A letter to the editor can be a great way to personalize this complicated issue and show how important it is to local merchants. We are encouraging supporters to use the letter below as a template to draft your own letter to the editor to submit to your local paper.
Most newspapers allow you to submit letters online under the “Opinion” tab of their website. It is an easy process—and you could wind up as a published author that makes a huge difference in the fight for swipe fee reform.
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To the Editor:
Every time I make a purchase at my local grocery store or restaurant, the merchant and I both wind up paying a portion of the swipe fee that banks charge in order to access my assets. Luckily, swipe fee reforms passed by Congress in 2010 mean that the big banks and credit card companies are going to have to stop charging an arm and a leg to use my own money. Not only this, but the law allows merchants to give me a discount when I pay with cash or debit card. Sounds like a win to me!
But the big banks and their corporate lobbyists don’t like the idea of merchants and consumers saving their hard-earned money. Instead, they want Congress to raise credit card fees and get rid of customer discounts.
What the big bankers don’t understand is how crucial this Main Street stimulus really is for consumers and small business owners. The average American family pays more than $400 each year in swipe fees that get included into the price of goods and services, and swipe fees are the second largest annual expense for most merchants. Even as it has got cheaper for the credit card companies to process plastic, it has become more expensive to use it. Swipe fees have more than tripled in the past ten years!
Swipe fee reform is good for local consumers and good for the small businesses where we buy our groceries, sporting equipment and cough syrup. I’m willing to keep fighting for customer discounts and make sure that swipe fee reform is implemented as scheduled.