Daily Archives: 04/22/2010

NRF Testifies in Favor of Vermont Credit Card Swipe Fee Bill

The National Retail Federation is urging the Vermont legislature to
give final approval to legislation that would address credit card
“swipe” fees. The NRF insists merchants should be able to give a discount to
customers who pay by cash, check or debit card. If enacted, the bill
would allow Vermont retailers to set both minimum and maximum credit
card purchases without interference from Visa and MasterCard banks,
which currently bar the practice in their contracts with merchants. The
two companies would also be prohibited from dictating how merchants
price items or blocking a merchant from giving a discount for cash,
checks, debit cards or credit cards with lower-than-usual swipe fees.
Visa and MasterCard also could not force a retailer to accept cards at
all store locations if the retailer only wanted to accept them at one
location. Officially known as interchange, swipe fees average about 2
percent of the purchase price and are charged to merchants by Visa and
MasterCard banks each time one of their cards is swiped to pay for a
purchase. Collections totaled $48 billion nationwide in 2008, triple the
$16 billion collected when NRF began tracking the fees in 2001.
The bill is based in part on the Credit Card Interchange Act, federal
legislation addressing fees charged to merchants sponsored by U.S.
Representative Peter Welch, D-Vt., that is awaiting action in Washington.