_leduc@hsgac.senate.gov; Portland Office: One Canal Plaza Suite 802 Portland, ME 04101; Tel: (207) 780-3575

George Voinovich (R-OH), Banking LA: Jan Elizabeth Fowler, Email: Jan¬_fowler@voinovich.senate.gov; Cleveland Office: 1240 East 9th Street Room 3061 Cleveland, OH 44199, Tel: (216) 522-7095, Fax: 522-7097

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Credit Cards Lobbyist Tries To Explain Higher Card Rates (via KFI-AM 640)

Lobbyist Tries To Explain Higher Card Rates on the Thursday, October 29th 6pm segment of The John and Ken KFI-AM 640 Los Angeles radio show.

Listen here

Alternative link to listen, click here

Credit Card Gas Fee Rally (repost)

NACS Leads Credit Card Petition Against Unfair Fees

NRF Testifies that Credit Card Companies are in an ‘Arms Race’ to Increase ‘Swipe Fees’ Paid by Merchants and Consumers (NRF via BW)

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The National Retail Federation today warned Congress that credit card companies are in an “arms race” to increase the $48 billion in “swipe” fees paid by merchants and their customers each year, and urged passage of legislation that would put rules governing the fees under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission.

“There is an arms race to create cards with higher fees and more bells and whistles,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. “The market checks that would normally exist to curb this escalation in fees are diminished because the card companies know that every merchant is required to take these expensive new cards or lose their ability to accept any cards. The Welch-Shuster bill would allow the most expensive cards to be refused, and while we expect that few merchants would actually refuse cards if this were passed, it would make the card companies think before they reflexively introduce cards with higher fees.”

“Most consumers don’t know it, but every time they swipe a rewards card with its miles and concierge services, they are driving up the price of everything they buy even higher,” Duncan said. “This particularly hurts less-privileged Americans who don’t have rewards cards or can’t get cards at all because Visa and MasterCard rules effectively require that everyone pay the credit card price even if they are paying with cash, check, debit card or even food stamps.”

“There is no regulator that reviews whether credit card company rules are unfair, deceptive or anticompetitive,” Duncan said. “This legislation would deal with this absence of oversight by directing the Federal Trade Commission to review card company rules and prohibit practices that meet that description. That is the minimum level of protection that this market needs to begin to function properly.”

Duncan testified before the House Financial Services Committee today during a hearing on H.R. 2382, the Credit Card Interchange Act of 2009, sponsored by Representative Peter Welch, D-Vt., and co-sponsored by Representative Bill Shuster, R-Pa. The bill would require credit card companies to disclose interchange rates, terms and conditions, and give the Federal Trade Commission authority to review interchange and prohibit any practices that violate consumer protection or anti-competition laws. Merchants would be allowed to give cash discounts and set minimum credit card purchase amounts, and could choose which credit cards to accept.

Interchange is a fee averaging 2 percent that Visa and MasterCard banks charge merchants each time one of their credit cards is swiped to pay for a purchase. But Duncan explained to the committee that the rate can range from as low as about 1.5 percent for an ordinary card to 3 percent or more for “gold” and “platinum” cards that offer rewards like travel miles or concierge services. In recent years, card companies have created an escalating series of rewards cards – each carrying more rewards but also higher fees – and “upgraded” millions of consumers. The higher-fee cards can’t be turned down by merchants because of Visa and MasterCard’s “Honor All Cards” rule. The practice, along with marketing that has pushed the use of plastic and introduced cards into new areas like taxis, has helped triple interchange revenue from the $16 billion collected when NRF began tracking the fees in 2001 to the $48 billion collected last year.

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 cash discounts difficult. The result is that the average household paid an estimated $427 in higher prices last year, up from $159 in 2001.

Merchants have long sought to offer cash discounts, but Duncan said an amendment to this spring’s credit card reform bill that would have blocked credit card companies from interfering with that ability was met with “howls of protest’ from the card industry and was not included in the final measure.

The National Retail Federation 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, 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. www.nrf.com.

Financial Coalition Supports Interchange Reform

Americans for Financial Reform adopts official position to reform deceptive credit card interchange practices.

 

[repost from NACSOnline]

WASHINGTON – Americans for Financial Reform, a group of about 200 national and state organizations that support reform to our nation’s current financial sector, announced its support this week to reform credit card industry practices.

The group released a position paper that outlines its members concerns and support for legislative action that would bring transparency and fairness to a broken system — particularly hidden “swipe fees” (interchange fees) “paid by all Americans, regardless of whether they use credit, debit, checks or cash.”

The group writes:

“Swipe fees have grown at a staggering pace — from about $16 billion in 2001 to about $48 billion in 2008. This is a clear sign of a broken market. Not only do these huge fees injure consumers by inflating the cost of goods and services, they create incentives for banks to view credit and debit cards as fee engines. It is not coincidence that consumer-side fees such as late fees, over-limit fees, overdraft fees and others have seen rapid increases during the last several years, just as swipe fees have exploded. Seeing the potential income from fees has made banks’ business models develop such that they often view their customers as fee-generating machines. These business models have dictated the proliferation of cards and incentives for increased card use without appropriate attention to the risks that consumers might not have the ability to repay the debts they incur on these cards.

“And unfortunately, those credit card swipe fees continue to accelerate, because there is nothing — no marketplace or competitive force — to restrain Visa and MasterCard from charging consumers and merchants more, even though technological advances should have reduced the cost of providing the services. So, not surprisingly, these fees have been skyrocketing.

“There are two essential elements to a competitive marketplace: information and choice. Accurate and transparent information is necessary for consumers to make accurate choices. When information is readily available consumers can make choices, effectively compelling firms to compete for their purchases. And choice is a necessary element too. Absent choice, the discipline of the market will be lost. The credit card market lacks both choice and adequate information. From a consumer’s perspective, it lacks choice because it is an oligopolistic market in which a small set of card issuers dominate the market and establish a set of hidden practices that increase consumer costs.

“Markets don’t work when there are hidden fees and rules — and no one hides fees and rules better than the credit card companies. Credit card markets lack the information necessary for both consumers and merchants to make informed choices. For merchants, the markets lack adequate information because the associations prevent merchants from accurately informing consumers of the costs of credit card acceptance or attempting to direct them to more efficient and lower priced payment mechanisms. In fact, merchants have no alternative but to accept the card associations’ cards even when the associations significantly increase prices.           

“Credit card industry practices must be reformed in order to deal with these market failures and the resulting injury to consumers. Transparency and market forces are needed to check the growth of unjustifiably high swipe fees. Consumers have a right to know the amount of the swipe fees charged in conjunction with their transactions. Merchants too must be given information about the type of card that they are receiving at the point of sale and the corresponding interchange fees. In addition, the Visa and MasterCard operating rules that dictate how the credit and debit card systems operate must be provided to a regulator that, in turn, makes those materials public for everyone to see and analyze.

“Visa and MasterCard rules that are unfair, deceptive, or anticompetitive must also be abolished. These practices harm consumers by increasing the cost of goods and services and by preventing retailers from offering or encouraging the use of lower cost payment options. This process should start with providing a strong regulatory agency, such as the Federal Trade Commission (or Consumer Financial Protection Agency) the power to review the Visa and MasterCard rules and prohibit any it finds to violate these tenets that govern transactions throughout our economy. Additionally, specific, anticompetitive rules must be overturned immediately to allow merchants to do the following:

• Provide consumers with discounts for using cheaper credit or debit cards or other forms of payment that are cheaper such as cash and checks. The credit card networks and banks should not be able to limit how these discounts are displayed or advertised by merchants. Ensuring that merchant pricing is accurate and clear is the role of state consumer protection laws. Banks do not limit merchant pricing displays to protect consumers — they do it to prevent competition in the market and prevent transparency in their fees.
• Communicate merchant preferences among payment types to consumers. The “honor all cards” rule that requires merchants to accept every card Visa or MasterCard creates — no matter how high they set the fees for that card — should not stand.
• Accept certain cards at some merchant sites, rather than at all locations, and set minimum or maximum purchase size limits for transactions involving a card.

“A large set of organizations are working together to advance our common interest in an accountable, transparent and secure financial system, and to accomplish our shared policy goals. Because the organizations involved and the issues addressed are diverse, not every organization works on or has a policy position on every specific issue. We are unanimous in our call for change to repair our nation’s broken financial system, establish integrity in the financial markets, and facilitate productive economic activity that benefits all segments of our communities.”

Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees (NYT)

Andrew Martin at The New York Times wrote (p. 1 Oct 6th) about the latest credit card prepaid pricing tricks.  Of extra interest is the photo showing several prepaid “debit” cards and all challenge the results of the earlier MasterCard and Visa settlement; the “debit” cards are indistinuishable from traditional credit cards, other than the cleverly hidden word “debit.”

Click here to read more.

Excerpt:

The MiCash Prepaid MasterCard docks cardholders a $9.95 activation fee. Like many competitors, it then charges numerous recurring fees, including $1.75 for each A.T.M. withdrawal, $1 for each A.T.M. balance inquiry, 50 cents for each purchase, $4 for monthly maintenance, $2 for inactivity after 60 days and $1 for a call to customer service.

The Millennium Advantage Prepaid MasterCard goes further, listing an application fee of up to $99. The Silver Prepaid MasterCard advertises that it does not charge for overdrafts as many debit cards do, but it gives itself the option of charging a $25 shortage fee if customers exceed their balance.

 

More Interchange Rate Increases

As reported earlier, beginning next week, rates charged by Visa and MasterCard and its member banks will again change.  [ScanMYPhotos.com] received out letter of rate changes two weeks ago. 

Two times each year, we receive the same formatted letter and confusing pricing matrixes that explain rates for accepting credit and debit cards are again changing.  This time, it comes as U.S. Senator Chris Dodd proposes a significant change to these unfair fees.  Any rate reduction must be met with recognizing the years of illegal profiteering from price-fixing by MasterCard, Visa and its member banks and issue refund for those overcharges -amount is in the hundreds of billions.

Dodd Will Push To Control Bank Fees For Merchants

From The Hartford Courant (8/24). Click here to read more.

Excerpt:

U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd is coming out swinging again at banking fees, saying he will push for more changes in credit card fees — this time those paid by merchants — even as he seeks to limit bank income from overdraft charges.

Dodd said Wednesday that he will propose legislation to “substantially modify” the fees that merchants pay so they can accept major credit cards and have those transactions processed through banks. Dodd, architect of credit card reform signed into law in May, previously indicated that he next intended to take aim at “interchange” or “swipe” fees.

“Every state you go to, you hear it from retailers,” Dodd said. “The fees are excessive.”

Banks Revise Overdraft Fees, Why Not Interchange Fees Too?

Ron Lieber wrote in The New York Times that JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have overhauled their debit card overdraft fees.

Read article (9/23).

This has been a multi-billion dollar annual boondoggle for the banks at the expense of millions of consumers.  The larger question is why haven’t the banks also addressed merchant interchange fees – which account for substantially more unfair costs to businesses and consumers? 

It was the public outcry, an NBC Nightly News segment and extensive media coverage on debit card overdraft fees that helped cause this very rapid shift in policy.  It is also being used as a marketing tool, as the credit card issuers can now promote they have waived and adjusted the terms of these overdraft fees to better compete.  However, there is no competition when it comes to merchant interchange fees; retailers are still forced to accept Visa and MasterCard’s terms.  Issuing banks can simply pass along any lost overdraft fees with higher merchant interchange fees, which simply means that ultimately the consumer still gets screwed.

My five-year legal battle as class-representative in an antitrust class-action against Visa, MasterCard and its member banks continues to reap unsubstantiated profits for the credit card companies with even greater costs. 

Merchant interchange fees are an insult that is an atrocity and slap in the face of every consumer and merchant that accepts debit and credit cards.   Along with the banks, which until Visa and MasterCard’s IPO’s controlled one-hundred percent of the two giant credit card associations, are continuing to wage a battle against its customers. If only they listened to their critics addressing these equally excessive charges.

NACS Study: US Pays More for Interchange “Swipe” Fees

A new study by the Merchants Payments Coalition finds that Americans pay a much higher percentage for interchange charges than the rest of the industrialized world.

WASHINGTON, DC – A new study by the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) found that if U.S. consumers paid the same low credit and debit card swipe fees as consumers in Australia pay, then the net benefit would have totaled $125 billion over the last four years.

Interchange fees, or “swipe fees,” cost Americans an average of $2 on every $100 they spend with credit cards — a higher percentage than anywhere else in the industrialized world. Why? Because other countries and their governments have been able to negotiate with the big banks and credit card companies for fair rates and transparency, the MPC notes. NACS is one of the founding members of the MPC.

But, in the United States merchants and their customers are still forced to pay sky-high interchange fees.

Interchange fees started out in the 1960s as a way for banks to cover the cost of processing credit card transactions. But even as technology has dropped that cost dramatically, the banks and credit card companies have pushed swipe fees higher and higher, turning it into a cash cow. For many businesses, credit card fees are now their single-highest non-labor operating cost.

With almost any other equipment, supplier or service, retailers can comparison-shop, negotiate or otherwise influence its final cost of doing business. Store owners can conserve on energy usage and seek out the most competitive prices for merchandise, just to cite a few examples.

Not so with credit card interchange fees. Visa and MasterCard control more than 80 percent of the marketplace. They set the fees in secret, give businesses no ability to negotiate and virtually insist they be buried in the price of merchandise. Unfortunately, the card companies’ hidden fees get passed on to all consumers in the form of higher prices and lower value for nearly everything they buy.

“It’s bad enough that the credit card companies force these hidden fees on us and our customers when we can least afford it,” noted NACS Vice Chairman of Government Relations Tom Robinson, president of Robinson Oil Corporation. “But when we are paying more than anywhere else in the world, and other countries have taken action to protect their citizens from abuse, it is inconceivable that our government would turn a blind eye to the issue. It is time for Congress to step up and defend the principles of the free-market economy by taking action on (interchange) fees.”

Though Congress and the White House have addressed other credit card reforms, the MPC is arguing that any fix will be incomplete without addressing interchange fees. Consider:

Banks raked in an estimated $48 billion in interchange fees in 2008 – an average of $427 per American household in just one year.

• This $48 billion total is more than triple the amount collected as recently as in 2001.
• Hidden interchange fees cost Americans more than all credit card annual fees, cash advance fees, over-the-limit fees, and late fees combined.
• U.S. interchange fees are the highest in the developed world. The U.S. pays approximately 60 percent of interchange fees globally – about double the U.S. percentage share of global GDP.

Compared to the rest of the world, U.S. interchange fees are more than two times the rates in the U.K. and New Zealand, four times the rates in Australia and more than six times the cross-border rates recently agreed upon by MasterCard and the European Union.

Meanwhile, the payments industry has back with its own “study.”

In a September 17 press release, Visa announced the findings of a new study that shows that “consumers believe retailers benefit far more from accepting credit and debit cards than they pay in costs.

The press release noted that consumers believe merchants see card cost acceptance as a part of doing business, much like paying for utilities such as electricity.

“Retailers and their well-funded trade associations have filed lawsuits and are aggressively lobbying Congress to allow them to shift their business costs to consumers by allowing merchants to charge checkout fees whenever consumers use credit or debit cards. At the same time, national convenience store chains have launched misleading, in-store petition campaigns to cover for their checkout fee efforts, noted Visa’s press release.

“The response is loud and clear: consumers aren’t buying the message convenience store chains and big retailers are selling,” said Bill Sheedy, group president of the Americas for Visa Inc., in the release. “This research demonstrates that consumers are well aware that legislation is a Trojan horse that likely will lead to higher prices for cardholders while retailers pocket the savings.”

“Swipe Fee” Reform – International Lessons (via UnFairCreditCardFees.com)

Click here to read the recent report profiling interchange merchant interchange fees rates.  U.S. credit card interchange fees ~2X rates in UK, New Zealand.  ~4X rates in Australia. ~6X cross border MasterCard rates in the EU

Excerpt:

 

 

 

 

[Source: UnfairCreditCardFees.com, Merchants Payments Coalition]

“Not only do other nations provide lower interchange rates, but we can also learn from other countries’ experiences with interchange reform. Major countries around the world have addressed interchange reform, with some already demonstrating beneficial results for their economies. In particular, lessons learned from experiences in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the European Union, provide instructive examples about why interchange reform makes economic sense in the U.S. – especially now.”

 

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)

Losing Money Every Time a Credit Card is Used

Read this credit card Interchange updated by Jan Norman, Orange County Register (July 30, 2009)

Excerpt:

The store owners lose money because a growing number of customers use credit cards for small purchases, he says.

The issue has been around for years. 30 Minute Photos Etc. in Irvine was a named plaintiff in a 2005 class action lawsuit against the interchange fees.

“Interchange fees are just a way that credit card companies squeeze merchants to enhance their revenue stream,” according to Mitch Goldstone, partner in 30 Minute Photos and ScanMyPhotos.com.

Merchants Fight MasterCard and Visa Card Fees

Watch this ABC WCBV-TV News segment on merchant interchange fees and the escalating battle against credit card company fees.

NewsCenter 5’s David Brown reported that they are unregulated credit cards fees charged to store owners for every credit and debit card transaction. It’s a hidden fee that is eventually passed on to the consumer.

Merchants take a swipe at card fees (via American Public Media)

Listen to this radio segment on Marketplace Morning Report.  Every time you charge your Big Gulp at 7-Eleven, a credit card company swallows part of the profit. But Slurpee slingers have had enough of the merchant fees. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports.

New York Times Submitted “Letter to the Editor”

In response to Andrew Martin’s July 16th “Card Fees Pit Retailers Against Banks” New York Times article, I submitted this response:

Dear Editor,

I appreciated your thorough article, ‘Card Fees Pit Retailers Against Banks,’ New York Times, July 16, 2009, describing the serious problem of exorbitant and ever-increasing interchange fees incurred by merchants in the United States. 

It is ironic that in a day and age when many businesses face possible extinction due to rapid advancement in technology that card payment systems like Visa and MasterCard continue to thrive and grow using magnetic strips embedded in plastic cards, which is a device closer to the bygone era of carbon copies than to advance technology. 

All merchants should applaud the populist pressure and Congressional efforts to confront this hidden tax on the economy represented by interchange fees.  It is important to note, however, that the problem is even greater for Internet-based merchants who have no choice but to accept payment cards and are captives to this system developed by the banks. 

Perhaps this is the reason that banks impose even higher interchange fees on internet merchants, who also often receive no payment guarantee.  That is why we, along with many other traditional merchants, both large and small, are leading efforts in the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee antitrust lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York to eliminate interchange fees and other abusive rules imposed on merchants. 

Hopefully, through our efforts, combined with those of other merchants, their customers and Congress, we can succeed in eliminating this abuse of market position by the banks and their card companies.

Sincerely,

Mitch Goldstone
President/CEO ScanMyPhotos.com

 Mr. Goldstone edits WayTooHigh.com, The Credit Card Interchange Report covering news and commentary on his battle against Visa and MasterCard

 Additional comments are posted on the NYT’s community forum website.

Banks Hike Up Their Fees (via CBS Evening News)

Watch CBS Videos Online
With mortgage defaults and unemployment still on the rise, big banks are still taking a beating on bad consumer loans. To offset those losses, banks are hiking up their fees. Anthony Mason reports.

Visa puts another $700 million in litigation fund

Via CNBC: Visa Inc., the world’s largest credit and debit card processor, said it has deposited $700 million into an account earmarked for litigation costs, a move that essentially acts as the repurchase of class B shares. Read more…

Recent Tweets

Collection of recent Tweets from @WayTooHigh. Follow us on Twitter

 

WayTooHigh: J.P. Morgan Chase reports 36% profit rise in second quarter

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WayTooHigh: RT @SandraHop: Retailers Prepare to Fight Credit Card Fees http://bit.ly/DL75z (expand)

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WayTooHigh: Visa: You Owe $23 Quadrillion (via NPR) http://ow.ly/horj

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WayTooHigh: RT @Fcheese3: Retailers Prepare to Fight Credit Card Fees.. http://digg.com/d1wwhb

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WayTooHigh: credit card issuers ADVERTISE to FORCE consumers to use plastic vs cash, then disassociate for taking responsibly for the surged in charges

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WayTooHigh: Andrew Martin’s NY Times interchange article DOESN’T mention ZERO interchange fees in some nations, 4 writing checks, PINbased ATM in Canada

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WayTooHigh: NYT article suggests MasterCard, Visa and CC issuers are fronting the rewards, MERCHANTs are paying extra for this perk http://ow.ly/hopH

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WayTooHigh: NYTimes article doesn’t explain why intl interchange fees are a 1/3rd and less than in U.S. http://ow.ly/hopn

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WayTooHigh: Andrew Martin at the New York Times has an article [“Retailers Prepare to Fight Credit Card Fees”] on interchange fees – http://ow.ly/hooY

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WayTooHigh: Treasury Department officials believe they will lose their entire $2.3 billion investment in CIT. (WSJ) #18000

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WayTooHigh: Sam Stein at the Huffington Post contributed reporting to this article on credit card interchange “swipe” fees – http://ow.ly/gVx4

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WayTooHigh: Noticing term “credit card interchange fee,” being described as “swipe fee.” Smart double meaning: swipe card and $ from consumers

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WayTooHigh: Not good news for small business financing and the economy: CIT says discussions with government have ceased, with no likelihood of support

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WayTooHigh: In ’08, U.S. paid over $48 billion in interchange fees, more than 2X what was paid in credit card late fees and 3x ATM fees

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WayTooHigh: The credit card interchange fee is the biggest credit card fee you’ve NEVER heard of, avg U.S. household paid $427 in SWIPE fees last yr

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WayTooHigh: Re merchant lawsuit, Visa has about $10bln in trust from banks to cover litigation costs http://ow.ly/gi2y (via Fortune) #18000

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WayTooHigh: Bank of America accused of anti-consumer practices (via Jonathan Stempel – Reuters) http://ow.ly/gbUY #18000

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WayTooHigh: scathing report about the state of credit card fees on businesses delivered http://ow.ly/gs64 #18000

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WayTooHigh: Way to go MasterCard! Charge customers up to ~30% merchants up to ~5%, yet you get 16% discount on legal settlement http://ow.ly/gs5k #18000

about 21 hours ago from HootSuite · Reply · View Tweet

 

WayTooHigh: @BankTechNews – Maria Aspan at Bank Technology News has profile on credit card interchange battle: http://ow.ly/gXHU

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WayTooHigh: I was asked by someone today to sum up the credit card interchange antitrust litigation. Very simple, it’s about illegal price fixing

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WayTooHigh: United Airlines (UAL) passing credit card fees to some travel agents, http://ow.ly/hi9c

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WayTooHigh: It takes unbridled greed by Visa, MasterCard and the credit card issuers cartel to continue raising “SWIPE” interchange fees in a recession

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WayTooHigh: Michael Moore’s new film about global corporate economic meltdown (“biggest robbery in the history of this country”) http://ow.ly/fR8n

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WayTooHigh: Mitch Goldstone reboardcast, KFI-AM interview re MasterCard, Visa credit card fees, gas prices (7/03/08, starts 4-min in) http://ow.ly/dyRR

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WayTooHigh: MASTERCARD says credit card interchange fees not, now, hidden, Can you figure out what each cost was? (115 pages) http://ow.ly/d6xa #18000

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WayTooHigh: RT @consumerist: 7-Eleven Asks Consumers To Help Fight Credit Card Companies [Interchange Fees] http://tinyurl.com/mhup5e (expand)

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WayTooHigh: scathing report about the state of credit card fees on businesses delivered http://ow.ly/d6nO #18000

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WayTooHigh: Did MasterCard, Visa credit card interchange fees put Starbucks on brink? Pushing people to use credit cards, pay micro-fees on sm chgs.

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WayTooHigh: Credit Score Shell Game: As High Scores Vanish, Borrowers’ Luck Runs Out (via Nancy Trejos Washington Post) http://ow.ly/ftsd #18000

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WayTooHigh: Case why credit card interchange fees should be FREE, follow our 1200+ prior postings since 2005 at http://www.WayTooHigh.com

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WayTooHigh: consumer anger about bank fees is adding momentum to the long-running merchant campaign against interchange http://ow.ly/gXGb

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WayTooHigh: ScanMyPhotos.com FORCED to accept Visa and MasterCard for our ecommerce business, as are most online companies, they wield 80% market power

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WayTooHigh: Later this month stay tuned for more profiles on ScanMyPhotos.com & we’ll be sure to mention our battle against Visa, MasterCard fees #18000

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WayTooHigh: technology has brought our cost to scan a photo from $5 to 5-cents, yet MasterCard and Visa keep raising their unjustfied interchange rates

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WayTooHigh: TARP Recipients Fighting To Keep Charging Exorbitant Credit Card Fees (via Huffington Post) http://ow.ly/gVvw

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WayTooHigh: million-signature petition campaign calling on Congress to reform unfair and excessive credit card transaction fees. http://ow.ly/gZRv

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WayTooHigh: Happy to see 7-Eleven® convenience store chain petition campaign against MasterCard and Visa credit card charges http://ow.ly/gZNi

 

WayTooHigh: Credit card rewards to become less rewarding (via Juan Lagorio, Reuters) http://ow.ly/gidv #18000

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WayTooHigh: Do something good today: Make someone laugh

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WayTooHigh: Sam Stein at the Huffington Post contributed reporting to this article on credit card interchange “swipe” fees – http://ow.ly/gVx2

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WayTooHigh: Controversies over credit card interchange fees (via Kimberly Schiller) http://ow.ly/h55u

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WayTooHigh: banks, credit card co’s protect key source of profits: credit card swipe fees (HuffPost) http://ow.ly/gVwc

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WayTooHigh: Disappinted. My local U.S. Congressman wrote op-ed in OC Register against health care (we cover 100%), yet Congress gets full coverage!

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WayTooHigh: RT @consumerist: 7-Eleven Asks Consumers To Help Fight Credit Card Companies [Interchange Fees] http://tinyurl.com/mhup5e (expand)

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WayTooHigh: When I sued Visa, MasterCard + its member backs for illegal price-fixing of credit card fees back in ’05, never imaginged power of Twitter

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WayTooHigh: RT @moneymender: 984 million bank-issued Visa & MasterCard credit & debit card accounts in the U.S in 2006. (Sources: Visa MC)

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7-Eleven®Launches Unprecedented Million-Signature Petition Campaign to Stop Unfair Credit Card Transaction Fees

6,300 Stores Participating across USA

Dallas (July 8, 2009) – In communities across America, 7-Eleven store owners and operators are undertaking an unprecedented, million-signature petition campaign calling on Congress to reform unfair and excessive credit card transaction fees.

Some 6,300 7-Eleven® franchisees, licensees and store operators in the U.S. are working to change the way credit card companies’ do business with retailers across the country and are taking their beef to the street – or in this case to their counters and customers.

Interchange fees are hidden fees to the consumer and are set privately by credit card companies and charged to store owners every time that a customer uses a credit card. Transaction fees squeezed American businesses and their customers to the tune of $48 billion in 2008 alone. On average, an American store owner will actually pay nearly twice as much in transaction fees as they earn in profits, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores 2007 State of the Industry data.

“7-Eleven stores are operated by franchisees who represent more than 6,000 small businesses on Main Streets and in neighborhoods across America,” said Darren Rebelez, 7-Eleven, Inc. executive vice president and chief operating officer. “This petition drive is a grassroots effort to get a fair deal, spearheaded by small business owners in the communities where they live and with the customers they serve every day.

“Interchange fees are hurting individual small business operators, which represent more than 75 percent of 7-Eleven stores in the U.S.,” Rebelez said. “Because more and more customers are using credit cards for small purchases, there are small transactions where the operator actually loses money. The fundamental challenge is that in most business relationships, both parties have the ability to negotiate, and in this case we do not. ”

The petition drive takes place at all of 7-Eleven’s U.S. stores, and a copy of the petition will be prominently offered for signatures at every check-out counter. At the end of the petition drive, 7-Eleven expects to deliver one million signatures to Congress, calling on them to stop credit companies from charging unfair, hidden transaction fees and to pass legislation empowering retailers to negotiate with credit card companies.

“We’re not asking for a bailout, we simply want to negotiate in good faith with credit card companies in the same manner we negotiate with thousands of our other business partners,” Rebelez said.

American consumers pay among the highest transaction fees in the industrialized world. An average of $2 out of every $100 Americans spend goes to transaction fees, and for many businesses, transaction fees are now their highest non-labor cost, growing even faster than health care costs. As other countries have reined in excessive transaction fees in recent years, and the actual cost of processing credit card transactions has gone down, Americans are now paying triple the amount in transaction fees they paid in 2001, reaching $48 billion last year alone.

Rebelez added, “In the convenience industry, credit card companies come out the winner making more than twice the profits of the industry in total. To date, we have been unable to convince these companies to come to the table to negotiate fair fees. In order to survive and stay in business, our franchisees and licensees plan to make a significant, collective statement with this petition drive. With this unprecedented effort, Congress will hear the message of 7-Eleven’s small business owners and our customers across the country loud and clear,” he said.

The 7-Eleven petition drive will continue through Aug. 10. At the conclusion of the campaign, the top signature-gatherers from each of 7-Eleven’s seven U.S. geographical divisions will be flown to Washington to personally deliver the signatures to Congress.

About 7 Eleven, Inc.
7 Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses approximately 7,800 7-Eleven® stores in North sales of more than $53.7 billion. For 15 consecutive years 7-Eleven has been listed among Hispanic Magazine’s Hispanic Corporate Top 100 Companies that provide the most opportunities to Hispanics. 7-Eleven is franchising its stores in the U.S., and is expanding through organic growth, acquisitions, and its Business Conversion Program. Find out more online at www.7-Eleven.com.

[source: 7-Eleven press release]

MasterCard: Legislation Would Let Merchants Keep the Benefits of Card Acceptance But Make Consumers Pay the Price

[source: MasterCard Worldwide press release, June 4]

Purchase, NY, June 04, 2009 – MasterCard said today that legislation introduced today by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), by exempting merchants from antitrust laws, would take away the fundamental protections that these laws provide consumers. This would result in less credit availability, along with higher prices and reduced benefits when Americans choose to use their credit or debit cards. Antitrust laws are designed to protect competition and consumers, but this bill would have the opposite effect.

Conyers’ legislation, H.R. 2695, would give merchants a special exemption from antitrust laws enabling them to engage in anticompetitive and collusive behavior when establishing the fees and terms applicable to accepting payment cards. The bill is part of an organized merchant campaign to shift their card acceptance costs to consumers, and does not require merchants to pass on any savings to consumers if they succeed in lowering these fees.

When similar legislation was considered last Congress, it stirred considerable controversy and was only narrowly approved by a deeply divided Judiciary Committee. In addition, a wide array of organizations from non-profits to community banks and credit unions to minority small businesses voiced their opposition. The Department of Justice also expressed concern about the bill indicating that its antitrust exemptions “would appear to be the type of naked collusion that the antitrust laws condemn as per se unlawful because such conduct lacks plausible benefits to competition.”

Experience demonstrates that consumers lose when merchants no longer pay their fair share for the valuable benefits they receive from accepting payment cards. This is precisely what happened in Australia when the government reduced interchange fees. Although it cut costs for merchants, many Australian consumers now pay more for their payment cards and receive less in return as a result of the government’s intervention. Furthermore, there is no evidence that merchants reduced prices for consumers as a result of the government’s intervention.

Both merchants and consumers benefit from the ability to use and accept electronic payments, and in today’s free market system, each pays a share of the cost of the service. The benefits and the cost of card payment services are now shared between merchants and consumers but the merchants behind the Conyers bill seek to retain the benefits while shifting the costs to consumers.

Finally, MasterCard noted that any serious discussion of these issues should wait for the results of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study ordered by Congress as part of the Credit CARD Act. Consumers stand to be severely damaged by government intervention and the findings of the GAO study may help avoid consumer harm that inevitably flows when merchants no longer pay their fair share for the benefits they receive.

NACS Applauds Re-Introduction of Credit Card Fair Fee Act

WASHINGTON — NACS applauded the reintroduction of the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act,” bipartisan legislation introduced today by House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Representative Bill Shuster (R-PA) that seeks to address the more than $48 billion that Americans annually pay in credit card swipe fees.

Similar to legislation introduced last Congress by Chairman Conyers and supported by NACS, the bill, H.R. 2695, seeks to help level the playing field for retailers by giving them a seat at the negotiating table with banks to determine the fees assessed for every sale made by credit card, and ultimately reduce the costs of everyday goods for consumers.

Credit card swipe fees — called “interchange fees” by the big banks that set these rates — are a percentage of each transaction that Visa and MasterCard and their member banks collect from retailers every time a credit or debit card is used. These fees average about 2 percent in the United States, the highest rate in the industrialized world.

In 2008, credit card fees cost U.S. convenience stores $8.4 billion — compared to only $5.2 billion in store profits, according to NACS data. Almost all of these credit card fees are attributable to credit card swipe fees.

Currently, credit card swipe fees are set in secret by the banks and hidden from view. Raising these fees is how Visa and MasterCard — which together control more than 80 percent of the U.S. credit card market — encourage banks to issue more credit and debit cards.

“We are delighted that Congress is taking a closer look at these outrageous fees on the heels of its reform of the credit card industry’s abusive lending practices,” said NACS Chairman Sonja Hubbard, CEO of Texarkana, Texas-based E-Z Mart Stores. “Now it’s time to address the rest of the credit card industry’s abusive practices.”

“Right now swipe fees are fixed by the banks, hidden from the public and forced on retailers in a take-it-or-leave-it offer,” said Hubbard. “The Credit Card Fair Fee Act would allow retailers and the card associations to negotiate on equal footing, and we applaud this bipartisan effort to make it happen,” she said.

Over the last several years, the public, consumer groups, the Federal Reserve and Congress have scrutinized unfair credit card practices, policies and fees. Swipe fees have been the subject of multiple hearings in both the House and Senate under both the Republican and Democratic Congresses, and the banking industry has intensely lobbied against any reform — something it continues to do.

“It is simply outrageous that the banking industry — which received hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bailout money — continues to spread fear and misinformation in their lobbying efforts,” said Hubbard. “The bottom line is that unless Congress fully addresses how credit card swipe fees are determined, and why they are set in secret and hidden from consumers, the banking industry will have free reign to establish higher rates and create new hidden fees that continue to punish Americans,” she said.

[source: NACS]

CBSNEWS.Com More Credit Card Rate Hikes

NRF Urges Senate to Pass Amendment to Credit Card Reform Bill Making Cash Discounts Easier

NRF Urges Senate to Pass Amendment to Credit Card Reform Bill Making Cash Discounts Easier WASHINGTON, May 12, 2009 – The National Retail Federation today urged the Senate to approve an amendment that would make it easier for retailers to offer discounts to customers who use cash or other low-cost forms of payment rather than credit cards that carry increasingly high processing fees. “Retailers should be able to offer discounts to their customers in any legal way they choose without interference from the credit card companies,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister said. “By reinforcing retailers’ ability to offer discounts, the Durbin-Bond amendment will directly help reduce the prices that consumers pay for goods and services.” Pfister’s comments came in a letter to members of the Senate, which is expected to vote this week on legislation that would block a number of abusive credit card industry practices such as applying interest rate increases retroactively to existing balances or “double cycle” billing, where interest charges are computed on outstanding balances from more than one billing cycle. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., plan to offer an amendment to the legislation that would make it easier for merchants to offer a discount to customers who use low-cost forms of payment. Current federal law allows merchants to offer a discount in such cases, but complicated credit card company rules make it extremely difficult to do so in practice. The Durbin-Bond amendment would add debit cards to cash and checks on the list of payments for which a discount can be offered, and would prohibit credit card companies from penalizing merchants for offering a discount, for the way in which they display discounts or for directing customers toward a discount payment option. The legislation would also direct the Federal Reserve to gather and publish information on credit card interchange fees, other credit card fees and rules governing them. “These rules are essentially hidden today,” Pfister said. “Both retailers and the public have a right to more complete information given the billions of dollars involved and the impact these fees have on the cost of everyday goods.” The amendment is aimed at credit card interchange, a fee averaging close to 2 percent that Visa and MasterCard banks charge merchants to process the transaction each time a credit card is used to pay for a purchase. Visa and MasterCard rules effectively require the fees to be built into the price of merchandise, driving up costs for all consumers regardless of whether they pay by cash, check or plastic. The fees totaled $48 billion in 2008 and cost the average household $427, according to NRF estimates. Both numbers are three times the levels seen when NRF began tracking interchange in 2001. The interchange fee varies from as little as about 1.5 percent to as high as about 3 percent, with “premium” cards offering rewards programs to the users carrying the highest fees. In addition to adding debit cards to the list of payments for which discounts can be offered, the Durbin-Bond amendment would allow merchants to offer discounts to customers who use low-fee credit cards rather than high-fee cards. The National Retail Federation 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, 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. www.nrf.com.  [source: NRF]

CREDIT CARD INTERCHANGE FEE, MERCHANT-DISCOUNT ANTITRUST LITIGATION CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT

Click here to view the consolidated complaint.

TWITTER: Follow @WayTooHigh Recent “Tweets”

WayTooHigh

1. Credit Executives Are Summoned To White House (via Nancy Trejos and Binyamin Appelbaum Washington Post) http://ow.ly/366Pabout 2 hours ago from HootSuite
       

2. Congress is trying to rein in other abusive credit card fees, but if they don’t address interchange, they’ll miss the biggest threat of allabout 5 hours ago from HootSuite
       

3. $2,100,000,000 Earned in JUST the 1st Q by JP Morgan Chase. How much derived from antiquated credit card interchange fees? http://ow.ly/33hmabout 5 hours ago from HootSuite
       

4. Q: Why hasn’t MasterCard, Visa, Chase, CitiGroup, BofA, etc… not been shut down for collusion and credit card price-gouging. A: Dunnoabout 6 hours ago from HootSuite
       

5. Inside The Campaign To Oust Bank of America’s Ken Lewis: Video – http://ow.ly/3d2fabout 7 hours ago from HootSuite
       

6. Look out: Credit cards unleash big rate hikes http://ow.ly/3d2Habout 7 hours ago from HootSuite
       

7. If mortgage rates continue to decline, interest rates being lowered, why are Visa and MasterCard’s credit card interchange fees soaring?about 7 hours ago from HootSuite
       

8. You know it’s a good day for consumers and retailers when Visa publicly expresses extreme disappointment: http://ow.ly/2DdOabout 8 hours ago from HootSuite
       

9. White House calls in credit card industry – http://ow.ly/3c5dabout 9 hours ago from HootSuite
       

10. Dow ends best 6 weeks since 1938 on econ hopes –about 12 hours ago from HootSuite
        

11. In another gesture to vulnerable consumers, the House and Senate could take up a credit card bill of rights bill. – http://ow.ly/3c53about 12 hours ago from HootSuite
        

12. Question for merchants: Credit card processing fees are too high because? Tweet your experience with interchange fees @wayTooHighabout 12 hours ago from HootSuite
        

13. Encouraging Credit Card Holders to Leave Should Result in Interchange Fee Refunds – http://ow.ly/3c3kabout 12 hours ago from HootSuite
        

14. RT @katbuilder: Fight back with banks on charging high bank fees!!about 12 hours ago from HootSuite
        

15. This Merchants Payments Coalition / UnfairCreditCardFees.com video explains why MasterCard and Visa are the new enemies http://ow.ly/2BH8about 14 hours ago from HootSuite
        

16. Visa / MasterCard’s long history of anticomptitive price-fixing corrupts smart biz thinking; the marketplace should control competition8:10 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

17. Some Bank of America credit card rates increasing: What you can do http://tinyurl.com/cm43o45:20 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

18. Q: How can banks (MasterCard / Visa) cite “competitive pressures” regarding need for soaring credit card rates? They own the Monopoly board!4:31 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

19. TARP-fed Banks Face Scrutiny on Credit Card Interest, Fees (USBanker) http://ow.ly/390O4:29 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

20. For balance, to represent the millions of merchants (consumers) at the White House credit card meeting consider inviting Mitch Goldstone4:03 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

21. We will be Tweeting non-stop on planned White House meeting on Thurs w/ credit card execs and URGE INTERCHANGE DISCUSSION http://ow.ly/38Q13:59 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

22. Peter Barnes, Senior Washington Correspondent at FOXBusiness reports on White House / credit card banking exec meeting – http://ow.ly/38Pt3:56 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

23. 4 Karey Wutkowski,Patrick Rucker at Reuters NOTE: Any White House meeting with credit card cos MUST discuss interchange = $60bln annual fee3:49 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

24. White House to meet with credit card execs-sources (Reuters) http://ow.ly/38Oi3:47 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

25. Dow ends best 6 weeks since 1938 on econonic hopes3:36 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

26. MasterCard increased its network access and brand usage fee from 0.5 cents per transaction to 1.85 cents, a 270% increase http://ow.ly/2LYl3:35 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

27. Companies encourage cell phone recycling as Earth Day approaches (only 10% of cell phones were recycled on ’07) http://ow.ly/2VOG3:25 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

28. Barclays Bank exclusive VISA Black card for THREE mln consumers = tool designed to generate HIGHER interchange fees http://ow.ly/2FAg2:50 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

29. Why merchants & consumers aren’t Tweeting, blogging support for Visa, MasterCard & bank credit card Interchange fees: http://ow.ly/2sjT2:50 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

30. Other credit card fee reforms are necessary, but don’t forget about the ~$60,000,000,000 interchange tax on businesses / consumers2:25 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

31. Did Visa and MasterCard create a non-competitive environment in which businesses cannot negotiate for lower interchange rates? #credit1:40 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

32. “A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks” (via Washington Post, Amit R. Paley) – http://ow.ly/2Gjq1:15 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

33. The credit card interchange fee is the biggest hidden tax (~$60 bln) you’ve never head of, until now: http://ow.ly/2XC712:50 PM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

34. Credit card companies are squeezing consumers in ways big and small – http://ow.ly/2R1o (consumer action)11:55 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

35. This Merchants Payments Coalition / UnfairCreditCardFees.com video explains why MasterCard and Visa are the new enemies http://ow.ly/2lwa11:40 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

36. RT @EFFIE325: @EVERYONE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES SHOULD BE GIVING PEOPLE SOME TYPE OF RELIEF INSTEAD OF RUINING THEM WRITE TO CONGRESS!10:53 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

37. RT @JeffCole53: …credit card companies are like crack dealers, they ruin people’s lives, and then want to sell them even more of the drug10:53 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

38. Avg. American household paid $427 in credit card interchange fees last year. Total interchange fee revenues have tripled since 2001.9:35 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

39. RT @geidas In addition to all the other fees, credit card banks charge merchants a 2% transaction fee on every purchase http://htxt.it/HTAW9:00 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

40. Anatomy of How Technology Should Reduce MasterCard and Visa’s Member Banks’ Credit Card interchange Fees – http://ow.ly/2HrO #congress #bank8:10 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

41. Congress can’t fix the financial services industry without reforming huge, hidden credit card interchange fees. #banking #congress8:05 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

42. “Pres Obama campaigned on credit card reforms, Fed ruled that their practices are unfair and deceptive” – http://ow.ly/368t (WashPost)7:53 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

43. Credit Executives Are Summoned To White House (via Nancy Trejos and Binyamin Appelbaum Washington Post) http://ow.ly/366N7:45 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

44. Retailers are waging a no-holds barred campaign seeking government regulation of card acceptance fees and interchange. http://ow.ly/2TnY7:45 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

45. Congress can’t fix the financial services industry without reforming huge, hidden Visa / MasterCard, member banks’ interchange fees7:45 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

46. Credit Card Execs Summoned to White House Meeting Next Thursday7:40 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

47. in 2008, Americans paid twice as much in interchange fees than in credit card late fees and three times ATM fees!7:30 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

48. Citigroup revenues neraly doubled to $24.79 billion in JUST the 1st Q. How much was derived from excessive credit card interchange fees?7:19 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

49. Merchant interchange fees cover reward points for credit cards; when banks force cardholders to close accounts, NO REFUND of paid rewards7:00 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

50. Merchants (consumers) are paying the interchange credit card fees, which includes funding reward points, but banks keep when accounts closed6:55 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

51. Financial Services Committee Chair, Barney Frank said curbs on credit-card “abuses” are among his panel’s priorities. http://ow.ly/2XAx6:50 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

52. More Reasons to Worry About Credit Card Companies (Morgan Housel, Motley Fool) http://ow.ly/2MsJ5:30 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

53. Retailers across the nation are calling for interchange independence UnfairCreditCardFees.com5:05 AM Apr 17th from HootSuite
        

54. innovations in electronic payments should increase effeciencies and lower fees, that’s how non-monopoly cartels work9:30 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

55. Ecommerce companies, like ScanMyPhotos.com and millions of others are forced to accept Visa and MaterCard; they wield 80% market power.5:50 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

56. Convenience store owners call for card-fee action http://ow.ly/33jT5:04 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

57. U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced a bill in the last Congress to prohibit these unfair credit card rules http://ow.ly/33j24:57 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

58. Undue profiteering’s in the (credit) cards (via Sean Flynn, Boston Herald) – #banking #mastercard #visa – http://ow.ly/33iM4:55 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

59. Can’t fix the economy and help small businesses without addressing the banks anticompetitive credit card interchange fees4:52 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

60. RT @jesserz: JP Morgan Chase…making billions while people lose jobs. Justice prevails!4:46 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

61. $2,100,000,000 Earned in JUST the 1st Q by JP Morgan Chase. How much derived from antiquated credit card interchange fees? http://ow.ly/33ha4:44 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

62. JP Morgan Chase, named defendant in our merchant antitrust class-action lawsuit against credit card cos reports 1st Q earnings $2.1 bln4:42 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

63. JP Morgan Chase – Earnings. Video (Bloomberg) http://ow.ly/33gG4:40 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

64. RT @krishutchinson: Wells fargo card activator just hung up on me because I wouldn’t join the credit protection program….4:37 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

65. RT @bostongal48: @waytoohigh EVERYTHING IS WAYTOO HIGH4:36 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

66. Merchants: Socked by Credit Card Fees They Can’t See http://ow.ly/2M1E. Follow along on our 4-year blog: http://www.WayTooHigh.com3:55 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

67. Using Twitter as forum to humanize and as advocacy channel in battle against Visa, MasterCard credit card fees #banks #credit WayTooHigh.com3:45 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

68. Visa and MasterCard’s fees MUST be stopped. Now that the U.S. Taxpapers own banks, interchange should disappear3:40 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

69. Visa and MasterCard, two ‘competitors’ announce price increases of nearly 300 percent at the same time in a recession? – http://ow.ly/2LYH3:35 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

70. NY Times: Small-Business Owners Lobby to Cut Credit Card Fees – http://ow.ly/2GqM #MasterCard #Visa #banking #credit1:45 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

71. Global economic recession worst since Great Depression, yet, banking credit card interchange fees still rising http://ow.ly/2Dl91:40 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

72. Little transparency for interchange fees that banks pay each other for each credit, debit card and ATM transaction made by customers.1:35 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

73. “Small-Business Owners Lobby to Cut Credit Card Fees” 9via New York Times, by JANE BIRNBAUM) http://ow.ly/2GkF1:20 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

74. “The Credit Card Fee That Will Fleece You,” cost of using charge cards overseas could add 5% to your purchase – http://ow.ly/2GhW1:05 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

75. Homeowners taking advantage of record-low mortgages, consumers benefit from lower interest rates, BUT, INTERCHANGE FEES AT RECORD LEVEL12:16 PM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

76. More info visit WayTooHigh.com – the credit card interchange report Lead plaintiff, ScanMyPhotos.com has 4+ yrs of data http://ow.ly/32pQ11:37 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

77. Seeking transparancy of Visa asnd MasterCard interchange rates. There is transparacy in Europe and AUS.11:36 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

78. Rules by Visa and MasterCard are more than 1700 PAGES. Can’t discount for cash, can’t surcharge. can’t print out on receipt the fees11:35 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

79. Tweeting on local and national small business leaders discussing the looming threat to economy by hidden credit card fees – interchange11:35 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

80. Fighting interchange fees as Visa and Mastercard continue to raise credit card merchant interchange fees payment expense up 800+% since 199511:32 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

81. Seeing D.C. support. Petro industry had $3.4 bln in profits last year. $7.6 bln in credit card fees.11:31 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

82. One PA family business saw $4.6 mln in credit card fees, $1.0 mln more than prior year. Fed Up with Visa and MasterCard11:30 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

83. Impact of uncontrolled crdit card fees on supermarkets and Main Street is devistating. Retailers are “madder than hell” at credit card cos.11:28 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

84. Interchange is a nationwide proble,. Supermarkets after tax profit is about 1-2%, thus LESS THAN COST FOR CREDIT CARD FEES = LOSS11:28 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

85. PA state wide trade assn is talking. Own about 6,000 stores in PA. Over past 5 years, members said interchaneg is fastest growing TAX11:27 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

86. POLAND ABOLISHED INTERCHANGE FEES. EU rate is about 0.30%. U.S. about 2.0% for credit card merchant interchange fees11:26 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

87. ONLY ABOUT 13% is used to cover COST OF INTERCHANGE electronic payment fees. U.S. pays HIGHEST RATE in WORLD11:26 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

88. Use your debit card with rewards benefit yields HIGHER INTERCHANGE FEES.11:25 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

89. WHEN YOU PAY CASH, low interchange fee card, FOOD STAMPS, CHECKS, cover high reward cards (signature affinity cards)11:25 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

90. When you write a check. NO INTERCHANGE FEE. Mercjhant, however only gets ~98% back from credit card fees11:24 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

91. CONSUMERS don’t know about interchange fees. About 2% per transactions. [about 100 separate rates].11:23 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

92. FIGHT against unfair credit card fees. Seeking legislative action. Credit card interchange fees HIDDEN.11:23 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

93. Taylor West intro: Lyle Beckwith, National Assn Convienence Stores (NACS) representing retailers nationwide11:22 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

94. Stand by for live Tweeting from NEWS CONFERENCE [ Pennsylvania Retailers Urge Rep. Gerlach to Take Action] #Mastercard #Visa #banking11:18 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

95. Retailers are pushing Congress to challenge the credit card industry’s little-known “interchange” fees, http://ow.ly/31Gn10:35 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

96. Apple is about to sell its 1 billionth iPhone app, but think of all those micro-payment credit card interchange fees on 99-cent orders!10:35 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

97. MasterCard, Visa and other bank card customers paid $14.6 billion in 2008 just in penalties http://ow.ly/2ODF10:20 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

98. @WayTooHigh will be Tweeting LIVE from today’s press event. #MasterCard #Visa #banking #charge #credit card #interchange #bank fees10:15 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

99. 11:15 (PDT). Today, April 16 at 2:15pm – Pennsylvania Retailers Urge Rep. Gerlach to Take Action http://ow.ly/324j9:50 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
        

100. Telephone Press Conference Calling on Rep. Gerlach to Stand with Pennsylvania Consumers and Small Businesses – Credit Card Fees9:49 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

101. Unfair and anti-competitive interchange fees are crippling businesses http://ow.ly/323J9:48 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

102. Local and national small business leaders will host a conference call with state reporters to discuss hidden credit card fees; interchange.9:47 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

103. Telephonic Press Conference, Thursday, April 16th, at 2:15 PM Eastern Dial-in number: 800-895-0198, Passcode: PENN**** http://ow.ly/323m9:46 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

104. It’s not often that the credit card industry faces a defeat in D.C. until now, watch video http://ow.ly/2FLz #charge #banks #TARP #antitrust9:45 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

105. Local Retailers Ask Rep. Gerlach to Stand With Them, Rein in Fees That Hurt Pennsylvania Consumers, Small Businesses http://ow.ly/323j9:45 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

106. RT @geidas: @WayTooHigh I’m doing a story on the fees. Dan Kelly, Reading Eagle, PA, can you contact me at dkelly@readingeagle.com.9:30 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

107. Growing List of Reasons to Lower and End Interchange Fees http://ow.ly/2DmH8:55 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

108. @WayTooHigh edited by Mitch Goldstone, pres & CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com. Blog launched in ’05 http://www.WayTooHigh.com http://ow.ly/2MeJ8:45 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

109. – Retailers cry foul on credit card fees http://ow.ly/31Gc –8:24 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

110. Bailed-Out Banks Face Probe Over Fee Hikes – MSNBC http://ow.ly/2Me27:40 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

111. retailers under intense pressure, interchange fees = credit card cos charge retailers every time a charge card is used http://ow.ly/2nWG7:05 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

112. Q: Why hasn’t MasterCard, Visa, Chase, CitiGroup, BofA, etc… not been shut down for collusion and credit card price-gouging. A: Dunno7:00 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

113. RT @marktzk: USAir is unilaterally canceling my BofA Visa miles card and issuing a Barclay’s Mastercard instead. Looking for a new card now6:32 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

114. Credit card-banking lobbyists, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Visa, Mastercard et al won’t like this: http://ow.ly/2M2T5:05 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

115. What’s wrong with credit card companies’ argument for higher interchange fees to fund frequent flyer rewards http://ow.ly/2MkU2:20 AM Apr 16th from HootSuite
         

116. RT @geidas In addition to all the other fees, credit card banks charge merchants a 2% transaction fee on every purchase http://htxt.it/HTAW8:50 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

117. Take a second to help out WayTooHigh! Vote for them on Twibs at http://tinyurl.com/dldx7v8:38 PM Apr 15th from web
         

118. Did you know that there are no electronic payment merchant interchange fees for check clearing?6:40 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

119. RT @NiamhD: I really hate when you check your bank account and the back have taken notified fees that you weren’t notified about…4:50 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

120. RT @crunchysue: @jnpdx The government is run by credit card companies, and is not trying to get us out of debt at all.4:28 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

121. RT @EFFIE325: @EVERYONE I’M ANGRY AT CREDIT CARD COMPANIES…THEY ARE RUINING ARE SCORES BY REDUCING OUR LIMITS PEOPLE COMPLAIN TO CONGRESS4:27 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

122. RT @SeanMiller: Does anyone else hate Bank of America? 8 Overdraft Fees? Now I’ve been on hold all morning. Sweet.4:26 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

123. @debs2005 – Like milions of retailers, ScanMyPhotos.com is forced to accept Visa and MasterCard (80% market power) 100% online biz is cc.4:25 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite in reply to debs2005
         

124. Question for retailers: Credit card processing fees are too high because? Tweet your experience with interchange fees @wayTooHigh4:22 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

125. We’re a real company that is fed up with credit card fees; behind the scenes at ScanMyPhotos.com. – http://ow.ly/2YDi4:18 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

126. Banks Hike Fees Despite Bailout Billions; Consumers and Congressional Panel Ask Why #mastercard #visa http://ow.ly/2M0U3:50 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

127. Credit Card, Bank Fee Hikes Spark Outrage (ALICE GOMSTYN, ABC NEWS Business Unit) http://ow.ly/2M0G3:50 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

128. NACS: New Credit Card Fees ‘Beyond Outrageous’ (National Association of Convenience Stores) http://ow.ly/2LY73:35 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

129. AARP Magazine: Protect Your Priceless Photos – Let a scanning company digitize your pics. It’s cheap and easy as can be – http://ow.ly/2YoL3:28 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

130. in 2008, Americans paid twice as much in interchange fees than in credit card late fees and three times ATM fees!2:55 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

131. “No rhyme or reason to credit card fees” [via Stephen Campbell, New Brunswick Business Journal] http://ow.ly/2Dk52:40 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

132. Watch What Congress Needs to Know About Interchange Fees (via http://www.UnfairCreditCard…) http://ow.ly/2Gpj #banking1:30 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

133. Where are the Pro-Interchange Fee Bloggers and Tweets? http://ow.ly/2GnF #charge #retail #economy1:25 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

134. Annual hidden credit card interchange tax on American consumers has skyrocketed from $25 billion to nearly $62 billion http://ow.ly/2Gkg1:20 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

135. good days for consumers and retailers when Visa publicly expresses extreme disappointment: http://ow.ly/2nKe1:20 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

136. with signs of global economic metldown, how are Visa, MasterCard, banks maintaining soaring merchant interchange fees? http://ow.ly/2GiE1:15 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

137. Visa Inc. Warns of Multiple Threats to F’09, Among the many risks = penalties related to litigation settlements http://ow.ly/2Gi91:10 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

138. Financial Services Committee Chair, Barney Frank said curbs on credit-card “abuses” are among his panel’s priorities. http://ow.ly/2XA312:36 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

139. Chris Dodd, chair, Senate Banking Committee, said banks were using lax rules to “gouge” customers http://ow.ly/2Xy112:34 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

140. Bank of America to Raise Fee on Credit-Card Transfers [Bloomberg, By David Mildenberg] http://ow.ly/2Xxl12:33 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

141. Credit Card Interchange Fees: Issues and Answers (Merchants Payments Coalition)12:27 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

142. About the Merchants Payments Coalition – http://ow.ly/2XqV12:13 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

143. Happy that credit card interchange issue is being noticed by Chris Dodd and D.C. helps establish his independence from banking industry12:08 PM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

144. RT @ThreeDegrees: I hate bank fees. #hate #bank11:55 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

145. Outrageous interchange fees cost Americans $2 for every $100 they spend – whether or not they use a credit card – http://ow.ly/2zQz11:00 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

146. RT @siriuslyheather: Damnit, how I hate bank fees! :((((((((((((9:50 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

147. The credit card interchange fee is the biggest hidden tax (~$60 bln) you’ve never head of, until now: http://ow.ly/2tDX9:20 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

148. Did you Know: The actual cost to transact an electronic payment is a tiny fraction of the total fees collected8:40 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

149. The credit card interchange fee = biggest tax you’ve never heard of. Nearly $2 of every $100 charged goes directly to credit card industry8:30 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

150. RT @highking1979: Credit Card companies have no business receiving bailout funds. They charge enough.7:07 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

151. Merchant interchange fees cover reward points for credit cards; when banks force cardholders to close accounts, NO REFUND of paid rewards6:50 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

152. Rescued Banks Not Passing the Bailout Onto Customers who face steep increases in rates (avg CC int rate up 12.4% – http://ow.ly/2VE36:48 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

153. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing if Bank of America Corp violated federal securities law http://ow.ly/2OBg6:10 AM Apr 15th from HootSuite
         

154. This is the top ranked link from @WayTooHigh mastercard and Visa Tweets: http://ow.ly/2M3510:05 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

155. RT @Whynatte: The US Airways flight attendant literally spent 15 minutes trying to sell a VISA card to passengers over loudspeaker.7:37 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

156. Retailers are waging a no-holds barred campaign seeking government regulation of card acceptance fees and interchange. http://ow.ly/2TnX7:34 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

157. RT @SuziB777 So they are saying the economy is coming back please tell my bus. bank account isn’t seeing any comebacks,,,, higher more fees7:29 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

158. RT @LotsaNews: [CNN][ Bank fees on the rise: CNN’s Mary Snow reports on growing anger over rising interest ra.. http://tinyurl.com/dkzd9c7:27 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

159. RT @DebtLawyer: Credit card companies are inclined to settle with card holders who are experiencing a genuine financial hardship.6:50 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

160. Barclays Bank exclusive VISA Black card for THREE mln consumers = tool designed to generate HIGHER interchange fees http://ow.ly/2FLj5:45 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

161. It’s not often that the credit card industry faces a defeat in D.C. until now, watch video http://ow.ly/2lw55:40 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

162. You know it’s a good day for consumers and retailers when Visa publicly expresses extreme disappointment: http://ow.ly/2DdJ5:30 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

163. not often that the credit card industry faces a defeat in D.C. until now, watch video http://ow.ly/2nKR4:20 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

164. Thanks to Twitter, retailers and consumers have instant updates in the war against Credit Card Cos; Visa, MasterCard and its member banks3:42 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

165. When Visa and MasterCard began, there wasn’t Twitter to provide instant updates on their anticompetitive price-fixing.3:40 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

166. Credit Card Companies Pushing Back Against Udall’s Reform Bill http://ow.ly/2SkX3:40 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

167. RT @ms_elyse: just watched this documentary on Showtime called Maxed Out about credit card companies and debt. Everyone should watch it3:37 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

168. RT @mikearama: @waytoohigh Credit card companies broken contracts http://tiny.cc/O57LE #credit #creditcards3:36 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

169. Capital One hiked customer rates that it once had guaranteed would forever remain at 4.9% fixed to 17.9% variable – http://ow.ly/2R1C2:55 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

170. in 2008, Americans paid twice as much in interchange fees than in credit card late fees and three times ATM fees!2:30 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

171. The credit card interchange fee = biggest tax you’ve never heard of. Nearly $2 of every $100 charged goes directly to credit card industry2:30 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

172. Merchants (consumers) are paying the interchange credit card fees, which includes funding reward points, but banks keep when accounts closed1:55 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

173. MasterCard: The Most Absurd Statement in the History of the Credit Card Industry? http://ow.ly/2Gnb #retail #ecommerce #banking1:25 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

174. Economic Crisis has no Pricing Impact on Interchange Fees #mastercard #visa #charge #bank http://ow.ly/2Gin1:10 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

175. If you’re a retailer paying credit card merchant interchange fees watch MAXED OUT – NOW ON DVD http://ow.ly/2GhB1:00 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

176. This Merchants Payments Coalition / UnfairCreditCardFees.com video explains why MasterCard and Visa are the new enemies http://ow.ly/2i3C12:20 PM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

177. Credit card companies are squeezing consumers in ways big and small – http://ow.ly/2R1a (consumer action)11:44 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

178. More college students run up credit card debt for tuition, books http://ow.ly/2R0N11:42 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

179. Mitch Goldstone, president & CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com (editor WayTooHigh.com) on Fox News (Jan 19) http://bit.ly/uYLAP11:05 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

180. “Visa, MasterCard, who continue to add on fees and rules… Stand Up to Big Banks, Fix Credit Card Interchange Fees!” http://ow.ly/2zQh10:55 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

181. Web100.com selected ScanMyPhotos.com (#16) for the Photo 100 list of the web’s best photography sites: http://ow.ly/2Oon10:05 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

182. RT @briana9: I hate Bank of America. 5 overdraft fees of $35/each in one day should not be legal!9:50 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

183. Merchants (consumers) pay interchange credit card fees, includes funding reward pts, but banks keep when accounts closed http://ow.ly/2FAp8:50 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

184. Barclays Bank exclusive VISA Black card for THREE mln consumers = tool designed to generate HIGHER interchange fees http://ow.ly/2FAf8:50 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

185. What exactly does “Interchange” credit card fees mean? – http://ow.ly/2Ahd8:40 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

186. Credit card-banking lobbyists, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Visa, Mastercard et al won’t like this: http://ow.ly/2D8Z8:20 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

187. RT @Denrael: Growing List of Reasons to Lower and End Interchange Fees http://ow.ly/2DmF (via @WayTooHigh)8:19 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

188. RT @mcmilker: @WayTooHigh Thx for the retweet on banks!8:19 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

189. RT @MortTwain: @WayTooHigh I just watched this video outlining credit card company abuses. Everybody should see it! Sharpen your pitchforks8:18 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

190. This Merchants Payments Coalition / UnfairCreditCardFees.com video explains why MasterCard and Visa are the new enemies http://ow.ly/2BH48:15 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

191. SEC reviewing if Bank of America violated federal securities law http://ow.ly/2OBb8:10 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

192. Congress can’t fix the financial services industry without reforming huge, hidden credit card interchange fees. #banking #congress8:05 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

193. Credit card companies won’t like this: http://ow.ly/2M2S7:05 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

194. Congress can’t fix the financial services industry without reforming huge, hidden Visa / MasterCard, member banks’ interchange fees6:45 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

195. DOUBLE TAXATION: MasterCard and Visa gift cards charge purchase fees ~$5.95 plus merchant pays interchange fees6:20 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

196. MasterCard, Visa and other bank card customers paid $14.6 billion in 2008 just in penalties http://ow.ly/2ODr5:07 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

197. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing if Bank of America Corp violated federal securities law http://ow.ly/2OB24:59 AM Apr 14th from HootSuite
         

198. Are Visa and MasterCard illegally fixing the fees charged to merchants who accept their cards? #banking #credit11:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

199. Did Visa and MasterCard create a non-competitive environment in which businesses cannot negotiate for lower interchange rates? #credit9:40 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

200. More bad news for MasterCard, Visa and the banking industry: Minnesota court ruled in favor of Al Franken in his 2008 Senate race9:20 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

201. NY Times: Small-Business Owners Lobby to Cut Credit Card Fees – http://ow.ly/2GqC #MasterCard #Visa #banking #credit8:45 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

202. This is the top ranked link from @WayTooHigh mastercard and Visa Tweets: http://ow.ly/2M348:05 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

203. “Massive cuts in idle consumer credit lines could equal hell for credit card processors like Visa and MasterCard” http://ow.ly/2Mt36:30 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

204. RT @thewuzz: i hate banks and stupid bank fees5:50 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

205. Growing List of Reasons to Lower and End Interchange Fees http://ow.ly/2DmF5:50 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

206. MasterCard increased its network access and brand usage fee from 0.5 cents per transaction to 1.85 cents, a 270% increase http://ow.ly/2LYg5:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

207. Non interchange. win 1 for the entrepreneur, ScanMyPhotos.com named #16 – Web100.com Top 100 photography-themed websites http://ow.ly/2MxZ5:27 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

208. “two-pronged battle sucking the life out of the credit card industry” http://ow.ly/2MtO5:23 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

209. More Reasons to Worry About Credit Card Companies (Morgan Housel, Motley Fool) http://ow.ly/2Mst5:20 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

210. Congratulations to United States Senator-elect Al Franken5:14 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

211. Good bye credit card Interchange Fees!!! Court ruled in favor of Al Franken, one less (R) Senator5:12 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

212. More bad news for MasterCard, Visa and the banking industry: Minnesota court ruled in favor of Al Franken in his 2008 Senate race5:10 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

213. Breaking News: Franken Declared Leading Vote-Getter in Minn. Senate Race5:09 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

214. What’s wrong with credit card companies’ argument for higher interchange fees to fund frequent flyer rewards http://ow.ly/2Mku5:07 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

215. @WayTooHigh edited by Mitch Goldstone, pres & CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com. Blog launched in ’05 http://www.WayTooHigh.com http://ow.ly/2MeD4:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

216. Visa and MasterCard, two ‘competitors’ announce price increases of nearly 300 percent at the same time in a recession? – http://ow.ly/2LYx4:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

217. Are Bank of America and Citicorp planning another fee hike and trying to get it done before the new legislation? Is it retroactive?4:30 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

218. Bailed-Out Banks Face Probe Over Fee Hikes – MSNBC http://ow.ly/2MdY4:28 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

219. Visa, MasterCard credit card interchange fees are excessive and abusive, but their 80% market power = don’t care4:05 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

220. Visa and MasterCard’s fees MUST be stopped. Now that the U.S. Taxpapers own banks, interchange should disappear3:50 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

221. Did you know, when you use your debit Pin-based card as a credit card, your funds are removed just as fast, and retailers pay MORE3:50 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

222. Q: Why hasn’t MasterCard, Visa, Chase, CitiGroup, BofA, etc… not been shut down for collusion and credit card price-gouging. A: Dunno3:46 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

223. Merchants: Socked by Credit Card Fees They Can’t See http://ow.ly/2M1C. Follow along on our 4-year blog: http://www.WayTooHigh.com3:44 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

224. Merchants: New Yorkers Socked by Credit Card Fees They Can’t See http://ow.ly/2M1u3:43 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

225. complaints about bank fee spikes have prompted the Congressional Oversight Panel to launch a probe into the issue.3:40 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

226. Banks Hike Fees Despite Bailout Billions; Consumers and Congressional Panel Ask Why #mastercard #visa http://ow.ly/2M0S3:39 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

227. Credit Card, Bank Fee Hikes Spark Outrage (ALICE GOMSTYN, ABC NEWS Business Unit) http://ow.ly/2M0y @WayTooHigh3:38 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

228. RT @MuchMoreThanMom: RT @tommytrc BoA Hikes Rates On Millions Of Credit Card Customers [Bank Of America] http://tinyurl.com/dkp5oe3:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

229. RT @loupnoir: Rt @CReporter RT @consumersunion: BofA coy about how many got letter re big credit card rate increase. http://bit.ly/3GNfqF3:34 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

230. Using Twitter as forum to humanize and as advocacy channel in battle against Visa, MasterCard credit card fees #banks #credit WayTooHigh.com3:31 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

231. innovations in electronic payments should increase effeciencies and lower fees, that’s how non-monopoly cartels work3:30 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

232. NACS: New Credit Card Fees ‘Beyond Outrageous’ (National Association of Convenience Stores) http://ow.ly/2LY23:21 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

233. U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, @SenChrisDodd, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is following @WayTooHigh3:15 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

234. David Buckner faints on Glenn Beck’s show – Fox Network News – Watch video. JUST IN… http://ow.ly/2LRi3:11 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

235. Banks are like drug dealers – they can’t resist Interchange profiteering; leading to billions in toxic creditcard debt : U.S. is bailing out2:40 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

236. Avg. American household paid $427 in credit card interchange fees last year. Total interchange fee revenues have tripled since 2001.2:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

237. Chase added a $10 monthly fee and increased the minimum payment from 2% to 5% for those who carry a large balance.2:35 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

238. Other credit card fee reforms are necessary, but don’t forget about the ~$60,000,000,000 interchange tax on businesses / consumers2:25 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite
         

239. “A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks” (via Washington Post, Amit R. Paley) – http://ow.ly/2Gjk #credit #banks #mastercard #visa1:15 PM Apr 13th from HootSuite

 

Why Credit Card Companies Full of Hot Air

 

A leading argument to sustain soaring merchant interchange credit card fees is to cover the cost of affinity reward programs.  The banks were passing along the frequent flyer reward costs to merchants, and thus consumers, who are the ones buying the merchandise.

Now that millions of cardholders are losing their accounts, those rewards are being terminated as well.  When a cardholder is delinquent on their credit card bills by even a day, they risk losing all their accumulated reward points as well.

Well, what is it?  If interchange fees are lowered, Visa and MasterCard’s argument is that consumers will have to pay higher fees. As it is, the banks are already raising rates, closing accounts and changing the terms with wanton disregard for their customers.

Where are the Pro-Interchange Fee Bloggers and Tweets?

In baseball, it is easy to keep score – look at the scoreboard.  In politics – read the polls.  But, for interchange fees, run by the banking cartel, there is little notice, other than those bi-annual fee “adjustment” letters.   As retailers continue battling against MasterCard and Visa – the two leading credit card associations with 80% market power and its member banks, it is also easy to keep score.

With nearly 1,300 postings on WayTooHigh.com– The Credit Card Interchange Report, we have yet to read any pro-interchange fee blogs that weren’t connected with the banking industry and their paid advocacy firms.  

Well, there is always that one “pro consumer,” “pro competition” group that “enjoys the financial support of Visa,” but that really shouldn’t count.  Where are the merchants championing 1.7% interchange fee rates, and challenging WayTooHigh.com?

Where are the U.S. retailers thanking Visa® and MasterCard® for charging among the highest rates in the world, while abroad, the interchange fees are 0.7%, 0.5% and even 0.0% – there are no interchange fee for debit PIN-based cards in Canada.

The reason for such silence?

Merchants understand they are being taken on a ride when cardholders present their affinity frequent flyer cards. The merchants, and thus the consumers are paying for these perks and the nearly $40 billion a year in interchange fees. Since we were the first to launch the merchant interchange litigation back in mid-2005, there have been no pro-interchange fee blogs that we are familiar with. That speaks volumes about our cause and the unfair fees.

Edited by Mitch Goldstone, president and CEO – ScanMyPhotos.com

Follow along on Twitter – Twitter.com/WayTooHigh

Watch What Congress Needs to Know About Interchange Fees

From UnfairCreditCardFees.com

“Visa, MasterCard Plan Processing Fee Hikes” (via CSN)

click here to read more.

From Convenience Store News:

WASHINGTON — New transaction fee rate increases announced by credit card companies Visa and MasterCard are slightly under 2 cents per affected transaction, yet are expected to raise more than $600 million in revenues, according to a report by DigitalTransactions.com

MasterCard will increase its “Network Access and Brand Usage Fee” April 17, from 0.5 cents per transaction to 1.85 cents—a 270 percent increase—while Visa will increase its “Acquiring Processing Fee” from 0.5 cents to 1.95 cents—a 290 percent increase, with additional fees possible, according to NACS—the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, which opposed the proposed hikes.

“This begs the question: How can two ‘competitors’ announce price increase of nearly 300 percent at the same time in a recession?” NACS Senior Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith said in a statement. “From what we’ve seen with credit card interchange fees, the answer is obviously that two competitors with excessive and abusive market power can do what they want.”

Merchant-acquiring experts expect merchants to bear the cost of these fees because acquirers will simply pass them through to clients. “The ones we’ve talked to aren’t too excited about it,” an acquiring executive, who asked for anonymity, told the Web site. “It’s one of the bigger fee hikes.”

In a statement Visa told DigitalTransactions.com: “Visa Inc. regularly reviews its pricing, as any business would, and makes adjustments where appropriate depending on such factors as the value delivered to clients and the need to be competitive. Over the years, Visa has become a symbol of international acceptance, reliability and convenience, based on its commitment to provide superior value to clients. These clients, in turn, are able to offer competitive products and services to their customers. Financial institutions set their pricing to cardholders and merchants.”

In 2007, credit card fees cost convenience stores $7.6 billion, with the largest component being credit card interchange fees, which are a fixed fee and a percentage of each transaction, according to NACS. These fees average 1.8 percent in the U.S., which has the highest interchange rate of any industrialized country.

“The credit card fees that U.S. retailers pay are outrageous,” Beckwith said. “These newly announced fee increases are beyond outrageous. At a time when small businesses are feeling the economic pain of the recession, it is unconscionable that Visa and MasterCard can give themselves their own ‘bailout’ by slapping 300 percent increases on their fees.”

Encouraging Cardholders to Leave Should Result in Interchange Fee Refunds

Another reason why interchange fees don’t make “cents” for consumers, but dollars for Visa, MasterCard and its thousands of [still solvent] member banks.

Part of MasterCard, Visa and its member banks’ argument in support of merchant interchange fees is to fund their marketing rewards programs.  Retailers are taken on a ride every time a cardholder receives “free” miles for electronic payment transactions.   This expense should not be the burden of merchants and cardholders, but an expense covered by the electronic payment networks and its member banks.

Today, we learn that charge card companies are encouraging some cardholders to terminate their relationship.  These credit card companies are providing cash incentives, but you may lose your accumulated membership reward points.  Default, delay a payment, or cash out, and you risk losing all those reward benefits, even those retailers were already charged for covering these spiffs.  If that is the case, shouldn’t the banks and card companies also refund the retailers for overcharging to cover these unused rewards?

Separately, as more information on Washington’s economic stimulus plan is analyzed, it is becoming clearer that entrepreneurs, which represent much of our nation’s innovations and economic strength is left out from benefiting by the cash infusions. One immediate way to jump start the economy is to force MasterCard, Visa and its member banks to terminate its merchant interchange fees.  Now that taxpayers own vast equity in the banks (which own nearly half ownership in MasterCard and Visa) this is the opportunity to require the banks to act now. 

This nearly $60 billion dollar expense accounts for nearly 1.7% of all sales when credit cards are used.  This plan would immediately return what in many cases is the difference between profits and losses back to retailers and American consumers.

Now that we own the banks, end merchant credit card interchange fees

During this unprecedented global financial meltdown , the United States and its citizens now own a sizable  share of major financial institutions.  The question is, why aren’t we demanding that our ownership stake in the banks force them to eliminate those unfair and anticompetitive merchant interchange fees?

To help win over credibility among merchants and consumers, the banks, along with MasterCard and Visa should be forced to move forward and reevaluate their long standing unbridled market power – every time a consumer uses an electronic payment credit or debit card.  We own the banks and we should be running them too.   

The crippled banking institution has achieved what MasterCard and Visa warned (about themselves) in their SEC IPO filings – they are becoming insolvent. The nearly $60 billion in annual merchant interchange fees and Visa and MasterCard’s merchant discount money grab must end and now is the time.

Think of what these billions in erroneous fees could do if put back in the hands of retailers and consumers, rather than funneled to Visa, MasterCard and its mismanaged member banks? 

The banks are failing us.  The government bailout proceeds are being blanketed to many far reaching overflowing pockets, like the scores of law firms that are battling millions of retailers over the merchant interchange fee antitrust litigation. It has now been about four years since launching the class-action antitrust litigation; millions of dollars have been spent to defend this unfair fee on Americans, but now that we are paying the bank’s legal fees and effectively suing ourselves, it’s time to draw more attention to and ask more questions.

[The U.S. government injected 45 billion taxpayer dollars into Bank of America and Citigroup, two of the named defendants in the merchant interchange litigation.  And, more than $400 billion to cover the banks’ losses – $60 billion would go a long way to cover these fees].

Wells Fargo CEO, John Stumpf Still Wasting Taxpayer Dollars

Over a span of four years, WayTooHigh.com has regularly been read and analysed by the credit card giants, its member banks, teams of legal council, and many others around the world.  This message should therefore get noticed.  It is one more review of the banks’ brazen market power and disconnect from its customers.

Today, Wells Fargo CEO, John Stumpf, invested a significant sum to buy a full page advertisement in the national edition of The New York Times.

How much did that cost?

Nice message, Mr. Stumpf, if you were paying for it, but, I paid for it!  Along with millions of other U.S. taxpayers, through the U.S. Treasury Capital Purchase Program, we covered your message that Wells Fargo employees are deserving of praise and recognition. 

Couldn’t you just have sent them an email or Twitter them?

It might have actually been less money to just send your “hardworking employees” to The Wynn Resort in Las Vegas [ “Wells Fargo Wants to Party, but Maybe Not,” NYT, Feb 3],  rather than paying for this ad. After all, the global economic catastrophe that you are partly to blame for, has one benefit, super cheap Vegas hotel rooms.  You could have sent about 300 employees to the Wynn Resort for two nights for what you (I) paid for this advertisement. Last month for CES, I stayed at The Encore – Wynn property in Las Vegas – for $169 a night, thanks partly to the banking industry’s mismanagement and destruction of our economy.  

You’ve come a long way from just being accused of illegally fixing the prices for the antiquated and nearly $60 billion annual merchant interchange fee gimmick of which Wells Fargo is a member bank and named defendant.

MasterCard Stock Up As Global Economy Decays?

MasterCard Inc (MA.N), the world’s second-largest credit card network, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, sending its shares up 4 percent in premarket trading.

[source, via Reuters, read more]

If You Thought The Madoff Scandal Was Large, Look at Visa and MasterCard Fees

Visa’s earnings are up 35%, when the global economy is depressed. The credit card giant even had a 17% increase in its revenues.  This at a time when merchants are going bankrupt and some of the credit card association’s member banks are defaulting or being nationalized by the U.S. Government, yet both credit card companies are shining.

Why?

During the past four years, along with many others, I have been exhaustively blowing the whistle and calling attention to the banks anti-competitive and illegal price fixing of the merchant interchange fees. As the nation looks for ways to remedy the fiscal crisis through tax refunds and billions in new spending, the best and most instant solution is to force MasterCard and Visa to end its unbridled market power and cease its interchange fees, which is nothing more than an antiquated pricing model that has little relevance today. The nation could instantly benefit by putting the nearly $60 billion in fees paid by U.S. consumers and merchants back into our pockets, rather than into the highly mismanaged and arrangant banks’ vaults.  Forget the banks’ Vegas trips and charter jets, look instead at the interchange fees for real savings. Redirecting the interchange fees and Visa and MasterCard’s collusive merchant discount fees could immediately help the economy recover.

After reading today’s House Financial Services subcommittee meeting with Harry Markopolos, a private fraud investigator from Boston, I was reminded why this case is so important.  Just as Mr. Markopolos blew the whistle nine years ago and nobody listened, I began blowing the whistle and calling attention to the illegal price fixing and anti-competitive credit card fees back in early 2005.  Today, the class-action litigation is nearing class certification and it remains as perhaps the largest antitrust litigation in U.S. history.

I see the role of the lead plaintiffs in this litigation as a cross between Erin Brokovich and Harry Markopolos, and we will prevail.

Credit Card Companies Vs. Merchants

There are just hours remaining until Visa, MasterCard and their member banks face a new administration in D.C.  To kick things off, this article was published today by Digital Transactions Magazine.   Let’s remember that this issue is all about illegal, anticompetitive price fixing and unbridfled market power. 

For other news on ScanMyPhotos.com, visit our “In the News” updates, including recent coverage and interviews on Fox Business News and USA Today.  See Twitter.com/ScanMyPhotos.comfor more updates too. We are expecting several local and one national network news program to broadcast our Inauguration Day events at our retail and  Irvine, CA location.

“Visa adds $1.1 bln to litigation fund” (via Reuters)

Excerpt.

Visa Inc, the world’s largest credit card network, said on Monday it set aside an additional $1.1 billion to cover legal expenses.

Before becoming a public company in March, Visa set aside $3 billion to cover lawsuits.

Under the terms of its initial public offering, Visa’s bank shareholders agreed to have their stake diluted to fund litigation in order to save other shareholders from direct losses from lawsuits in certain U.S. court cases.

Click here to read more

If You Thought Visa and MasterCard’s Fees Were Unfair…

Visa and MasterCard’s member banks have unfairly forced millions of merchants and America consumers to spend nearly $60 billion during the past year in unjustified and unfair credit card merchant fees.   In today’s highly advanced technological society, the interchange fees are as antiquated as were those manual credit card receipt imprinters.  

But, this is only the beginning.  Take a look at how easy the banks (which owned Visa and MasterCard – the two giant credit card associations with 80% market power) have it when securing billions more from us, the citizens who authorized the TARP $750 billion bailout. 

Click here to see if you too can get in on this extraordinary boondoggle.  Just rename your business as a bank holding company, or, add the name “Wall Street” as we did in parody.

The following is the actual application.   If you thought it was easy for Visa and MasterCard’s member banks to wield their monopolistic power and force retailers and consumers to pay about 1.7% for most electronic payment transactions, look at this.  It seems that applying for a charge card with your local retailer demands more questions and due diligence than this.   It will take you longer to fill out this standard auto lease areement, than the below application, unless you have an “authorized designee” who can do it as your proxy.

Application for TARP Capital Purchase Program (CPP)

Please complete the following information and follow the submission instructions as described

on your Federal banking agency’s website. In addition to completing the information on this

form, please provide a description of any mergers, acquisitions, or other capital raisings that are

currently pending or are under negotiation and the expected consummation date (no longer than

1 page).

In the event the applicant files an application with the appropriate Federal banking agency

prior to the availability of the investment agreement, the applicant must file an amended

application which includes updated responses to any items in the application that required prior

review of the investment agreement.

Institution Name:

Address of Institution:

Primary Contact Name:

Primary Contact Phone Number:

Primary Contact Fax Number:

Primary Contact Email Address:

Secondary Contact Name:

Secondary Contact Phone Number:

Secondary Contact Fax Number:

Secondary Contact Email Address:

RSSD, Holding Company Docket

Number and / or FDIC Certificate

Number, As Relevant:

Amount of Preferred Shares

Requested:

Amount Of Institution’s Authorized

But Unissued Preferred Stock

Available For Purchase:

Amount Of Institution’s Authorized

But Unissued Common Stock:

Amount Of Total Risk-Weighted

Assets As Reported On The

Holding Company’s Or Applicable

Institution’s Most Recent FR-Y9,

Call Report, Or TFR, As Relevant:

Institution Has Reviewed The

Investment Agreements And

Related Documentation On

Treasury’s Website (Yes/No):

Describe Any Condition, Including

A Representation Or Warranty,

Contained In The Investment

Agreements And Related

Documentation, The Institution

Believes it Cannot ComplyWith By

November 14, 2008 And Provide A

Timeline For Reaching

Compliance

 

Type of Company:

 

Signature of Chief Executive

Officer (or Authorized Designee):

Date of Signature:

 

 

Crude closes at $36.22 a barrel, down 59% this year

The Federal Reserve  lowers interest rates to near zero, oil prices plunge 60% in under a year, Chrysler shuts all its U.S. plants for 30-days, yet merchant interchange rates and Visa and MasterCard’s discount fees stay sky high.  Why?

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

“VISA AND MASTERCARD: Antitrust regulators take a look” (via STLtoday.com)

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., the world’s largest credit card companies, said U.S. antitrust enforcers are investigating their policies that bar merchants from charging extra to customers who pay with cards.

The companies disclosed in separate filings this month with the SEC that the Justice Department has demanded information on the merchandising rules. American Express Co. also disclosed that it received a similar demand.

[source: STLtoday.com]

 

Economic Crisis has no Pricing Impact on Interchange Fees

Just as the big three U.S. auto manufacturers were blinded on Thursday by cupidity for not flying commercial, or even driving in electric cars to showcase their future car designs and frugality when they met Congress, Visa and MasterCard are also aloof with phantasm.

Reality 

• The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is at its lowest point in eleven years, losing more than 50% since its peak.
• Crude oil is down 66% from its peak – a record high last summer of $146 a barrel.
• Even Citigroup (a named defendant in the merchant interchange litigation) is down. Yesterday, its stock fell nearly 30% and is now trading under $4 a share – the high was more than $35 during the past 52-weeks.
• Seemingly, everything is falling, even the staffing count at Citigroup, which is firing nearly 53,000 employees. J.P. Morgan Chase, another named defendant, is cutting nearly 2,000 jobs or 4% of its work force.

According to the WSJ, “[t]he Dow is off 47% from last year’s record, its heaviest decline since the bear market of 1937-1938, when it fell 49%. It is down 43% for the year so far. If it doesn’t improve, that would make this the second-worst yearly pullback since it was launched in 1896. The worst was 1931, when it fell 53%.”

The point is, with clear signs of a global economic depression, how are Visa, MasterCard and its member banks maintaining soaring merchant interchange fees? When the two leading credit card trade associations went public, both warned in SEC filings that they could become insolvent if the interchange litigation was successful. Who would have though that some of its member banks have or are facing this dire reality for a similar reason – executive mismanagement and greed?

As retailers and ecommerce businesses like us at ScanMyPhotos.com prepare for “Black Friday,” “Cyber Monday” and the holiday season, this is the moment when Visa and MasterCard must be held accountable and forced to address the ominous market conditions and explain their collusive pricing schemes – which impacts all merchants and consumers with a record nearly $60 billion annual interchange fee that few understands and is no longer based on cost-based reality.  It is the last holdout.  Today, these fees are no longer cost-based or associated with the cost to transact electronic payments in today’s high-tech and super-efficient technology world.  Interchange fees, in my opinion, are based on pure market power and cartel-like monopoly domination.

“A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks” (via Washington Post)

Excerpt, by Amit R. Paley, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, November 10, 2008; A01. Click here to read more

 

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

Section 382 of the tax code was created by Congress in 1986 to end what it considered an abuse of the tax system: companies sheltering their profits from taxation by acquiring shell companies whose only real value was the losses on their books. The firms would then use the acquired company’s losses to offset their gains and avoid paying taxes.

Lawmakers decried the tax shelters as a scam and created a formula to strictly limit the use of those purchased losses for tax purposes.

Lawmakers decried the tax shelters as a scam and created a formula to strictly limit the use of those purchased losses for tax purposes

The Treasury notice suddenly made it much more attractive to acquire distressed banks, and Wells Fargo, which had been an earlier suitor for Wachovia, made a new and ultimately successful play to take it over.

The Jones Day law firm said the tax change, which some analysts soon dubbed “the Wells Fargo Ruling,” could be worth about $25 billion for Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo declined to comment for this article.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member on the Finance Committee, was particularly outraged and had his staff push for an explanation from the Bush administration, according to congressional aides.

[source: Washington Post, Nov 10]

Visa and MasterCard Responds to Global Recession by Maintaining High Merchant Fees

When it comes to Visa and MasterCard’s nearly $50 billion annual hidden tax on Americans, they are in a world all unto themselves.

The economic realities of a global recession and market meltdown is universal, yet retailers are not seeing any real relief from the fees we are forced to pay the banks and those “discount” fees to Visa and MasterCard.

Heck, even OPEC and its cartel-commandeering of gas prices were forced to lower their fees – and big time!  The housing industry is in turmoil, auto manufacturers and car dealers are hemoraging and gas is less than half the cost from just a few months ago, yet interchange fees are stubbornly high.

In the past few months, oil prices have dived below a (once whopping) $70 a barrel; in the past few months crude prices have lost more than half its value.

These are huge numbers. Consumers are buying less and everyone is impacted, even OPEC. Then there is Visa, MasterCard and its member banks and their unbridled greed. They have the market power and strength to collude and fix prices – Visa and MasterCard control about 80% of the credit card business.

The world is hurting and the two giant credit card associations and its thousands of member banks are doing nothing about it, or so it seems. They are artificially keeping those rates at record levels. Why exactly do merchants in the U.S. pay nearly three times other industrialized nations’ interchange fees?

The recent victory by Discover Financial Services, literally on the courthouse steps, flaunts the card associations’ impudence and disregard.  Price fixing, unfair fees and scorn for their customers are a hallmarks for Visa and MasterCard.

Oil price declines are just another example of how powerful the banks are, and just how remorseless they are by protecting their mighty credit card fee scheme.  It seems that they do not care and instead want to milk consumers and merchants for every penny, up to the last minute.

In July, when oil prices peaked, the interchange fees were still at near record levels. Technology, efficiencies and now, the global economic crisis is having no impact on the fiefdom enjoyed by the banks.  Perhaps as the Federal government nationalized the banks, they will demand that their “partners” seize upon this opportunity to review their interchange fees?

After all, the U.S. government is also a player in the merchant interchange battle – they pay millions each year in fees when people charge with credit and debit cards for services and products sold by the government.

In an earlier WayTooHigh.com posting, I quipped that a barrel of gas would more likely fall to $50 than interchange fees be lowered. {who would have known?]  Interchange fees are the cost that merchants are forced to pay to the banks, and in turn to Visa and MasterCard though a not-very “discount” fee.

“Discover Settles Visa, MasterCard Antitrust Lawsuit ” (via Bloomberg)

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Discover Financial Services, the fourth-biggest U.S. credit-card company, reached a settlement with larger competitors Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. of an antitrust lawsuit that was scheduled to go to trial today.

The accord, reported over the telephone by a clerk to U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan, came as jury selection was to begin in a trial over alleged efforts by Visa and MasterCard to stifle competition. Discover sought as much as $18 billion in damages from its rivals. The clerk, who declined to be identified, said she was unaware of the settlement amount.

Jones had ordered Visa and MasterCard in 2001 to stop forcing banks to choose between their cards and ones from Discover and American Express Co. Her order came after the Justice Department sued the credit card giants for antitrust violations. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the decision on Oct. 4, 2004. Discover sued the same day.

Discover, based in Riverwoods, Illinois, wasn’t to be the sole beneficiary of the settlement. As part of a spinoff from New York-based Morgan Stanley in June 2007, the card company agreed to pay its former parent the first $700 million recovered, or 22 percent of the bank’s net income of $3.2 billion last year.

Declined to Comment

MasterCard spokeswoman Sharon Gamsin declined to immediately comment. Discover spokeswoman Leslie Sutton declined to comment. Visa spokeswoman Denise Dunkel didn’t immediately return a call. Discover rose $1.20 to $11.80 at 10:10 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. MasterCard rose 81 cents to $174.41. Visa fells 61 cents to $58.26.

Morgan Stanley was also to receive half of any settlement proceeds above $1.5 billion, up to a maximum of $1.5 billion, according to regulatory filings.

Pretrial rulings in Discover’s favor and the potential size of the final award may have prodded Visa and MasterCard into settling.

Jones had said she would tell the jury that Visa’s and MasterCard’s rules were illegal restraints on trade. Jurors were then to decide whether Discover was harmed by the practices and by how much.

Visa, based in San Francisco, is the largest credit-card company, with 51 percent of the U.S. credit- and debit-card market last year, according to the Nilson Report, which tracks the card industry from Carpinteria, California.

28 Percent

MasterCard, based in Purchase, New York, accounted for 28 percent, the report said. It’s the second-largest. New York-based American Express is third with 17 percent, according to the newsletter. Discover’s share was 3.8 percent.

The value of U.S. credit card purchases was $2.17 trillion in 2007, up from $426 billion in 1993.

Visa has agreed to pay the bigger share of any verdict of settlement, primarily based on relevant business volumes, MasterCard and Visa said in second-quarter filings.

American Express, which sued separately, settled for $1.8 billion from MasterCard in June and $2.25 billion from Visa and its bank partners last year.

[source: Bloomberg]

Visa and MasterCard’s Roadmap to Bankruptcy?

A strange event played out after Visa and MasterCard collectively warned in their respective SEC IPO filings that if the merchant interchange litigation was successful, both credit card associations risked “insolvency.”Who would have thought?To protect themselves from bankruptcy, banks are facing shotgun mergers with other named defendants. The financial institutions spent millions, not just on lavish parties, but in protecting their credit card pricing schemes (with today’s ultra tech-advanced efficiencies, these fees are largely unnecessary). Law firms are making millions representing the banks. Some are growing their entire operation, hiring staff and enjoying the benefits of their representation. Are their shareholders watching?  During the past year, $8.3 trillion in shareholder wealth has been lost, so the once huge interchange fee boondoggle isn’t looking nearly as grand as before.  However, it is still something that much be addressed, especially now as we face a global crisis of confidence in the banking system. 

The rational for merchant credit card fees is mostly obsolete today.  It was designed to be cost-based – to cover the four-party electronic payment network back when we had manual charge card receipts.  The fees keep growing, even though efficiencies keep declining.  Many other nations understand that whether the forced merchant credit card fees are .50% or .70 %, the rates are unfair and too high; the average merchant interchange credit card fee in the U.S. stands at about 1.70 percent.

This nearly $50 billion annual credit card fee scheme seemed like a hefty chuck of change. But, now that banks are facing billions in lost market capitalization and disdain from American consumers, they have even larger worries.The public’s unrestrained infuriation with the banks is just as vast as are the nation’s retailers. The approval ratings for the banks, and by proxy, Visa and MasterCard’s market power and alleged price fixing are getting as low as are their plunging Moody’s ratings. It is even getting to the point that the scorn against the banks and credit card companies are more humiliatingly low then even the anemic approval rating for outgoing President Bush.  Presidential candidate John McCain and his cozy relationship with the banks and call to support them at the expense of consumers will be no better.

Back in 2005, which I was among the first to file a Federal antitrust complaint against Visa, MasterCard and its member banks, the battle was much simpler. Today, the banks are fighting for their future. They are at risk of being seized by a Federal nationalization of their operations. Visa and MasterCard are facing their own profound disgust for their business model, control of Washington legislators and lead cause for harming American families facing financial disaster.

It is turning out that what appeared like an ocean-sized legal challenge for the banks, Visa and MasterCard, has become diminutive in comparison to their larger hurdle and fiscal afflictions brought on by gross mismanagement, greed and un-American pursuits. Maybe Visa and MasterCard’s lawyers knew something when they cautioned that if the merchant interchange antitrust class-action litigation is successful their clients will also face bankruptcy.

—————————

News Alert: Paulson gives new detail of bank ownership plan

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday gave some new details of the emerging plans by the federal government to inject capital directly into a “broad array” of financial firms. In a statement after the G7 meeting, Paulson said that officials are working on a “standardized program that is open to a broad array of financial institutions.” The plan is to attract private capital to complement the government’s funds, he said. Paulson went out of his way to say existing shareholders would be protected, saying the government would only make the purchases through a “broadly available equity program” without any voting power, “except with the market standard terms to protect our rights as investors.

 

 

Along the way, thousandsof its member banks reaped millions. They glamorized 

their balance sheets, which is now spiraling downwards.  They tried to dodge legal liabilities as they unloaded part of their Visa and MasterCard vault. These member banks mutually controlled the giant credit card networks, some are now facing their own insolvency and government intervention.

“Battle Cry Against Credit-Card Fees” (via CSP)

Industry making progress in interchange fight, said Armour; Oneslager on advocacy

CHICAGO — “There has been no bigger battle and no more important one than our fight to reduce the outrageous credit-card fees that we pay,” said NACS president and CEO Hank Armour during the NACS Show 2008’s Opening General Session. And, based on the progress made and the pressure the industry continues to put on the issue, “2009 looks to be the watershed year in which we may finally get significant relief,” he added. “This is the biggest issue that our industry has faced in decades, and we’ve taken it head on,” said Armour. “With the tremendous help and support of many of you, we made a lot of progress this year.” The Credit Card Fair Fee Act was successfully passed out of the House Judiciary Committee (H.R. 5546), and the legislation was also introduced in the Senate (S. 3086), he said.  “We obviously have the credit-card companies’ attention,” said Armour, referencing some of the public relations stunts that Visa and MasterCard attempted this summer to deflect attention away from the issue of interchange. “While Visa and MasterCard claim they have fixed the problem, they haven’t. The only thing they fix—and they continue to do so—is the price.”  “Honestly, advocacy was never one of my passions,” confessed Balmar Petroleum president and NACS 2007-08 NACS chairman Richard Oneslager during his NACS Show Opening General Session address. “But advocacy is one of my passions today, and for one simple reason: Credit-card fees are destroying our industry.”  Oneslager introduced attendees to a credit-card fee “ticker” that will run throughout the NACS Show, a physical manifestation of what the industry’s $7.6 billion paid in credit-card fees in 2007 looks like per second. Just a few minutes into his presentation, the ticker already topped $100,000.  Despite challenges over low gas margins and high credit-card fees, Oneslager said that the convenience and petroleum industry is poised for continued success because it delivers what consumers want. “We offer them convenience. We save them time. We simplify their lives. We offer them comfort,” said Oneslager. “That is why we are well positioned, in good times and bad.”  Two areas, in particular, present retailers with opportunity, said Oneslager. Foodservice, when executed well, can help many retailers make up for poor motor fuel margins and redefining why people come to our stores. And there is a growing importance of what he called the “refreshment shopping occasion.” Today, nearly 40% of the industry’s gross margin dollars come from beverages—whether packaged beverages, beer or dispensed beverages, particularly coffee.  “I joined NACS because of the value I saw in gaining knowledge—such as what the hot growth categories are—and making connections with other retailers experiencing the same challenges I face,” said Oneslager.  But, he stressed that advocacy is essential. “I would be letting you down, not fulfilling my duty as chairman, if I let you walk out of here today with the belief that running a good business, paying NACS dues, and attending the NACS show is enough. It’s not,” he said. “We are in a battle for our future [with credit-card fees], and it requires all of you to rise up and take action,” he added.  Changing the existing situation with the credit-card companies “will require you to take action,” he stressed. “We are not going to be able to outspend the credit-card companies, so we are going to have to outwork them. Like many of you, I always came to the NACS Show to take things—to take a look at new products and services, and take home ideas that can grow,” added Oneslager. But as more retailers get engaged in advocacy, “you will allow us to take control of our own destinies. And that is the most important takeaway of all.”  The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) is the international association for convenience and petroleum retailing, representing more than 2,200 retail and 1,800 supplier member companies. The U.S. convenience store industry, with more than146,000 stores across the country, posted $577 billion in total sales in 2007, with $408 billion in motor fuels sales.

[source: CSP]

RBA press release

The banks and the credit card industry constantly cited Australia as an example of how dangerous it might be to let Americans control a bit more of their own money as well as do something tangible for small merchants especially those on the margins who sell food and gas.   

The below RBA press release is powerful and certainly refutes, in particular, a MasterCard financed study claiming the sky was falling due to interchange reforms.   This is one of the biggest reports yet challenging what the banks claim. 

Australians pay now a ¼ of what we pay in the States.   The incidence of credit card use there is actually higher than in the US, even though the credit card industry says that Australia is a disaster, dangerous to the card networks, businesses, and consumers.  Yet, that nation spends so much money and effort to stay in the marketplace.   Why not walk if interchange reform has destroyed the business model?   

From the below news release: “In the Board’s view, the reforms have significantly improved competition in the Australian payments system. The reforms have liberalised access and removed restrictions on merchants that had weakened competition in the system. They have also increased transparency and have led to more appropriate price signals to consumers.”

Reserve Bank of Australia, press release, September 29, 2008

  

---

 

This is the press release by Reserve Bank of Australia

Published September 29, 2008
https://www.theasianbanker.com/A556C5/Update.nsf/0/1DF7ED6A2DD68CF5482574D30006AEE5?Opendocument

Reform of Australia’s payments system: 2007/08 review

The Reserve Bank has released the conclusions of the extensive review of the payments system reforms undertaken by the Payments System Board.

In the Board’s view, the reforms have significantly improved competition in the Australian payments system. The reforms have liberalised access and removed restrictions on merchants that had weakened competition in the system. They have also increased transparency and have led to more appropriate price signals to consumers.

These improvements in competition have allowed the Board to consider stepping back from the regulation of interchange fees. However, the Board is only prepared to do so if industry participants take further steps to reduce the risk that deregulated interchange fees in the credit card systems would increase from current levels. This reflects the Board’s ongoing concern that, despite the improvements over recent years, the competitive forces acting on interchange fees remain relatively weak.

As outlined in the Board’s Preliminary Conclusions released in April, the competitive environment would be further improved by: changes to the EFTPOS system to improve its ability to compete effectively with the international card schemes; further modifications to the honour-all-cards rules to allow merchants to make separate acceptance decisions for any card for which there is a separate interchange fee; and greater transparency regarding the various fees levied by the card schemes.

The Board’s concerns regarding the potential for credit card interchange fees to rise in the absence of regulation could also be addressed by the schemes providing a commitment to limit their average interchange fees to current levels (0.5 per cent of the transaction value). This possibility was raised during the consultation process and the Board is prepared to consider this approach. If such a commitment were forthcoming, the benefits from the above modification to the honour-all-cards rules would be reduced, and accordingly the Board would not see a need for this change to be made.

A final decision will be made in August 2009. If at that time the Board judges that insufficient progress has been made, interchange regulation will be retained. As discussed in the Preliminary Conclusions, if this were the outcome, the Board’s current thinking is that the benchmark for credit card interchange fees would be reduced from its current level of 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent. In the EFTPOS and scheme debit systems, the Board is proposing that the weighted average of interchange fees be constrained to be between 5 cents paid to the issuer and 5 cents paid to the acquirer. This would provide the systems with additional flexibility to that in the original proposal, while ensuring that the same regulatory framework applies to all debit card systems. If regulation of interchange fees were to continue, the Board would not require further modifications to the honour-all-cards rules to allow separate acceptance decisions for any card with a separate interchange fee.

In addition to its conclusions on the regulation of interchange fees, the Board has also concluded that:

• there is no case for allowing the schemes to reimpose no-surcharge rules on merchants;
• the current modification to the honour-all-cards rules, allowing separate acceptance decisions for scheme debit and credit cards, will remain. In addition, the Board encourages the schemes to permit merchants to make separate acceptance decisions on pre-paid cards and to ensure that interchange arrangements do not discriminate against merchants who do not accept all cards. The Board would consider regulation in these areas if this were necessary; and,
• further transparency of scheme fees and average interchange fees will be required. The Bank will continue to discuss with industry participants how this might best be achieved.

Visa and MasterCard’s Perfect Storm

If you didn’t trust Visa and MasterCard’s member banks before, just wait. 

I wonder whether anyone can score a lower approval rating than Congress – hovering at a paltry 10 percent?    The banks, along with Visa and MasterCard must be among the most despised entities in the nation. 

Poll anyone whether they trust the banks now.  

How about asking American’s how they feel about the credit card associations’ merchant interchange fee pricing schemes? 

WayTooHigh.com has more than 1,100 prior postings, spanning more than three-and-a-half years.  We will continue the battle and draw attention to this issue.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard International’s Insolvency

A funny thing happened on the way towards justice over Visa and MasterCard’s alleged price-fixing collusion charges.  The anxiety faced by the two leading card associations and its thousands of member banks turned into a temporary distraction when many banks failed due to other pricing schemes. 

Three-and-a-half years ago, when I became part of the first antitrust class action filings against Visa, MasterCard and its member banks, things seemed pretty calm. Millions of merchants knew that the credit card associations violated the law and illegally fixed prices and used their cartel-like market power to dominate.  With treble damages, the potential financial liability amounted to anywhere north of $300 billion.  That was a great deal of money.  Visa and MasterCard warned that if they were found guilty, they risked insolvency.

How the financial markets and the world has changed.  Many of the banks named as defendants are no more.  Even big investment banks and brokerage firms have been bailed out or closed down.  Some of the giant financial institutions were nationalized by the government, bought at fire sale prices or actually became insolvent and declared bankruptcy.  Many of the regulations that were designed to preclude such a meltdown are the same types of antiquated policies that enable MasterCard and Visa to maintain their market power and charge fees that are unfair in today’s high tech world, where electronic transactions should move at lightening fast speed and cost next to nothing to process.

Who would have thought that what was a mighty complaint became dwarfed in size? 

Today, Republicans are calling for the head of the SEC, supporting nationalization of a major industry, seeking to plunder another $700 billion and more to bail out what they knew all along was a slow motion car crash.  Less regulation and oversight was their mantra. 

The question is with the Credit Card Fair Fee Act and the Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation threatening to force MasterCard, Visa and its member banks to give up billions in unfair fees, what is the government doing now?  Will they wait until even more money is wasted?  Joining millions of retailers, I understand that through illegal antitrust price fixing, the nearly $50 billion in annual merchant interchange fees is wrong and in violation of the law. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, today we read that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wants “swift action on a Treasury Department plan to buy illiquid mortgage-linked securities and avoid severe spillover effects on the economy.” 

Why haven’t U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain both publicly addressed what amount to the largest antitrust case in our nation’s history.  And, why is our government nearly silent on this issue which is placing an unfair burden on shop owners and consumers?  It seems that they are chasing the news that the banks’ management failed and caused this nearly one-trillion dollar mess, but why aren’t they being proactive and commenting on Visa and MasterCard’s price fixing business model? 

This is another mess decades in the making.

The once mighty banks are now looking weak and threatened.  Their arguments about credit card fees is on the same level as they are handling their other financial crisis. 

Our nation is facing extraordinary economic stress on the financial markets, but it seems that government and politicians only put out fires when the entire building is engulfed in flames and not before.  The U.S. is forced to pay among the highest merchant interchange fees in the world, when technology and efficiencies over the years have led to nearly no actual costs to transact a credit card transaction. 

Visa and MasterCard look out!

“Merchants Miffed by Credit Card Fees” (via The Halifax Herald)

Major credit card companies and the big banks are financing their new rewards programs on the backs of merchants, say some Halifax shop owners.  Retailers already pay credit card companies two to three per cent of every transaction for the conveniences that go with accepting payments on credit cards. On the new premium cards, those fees will double in some cases.” 

Read more.

[source: The Halifax Herald]

“Every 6 months, Visa/Mastercard raise their rates by 4-8 basis points”: Nova

I just received a call from a Nova sales rep with an interesting pitch. He explained that every six months, Visa and MasterCard raise their rates.  In Nova’s own words is the email followup I just received.

Mitch,

Thank you for your time on the phone today!  As you know, I am a representative of Nova, one of the largest credit card processors in the industry.  In addition to a very competitive rate, some of the other benefits of doing business with us are as follows:

Local Customer Support

• Next Day Funding
• FREE Supplies
• No Term Commitment
• Can Work with Existing Equipment
• Seamless Transition
• 1 Year Rate Guarantee
• Paid Cancellation / Software Fees (based on volume)

As we discussed, there was just a rate increase that occurred in April and there is another one coming up in October. Every 6 months, Visa/Mastercard raise their rates by 4-8 basis points.  Many businesses take the time during these periods to reevaluate their situation. I would like the opportunity to prepare a formal credit card comparison for ScanMyPhotos.com.  If you are able to fax a current statement to my attention, I am confident that I can secure you a competitive rate.  Once received, it would only take me a day or so to get back to you.  If you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to contact me.  Thanks again Mitch and have a great weekend!

Kind Regards,

Jeff ……
Account Executive
NOVA / MPS

“The Hidden Fee That Costs Us Money” (via blogger)

Excerpt from a blogger

Interchange fees. I’ve talked about these before, but not in a post all their own. These little buggers are responsible for consumers paying over $400 a year in “fees,” whether they use a credit card or not. And, in my opinion, that’s worthy of a rant all its own.

Hopefully, most of you have heard of interchange fees, but some may not. That’s the thing about these fees – credit card companies don’t want the average consumer to know about them, because then we can complain. It’s in their contracts with merchants not to disclose this fee on the receipts. Basically, a credit card company charges the merchant – usually about 2% of the transaction amount – to process credit card transactions. Every time you swipe your card, the merchant has to pay the credit card company. There are numerous sets of fees they have to pay, but it’s this interchange fee that indirectly affects us consumers the most.

click here to read more.

Three in Four Americans Support Credit Card Fair Fee Act

via MPC news release

National Poll Finds Voters Want To Rein In Hidden Credit Card Fees That Inflate Prices; Legislation Would End Credit Card Secret Price Fixing

Washington, D.C. – July 11, 2008 – Better than three in four (77%) voters favor the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act,” bi-partisan legislation that would empower retailers to negotiate credit card fees directly with the credit card industry as a means to cut interchange fees, according to a poll released by the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC).

According to the survey, public sentiment that something needs to be done about the credit card industry is at an all-time high. Concerns about credit card industry fees, policies, and practices touch hot buttons across party lines: identical 51% majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike say they “strongly” support passage of the Credit Card Fair Fee Act.

Consumers are three times as likely to say credit card companies don’t do business the right way compared to cable companies and six times as likely to say that when compared to phone companies. In particular, nearly two in three (65%) say credit card companies don’t share their business values.

Credit card fees known as interchange have skyrocketed on food and gasoline in recent years; they cost Americans $42 billion last year. Revenue that goes to the credit card industry on motor fuels alone has risen steeply in the last year alone, closely following the accelerating price of gasoline.

Interchange fees amount to approximately $2 of every $100 spent using credit cards. These fees inflate the cost of nearly everything consumers buy at retail whether or not they use plastic, cash, check, or food stamps. In 2008, the average American family will pay upwards of $427 in hidden credit card interchange fees.

Currently, credit card interchange rates are set in secret, hidden from view and exclude merchants from the negotiating process. Raising interchange fees is how Visa and MasterCard encourage banks to issue more credit and debit cards – as long as rising rates are kept top secret, consumers have no way of knowing the extra costs they are paying through higher prices. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act would introduce market transparency and open negotiations into the process.

About the survey

Penn, Schoen, and Berland LLC conducted telephone interviews with 605 likely voters nationally June 19, 2008 on behalf of UnfairCreditCardFees.com. The margin of error for national voters is +/- 3.98 at the 95% confidence level and larger for subgroups

Click here for the full results of the poll.

About UnfairCreditCardFees.com/Merchants Payments Coalition

The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), UnfairCreditCardFees.com, is a group of retailers, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, fuel stations, on-line merchants and other businesses who are fighting against unfair credit card fees and fighting for a more competitive and transparent card system that works better for consumers and merchants alike. The coalition’s member associations collectively represent about 2.7 million stores with approximately 50 million employees. For further information, please visit http://www.unfaircreditcardfees.com.

Tulips, Silver, Housing Market and Oil Speculators Have Nothing on MasterCard and Visa

Gas prices might plunge to $50.00 a barrel, yet MasterCard and Visa’s nearly $50 billion hidden tax on merchants and consumers is nowhere near cracking, without intervention. 

 

If even the oil industry might face swift downward pricing pressures, why not interchange fees too?  And if it does, what happens to MasterCard and Visa’s recent plan to limit certain fees at the pump.  Will that experiment lead to an all out reevaluation and a lowering of all interchange fees to become cost-based, rather than unbridled-greed-based?

 

Some history:  In the 1600’s, speculators in the Netherlands bid up the price of tulip bulbs to a level that makes today’s housing market seizure pint-sized in comparison. Just before the crash, the enormous prices demanded for a single flower was stratospheric. It was the classic market crest before the crash.

 

The 1980s saw similar speculation in the silver commodities marketplace. The Hunt brothers tried to make a quick profit by cornering the silver market. Then it was the housing market bust in the past few years.  People were buying homes worth a fraction of its value with no money down.
  

Now, it seems more likely in my opinion, that the oil market will crash too. The following letter (see below) from the top executives at the major airlines are describing something very worrisome. Speculators are buying up oil contracts at record rates. This might lead to oil prices plunging, and soon. Imaging $50 oil sooner than $200 a barrel oil.

 

So, what does this have to do with Visa and MasterCard?  Everything.

 

Unlike, tulip bulbs, oil, silver, the housing market and other sectors that experience pricing cycles and crashes, the credit card associations are not influenced by the marketplace.  There is no supply and demand; they set the fees illegally and in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.  Visa, MasterCard and its member banks operate an anti-business monopoly that are void of price swings because they control the market with its vast 80% market share.  Visa and MasterCard publicly recognized that both trade associations might become “insolvent” if our litigation is successful – worth about as much as a Dutch tulip bulb in today’s marketplace. 

 

 

 

AN OPEN LETTER FROM 12 AIRLINE EXECUTIVES (July 9)

 

REPRINT: “An Open Letter To All Airline Customers”

 

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.

We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

How Visa and MasterCard Discriminate Against Millions of Merchants

As MasterCard provides an interchange fee limit of $50.00 for service station gasoline fill ups, the question is whether this is just for debit cards, or also for credit card transactions? Then, with many card limits of about $75.00, are motorist forced to resubmit their card to top off their tank and thus ring up even greater interchange fees? As for Visa, will they also be imposing an interchange fee limit on credit cards too?

While pleased to see that Visa and MasterCard are reacting to merchant revolts against the two giant card associations, it was especially consoling to notice that the Visa debit card limit was announced just hours after our planned rally against them. Nice timing, Visa!

The problem is that restructuring only a few interchange fees provokes even more questions. There are millions of retailers coerced to pay these supra competitive fees, yet the only relief now are for service stations, and for only gasoline purchases. What about our ScanMyPhotos.com and the millions of other retailers? We all want relief and if Visa and MasterCard can limit fees at the pumps, why not everywhere? The answer to this rhetorical question is that they are giant cartels that have a monology and can do whatever they want…. until now.

The interchange fee limits at the pumps do not address the issues of other skyrocketing inflationary costs on other products and services.

 

Merchants Rally Against Visa and MasterCard Fees

See below for a sample of signs that consumers, retailers and service station operators displayed during The Great American Rally Against Visa and MasterCard’s Fees on Gasoline.

For an update on how Visa and MasterCard are forcing service station operators to lose their life investment and close their doors, click here to read the Wall Street Journal, July 7th article, “Gas Stations Hit Skids: Higher Costs Close Nearly 3,000 in a Year” (subscription required). 

Excerpt: “Aziz Hassan, who owns five stations in Sherman, knows all about the profit squeeze. A truckload of gasoline costs $35,000, compared with $10,000 just a few years ago, he said. Most of his profits are going to credit-card fees, he said, which eat up about nine cents of every gallon of gasoline his customers buy with a credit card. This leaves him little to cover costs such as electricity to run the pumps.”

SAMPLE PLACARDS DISPLAYED DURING THE GREAT AMERICAN RALLY AGAINST VISA AND MASTERCARD’s FEES ON GASOLINE

 

 

“Dozens protest gas credit card costs” (via OC Register)

Via The Orange County Register

July 3rd, 2008, 1:07 pm · posted by John Gittelsohn

About three dozen demonstrators waved signs asking motorists to honk in support of what they billed as “The Great American Protest Against MasterCard and Visa Fees on Gasoline.”

The protesters complained about how credit card companies charge retailers high fees for each purchase, adding 8-10 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas — a cost that is often passed on to consumers.

“By the time we’re done paying credit card fees, there is no profit left and it’s not fair,” said Navdeep Bassi, whose family owns 15 7-Eleven stores — four that sell gas — in Orange County. “We don’t want to have to charge customers for using credit cards. But now we’re at the mercy of the credit card companies.”

Credit card companies contend they are reducing their fees in response to complaints, but they deny they are charging too much or colluding against retailers.

The protest was organized by Mitch Goldstone, owner of an Irvine photo shop and lead plaintiff in a class action law suit accusing credit card companies of violating antitrust laws by charging fees of 1.5 to 2 percent per purchase.

Register photographer Kevin Sullivan, who shot pictures of the protest, said Goldstone provided boxes of free donuts to keep the demonstrators fueled up.

Fact Sheet: Do You Know How Interchange Fees Harm Service Stations and all Merchants?

Visa and MasterCard credit card fees inflate the price of gas by charging consumers and merchants hidden credit card fees that total 8-10 cents a gallon that inflate already skyrocketing gasoline prices. Credit card fees now tally up to $2.00 or more per fill up for many drivers.

 

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. Americans pay three times as much in interchange fees as Europeans.

Interchange started as a fee to pay for credit card processing more than 50 years ago when everything was done by hand. Now computers do all the work, but the fees have skyrocketed in recent years.

American businesses and consumers paid $42 billion in interchange fees in 2007 alone.

The price of gas is the BIGGEST issue in the country, bigger than the ““economy”” according to one survey (Yahoo). Two-thirds consider gas prices an extremely important issue, edging the economy and outpacing health care and Iraq as the country’s most distressing problem. In November, when gas cost about $1 a gallon less than today, just under half rated it extremely 

important.

 

With $4-plus gasoline, the credit card industry typically takes in 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 service station owners are currently losing money on every gallon they sell.)

 

Except for OPEC, nobody makes more money from skyrocketing gasoline prices than Visa & MC.

  Interchange fees are set in secret by the credit card industry. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act (HR 5546,S 3086) 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.

Visa’s announcement on June 26th that it will restructure some interchange fees on gas purchases is their first public acknowledgment that the 100% increase in gasoline prices combined with the 100% windfall they have enjoyed from higher credit card revenues in the last year is a major problem for American consumers. However, Visa’s latest actions will make things worse for most people by raising –– not lowering –– credit card interchange fees on the average gasoline transaction. It will mean higher credit card fees for the average gas station. And Visa’s actions do not address the issue of skyrocketing food costs as well as gasoline.

Interchange fees hit consumers coming and going. For example, when truckers fill their tanks to get the goods we buy to market, the interchange fees charged can be as much as $20-25 for a single fill-up. Trucking costs, in turn, increase the costs of all the goods those trucks deliver. So, not only do the credit card companies increase costs on a gallon of milk when a consumer buys it with a credit card at the grocery store, credit card interchange also pumps up the price of that gallon of milk through the trucker’s fuel costs. This ripple effect hurts consumers and businesses in ways they do not realize — and never see coming.

It’’s time to……
-Wake up Congress to stop hidden credit card

   fees on gas

-Put the brake on hidden credit card fees on gas

-Fight the fees that fuel rising gasoline prices

-Take action that stops gas stations from closing

   because of unfair credit card fees

 

“Gasoline Marketers Underwhelmed by New Visa Interchange Rates” (Via Digital Transactions)

…[F]uel sellers are underwhelmed by the moves. “It looks like it’s more smoke and mirrors,” says a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, a vocal critic of interchange that represents 2,200 retailers. “There are so many qualifiers. There are some transactions where it makes things worse by swapping a lower percentage for a higher fixed fee.”

Click here to read more.