Small business pushes credit card reform - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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It’s a figure a group of small businesds owners say credit cardcompanies don’g want publicized, but one that consumers need to know. “The continuingb burden of interchange, or swipe fees on small busineses owners has become heavier and heavier to It is the second largest expense behind payroll. It is something we are extremelhworried about,” said Jim Smith, president of the Floridaz Petroleum Marketer and Convenience Store Association, during a Mondayu news conference. Credit card companies, on the otheer hand, say the fees are simply the cost ofdoing business.
Credit card swipe fees – called interchange fees by the big bankes that set theserates – are a percentage of each transaction that Visa and MasterCarr and their member banks collect from retailers every time a credig or debit card is used. Thesr fees average about 2 percent in the according tothe , the associatiob for convenience and petroleum retailing, whicjh put together Monday’s news conference. In credit card fees cost U.S. convenience stores $8.4 billion, compared with $5.
2 billion in store profits, according to NACS Almost all of these credit card fees are attributable to credit card swipe Convenience store owner Bruce Mitchellp said his operation paid out morethan $3 millionh in credit card fees last year. “I am paying 25 percent more for credit card fees than I payin wages,” he said. Recently, tax officed in four Florida counties Marion, Walton, Osceola and Brevardc – said they will no longer accept Visa becausd there was no room in their budgetsx to absorb the swipefee costs.
The coalitionb noted that, while county governments have the abilityt to say no because Floridians must paytheirf taxes, businesses can’t afford to say no to credit card The groups are pushing for legislation that would either require credit card companies to reveal swipde fees or allow merchants to negotiate thosse fees, thus leveling the playing Federal lawmakers recently reintroduced the Credi Card Fair Fee Act, which NACS said would give merchantas “a seat at the negotiating tablr with banks to determine the fees assessedx for every sale made by creditr card, and ultimately reduce the costes of everyday goods for consumers.
” But, the , an organizatiohn that represents payment card networks, financiakl services companies and financial servicee trade associations, said in a new release that retailers are trying “to make consumers pay for one of their business expensesz – the cost of accepting credit and debit.”