Small business pushes credit card reform - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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It’s a figure a group of smalk business owners say credit cardcompanies don’ t want publicized, but one that consumers need to “The continuing burden of interchange, or swipwe fees on small business owners has become heavier and heavied to bear. It is the seconcd largest expensebehind payroll. It is something we are extremely worried about,” said Jim Smith, president of the Florida Petroleum Marketer and Convenienc e Store Association, during a Monday news Credit card companies, on the other say the fees are simply the cost of doiny business.
Credit card swipe fees called interchange fees by the big bankes that set theserates – are a percentagr of each transaction that Visa and MasterCard and their member bank collect from retailers every time a crediyt or debit card is used. These fees averags about 2 percent in the according tothe , the association for convenience and petroleunm retailing, which put together Monday’s news conference. In 2008, creditg card fees cost U.S. convenience storez $8.4 billion, compared with $5.2 billion in storse profits, according to NACS data. Almost all of thesw credit card fees are attributable to credif cardswipe fees.
Convenience store owner Bruce Mitchelo said his operation paid out morethan $3 millio in credit card fees last year. “I am paying 25 percent more for credit card fees than I pay in he said. Recently, tax officese in four Florida counties – Walton, Osceola and Brevard – said they will no longerr accept Visa because there was no room in theirf budgets to absorb the swipefee costs. The coalitio noted that, while county governments have the ability to say no becaused Floridians must pay their businesses can’t afford to say no to credif card purchases.
The groups are pushing for legislatiob that would either require credit card companiesw to reveal swipe fees or allow merchants to negotiatethosr fees, thus leveling the playing field. Federal lawmakeres recently reintroduced the Credig Card FairFee Act, whicy NACS said would give merchant s “a seat at the negotiating table with banksa to determine the fees assessed for every sale made by credit card, and ultimately reduce the coste of everyday goods for consumers.
” But, the , an organizatiobn that represents payment card networks, financialo services companies and financial services trade said in a new release that retailers are tryingy “to make consumers pay for one of their businesse expenses – the cost of accepting credit and debit.”