Unfair Credit Card Fees.com

Fight Unfair Credit Card Fees

The Card Game: How Visa, Using Card Fees, Dominates a Market

Every day, millions of Americans stand at store checkout counters and make a seemingly random decision: after swiping their debit card, they choose whether to punch in a code, or to sign their name. It is a pointless distinction to most consumers, since the price is the same either way. But behind the scenes, billions of dollars are at stake. Read More.

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Store owners fight for lower consumer prices: click here to view news story

The credit card interchange fee is the biggest credit card fee you've never heard of. Nearly $2 of every $100 American consumers spend using credit cards goes directly to the credit card industry through the interchange fee.

In 2008 alone, Americans paid over $48 billion in interchange fees, more than twice what was paid in credit card late fees and three times ATM fees. The average American household paid $427 in credit card interchange fees last year. Total interchange fee revenues have tripled since 2001.

But unlike credit card late fees or ATM fees, credit card interchange is set in secret - consumers don't know they're paying it through higher retail prices.
What's more, the same reckless, predatory lending practices that led to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown still prevail with credit cards. Fat interchange fees have created a perverse incentive for the big banks to abandon responsible lending practices in favor of maximizing fee income.

Because the big banks care more about consumers using their cards as opposed to paying them off, interchange has quickly become one of the root causes of billions in toxic credit card debt on the books of the big banks. The Wall Street Journal (Credit Cards Are the Next Credit Crunch: 3/10/09) has already identified credit card debt as the next big shoe to drop on the American taxpayer.

Protecting Americans from reckless big bank credit card lending depends on Congress reforming the interchange fee system. Congress can't fix the financial services industry without reforming huge, hidden credit card interchange fees.

 

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• Why Won't Visa Give U.S. Competition & Transparency Promised to New Zealand on Credit Card Swipe Fees?
• Canadian government recommends credit card swipe fee reform sought by American main street businesses
• Durbin-Bond Consumer Discount Amendment Opens First Front in Fight to Rein in Huge, Hidden Credit Card 'Swipe' Fees
• Main Street Businesses Applaud Senate Introduction of 'Credit Card Fair Fee Act'; Allows Merchants to Negotiate Lower Swipe Fees for Credit Card Purchases
• As White House and Congress Take on Credit Card Reform, Small Businesses Continue Grassroots and Media Campaign to Rein in Hidden Interchange Fees
• Small Businesses: Reform of Huge, Hidden "Swipe Fees" Must Be Part of Credit Card Fix for It to Work
• U.S. Retailers Caution Canadian Officials Against Visa And Mastercard Entry Into Debit Card Markets
• Merchants Payments Coalition Calls on Federal Reserve to Look at Interchange Fees to Protect Both Consumers and Retailers from Excessive Hidden Fees
• Australian authorities find interchange fee reforms improve competition and benefit consumers
  
• Congressman Welch Supports Credit Card Reform; Encourages Congress to Act on Credit Card Interchange Fees that Hurt Both Merchants and Consumers
  

• Merchants and Consumers Welcome Judiciary Committee Passage of Bipartisan Legislation to Crack Down on the Hidden and Excessive Credit Card Fees
  Credit Card Fair Fee Act Would Mean Free Market Transparency, End Card Price Fixing
• Three in Four Americans Support Credit Card Fair Fee Act
  National Poll Finds Voters Want To Rein In Hidden Credit Card Fees That Inflate Prices; Legislation Would End Credit Card Secret Price Fixing (Poll Results)
• Merchants Say that Visa Fee Cut is Less Than Meets the Eye
  Credit Card Fees on Gasoline Might Actually Be Higher, Not Lower, Under New Visa Program
• Credit Card Fair Fee Act Picks Up Bi-Partisan Support
  Legislation will address credit card industry practices that hurt small business and their customers
• Merchants Welcome Senate Legislation to Fix the Problem of Hidden Credit Card Interchange Fees
  Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced the "Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008," legislation that addresses the biggest credit card fee of all - the interchange fee, which cost Americans $42 billion last year.