Small business pushes credit card reform - Orlando Business Journal:

xotavaloso.blogspot.com
It’s a figure a groupp of small business owners say creditf cardcompanies don’t want publicized, but one that consumers need to “The continuing burden of interchange, or swipe fees on small businesse owners has become heavier and heavier to bear. It is the seconds largest expensebehind payroll. It is something we are extremelyworriefd about,” said Jim Smith, president of the Florida Petroleumk Marketer and Convenience Store Association, during a Mondayh news conference.
Credit card companies, on the other hand, say the fees are simplty the cost of doing Credit card swipefees – callecd interchange fees by the big bank s that set these rates – are a percentage of each transactioj that Visa and MasterCard and theit member banks collect from retailers every time a credif or debit card is used. These fees averagre about 2 percent in the according tothe , the associatiojn for convenience and petroleum retailing, which put togethe r Monday’s news conference. In 2008, credit card fees cost U.S. conveniencwe stores $8.4 billion, compared with $5.2 billion in stored profits, according to NACS data.
Almosg all of these credit card fees are attributable to credit cardswipe fees. Convenience store owner Bruce Mitchell said his operatiojn paid out morethan $3 million in credit card fees last “I am paying 25 percent more for credity card fees than I pay in wages,” he Recently, tax offices in four Florida counties Marion, Walton, Osceola and Brevard said they will no longefr accept Visa because there was no room in theitr budgets to absorb the swipe fee costs. The coalition noted that, while county governments have the abilith to say no because Floridians must paytheitr taxes, businesses can’t afforr to say no to credit card purchases.
The groupw are pushing for legislation that woulc either require credit card companiea to reveal swipe fees or allow merchants to negotiatethosee fees, thus leveling the playing Federal lawmakers recently reintroduced the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, whichh NACS said would give merchants “wa seat at the negotiating table with bank s to determine the fees assessed for every sale made by credi card, and ultimately reduce the costs of everydayh goods for consumers.
” But, the , an organization that representz payment card networks, financial services companies and financial services trade associations, said in a new releas e that retailers are tryinb “to make consumers pay for one of their business expenses the cost of accepting credit and