TAKE ACTION: SWIPE FEES HURT AMERICAN CONSUMERS & SMALL BUSINESSES
Every time you buy something with a credit card in stores or online, the merchant must pay a hidden “swipe fee” to Visa or Mastercard – and those big credit card companies dictate the fees merchants pay. This fee raises prices for consumers and crushes the bottom line for small business owners.
You can take action today by calling or writing your representatives in Congress. Urge them to fix this broken system and provide much-needed relief to consumers and merchants, especially during a time of high inflation.
Big banks are spreading misleading information and illogical arguments about swipe fees. Here are some facts that show how much swipe fees are hurting small businesses and American consumers:
Credit card processing fees have more than doubled over the past decade and are up 50 percent since the pandemic, hitting a record $172 billion last year. This costs the average family over $1,100 a year.
Visa and Mastercard control 80% of the credit card market and refuse to negotiate these fees with Main Street merchants. The rates charged to U.S. merchants are among the highest in the world; in fact, they are seven times the maximum allowed in Europe.
High swipe fees contribute to huge profits for the credit card industry. Visa reported net profit margins of 57 percent in the first quarter while Mastercard reported net margins of 43 percent for the final quarter of 2023, the latest data available.
Visa & Mastercard's market dominance allows them to increase fees despite U.S. consumers facing unprecedented debt. A report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that in 2022 credit card companies charged consumers more than $105 billion in interest and more than $25 billion in fees.
Visa & Mastercard say they use these hidden swipe fees to fund data security, but their actions reveal they actually welcome, engage in, and profit off of fraud. An investigation by BuzzFeed News shows they profit from facilitating fraud for businesses with a history of fraudulent activities.
This is a broken system that only Congress can fix. The good news is, the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) is pro-consumer, bipartisan legislation that is quickly gaining support in Congress. The CCCA would lower fees by introducing competition into the credit card market, lowering costs for consumers and small businesses across the country.