GREENSBORO, N.C. — Have you seen the signs?
“Due to high credit card fees, we wish you would pay in cash” or “Due to high credit card fees we will be charging customers a 2% fee if they use their card”.
Retailers aren't happy that credit card companies are in control of how payments are processed, and lawmakers are listening.
The Credit Card Competition Act was first proposed in 2022, but it's been re-introduced this summer. Retailers are supporting this Act, but you might not be.
“These senators want to mandate that credit card companies have more of a bare-bones network. Retailers can save on processing fees. What does that mean for the consumer? If you're used to getting cash back or points, the retailer will have a choice on where to run your transaction and on a network that does not offer them, so it's taking the choice from the consumer and giving it to the retailer,” said Brian Kelly, The Points Guy.
Kelly has made his living being the expert in loyalty programs and how best to use them. Just recently, his website published an article about the legislation.
“The senators are trying to limit the interchange on credit cards, simply put that interchange, every time a consumer swipes a credit card, the merchant pays a fee and that fee allows you to get points, cash back, purchase protection, fraud protection,” said Kelly.
Kelly and other rewards experts say a similar law to this was passed for debit card payments 10 years ago. Those debit card rewards stopped and that's when free checking was taken away at many banks.
“It's being billed as good for consumers and it simply isn't. There's a website called HandsOffMyRewards.com it takes one minute, to email your senators,” said Kelly.
The HandsOffMyRewards.com site has a quick write-up about the issue and a video to watch. Scroll down and you can put in your name and address and it will automatically send your thoughts about this law to the senators in your state.
2WTK contacted the offices of Senator Ted Budd, Senator Thom Tillis as well as Representative Kathy Manning.
“Senator Budd sees this bill as another destructive set of federal mandates that would end up hurting the very consumers it intends to help. This bill would benefit big box stores and corporations and will cause credit card reward programs to be discontinued for millions of consumers.”