Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - 6:42 AM

Credit Card Interchange Fee Legislation

According to this Bloomberg article via The Boston Globe, new legislation to help merchants reduce the cost of interchange fees (fees merchants pay when you use credit or debit cards) is being backed by two top Senators.

This may help merchants, but it's not good for reward checking and cash back credit cards.

KenBDG4,048 posts since
Nov 29, 2009
Rep Points: 106,905

1. Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - 9:56 AM

I note, it also is not likely to help merchants who use PayPal or Google Checkout. Those services providing for using a credit card charge their own fees, about double what the credit cards charge.

me1004235 posts since
Jan 16, 2010
Rep Points: 1,430

2. Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - 1:08 PM

Interchange fees don't hurt small businesses. Small businesses hurt themselves by either undercharging for the service or taking on a payment method which they cannot afford.

Congress might instead set limits on the cost of advertising. That would do a lot more for small business.

Anonymous963 posts since
May 9, 2010
Rep Points: 1,819

3. Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - 5:24 PM

Very interesting. This pits the saver and the bank on the same side versus the merchant. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Anonymous963 posts since
May 9, 2010
Rep Points: 1,819