Following up on a previous post about the bipartisan bill, The Credit Card Competition Act that was introduced this past year which aims to bring more competition to the credit card industry and break up the duopoly of VISA and Martercard is facing major opposition. The bill which has received major support from big retailers like Walmart and Target would require the biggest banks to offer to competing networks on their cards that retailers could choose between for routing credit card purchases at their stores. Merchants say the legislation would allow them to lower prices if they could lower their credit card processing fees. This week, a Republican business group (The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce) is launching an ad campaign (“Point Less, Kansas”) that claims that the bill could result in the elimination of the credit cards' rewards systems because it would hurt a key source of revenue for VISA and Mastercard, which set the fees merchants are charged each time a consumer swipes their cards at the checkout. The fight will most likely continue to rage on as special interest groups continue to lobby for what is in their best interest.
In the meantime, merchants have now discovered that through FEEPASS they can find a better way to process credit cards payments and save thousands on processing fees. We will keep you informed on industry news and more here. We will keep you updated on this as it unfolds!
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