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500,000 Ohioans sign reform petition
By GRACE WYLER
YOUNGSTOWN
More than 500,000 Ohioans have signed petitions urging Congress to enact reform that would restrict the “swipe fees” retailers pay to banks every time a shopper uses a credit or debit card.
The announcement was made Thursday by Speedway SuperAmerica. The convenience-store chain has collected 1.7 million customer petitions overall, Tony Kenney, president of Speedway SuperAmerica, said in a news-conference call.
The National Association of Convenience Stores has gathered 5.5 million petitions from convenience-store customers nationwide, the group said.
The petitions support an amendment to the Senate financial-reform bill that would limit card transaction fees and curb other restrictions credit-card companies have put on retailers.
“Swipe fees,” 80 percent of which are passed on to the banks that issue the cards, have become a major source of revenue for banks at a high cost to retailers.
“These fees are our second-highest operation expense,” Kenney said. “These fees are hidden, nonnegotiable and are transferred to the prices consumers pay.”
Set in secret by card issuers, the cost of the fees is difficult for the merchant to discern because credit-card companies charge different fees, and fees vary widely among cards, said Lyle Beckwith vice president of the National Association of Convenience Stores.
Generally, fees are set at about 2 percent of a transaction, but credit cards with high rewards benefits may charge up to 5 percent, he said.
Overall, members of the NACS paid $7.4 billion in swipe fees last year, said Taylor West, a spokeswomen for the organization.
“To make up for that cost, prices end up being higher for all customers,” she said.
The amendment also would do away with restrictions that prevent merchants from offering discounted prices to customers who pay with cash.
And credit-card companies would no longer be able to require retailers to accept card payments on small purchases that do not justify the transaction fee.
The National Association of Convenience Stores’ petitions will be sent to members of the House next week, asking for their support of swipe-fee reform as reconciliation begins on financial- reform legislation.
The amendment, introduced by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is attached to the Senate’s financial-reform bill, but the House bill does not contain similar provisions.
The Durbin amendment therefore must survive reconciliation in the face of opposition from the banking industry.
Credit unions and community banks also are campaigning against the amendment despite a provision that exempts entities with under $10 billion in assets. These smaller banks argue that the amendment would allow retailers to discriminate against cards issued by credit unions and community banks.
Reconciliation is expected to begin when Congress returns from recess next week. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to pass a final financial-reform bill by July 4.