banks that issue Visa or Mastercard credit cards to allow transactions to be processed over at least two unaffiliated card payment networks-the same process that has been used for debit card transactions for more than a decade. Lance Gooden (R-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) in the House. Both bills would require the largest U.S. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Peter Welch (D-VT) and J.D. The Credit Card Competition Act is bipartisan, bicameral legislation introduced by Sens. On Visa and Mastercard credit transactions, the average rate paid in the United States was 2.25% of the transaction amount-more than 7 times what merchants pay in Europe and 5 times what merchants pay in China. These fees represent their second-highest operating cost-less than labor but more than rent and utilities. For many convenience retailers, the swipe fees they pay exceed their pre-tax profits. Over the last three years, overall card fees paid by the convenience store industry were up 82% and up 44% over the last year. These businesses have seen a historic jump in their swipe fees with inflation and rising gas prices. The convenience store industry has more than 150,000 convenience stores nationwide, 60% of which are single-store operators. merchants and consumers paying more in such fees than the rest of the world. This results in swipe fees increasing year after year and U.S. Banks should compete on their swipe fee prices, but they don’t. Visa and Mastercard set the prices and terms for the thousands of banks that issue their cards-even though the biggest fees, swipe fees, go to the bank that issued the card.

Retailers have no choice but to accept these cards, meaning they are stuck with whichever network is on the card.

The two global card networks, Visa and Mastercard, control about 83% of the credit card volume in the United States. Because credit card fees are a percentage of the total transaction cost, they multiply with every cent of inflation. This issue is exacerbated during inflationary times. Every time a payment card is used, fees are charged to the retailer and those fees have been rising at a dramatic rate for a generation. The shift from Americans using cash to credit and debit cards was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it comes at a real cost to main street businesses.

Square transaction fee swipe in store