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NRF Supports Bill Targeting Credit Card Processing Fees

The National Retail Federation (NRF), a retail trade association based in Washington, D.C., welcomed legislation introduced June 4 that would require Visa and MasterCard to negotiate credit card processing fees.

According to NRF, such fees are “hidden” from consumers because they are not disclosed on receipts or credit card statements. The NRF said they cost the average household more than $400 a year.

“Between the momentum built up since this bill passed the Judiciary Committee last year, the intense scrutiny of the financial services industry seen during the current economic crisis, and the credit card reform law signed last month, we think the perfect storm exists for Congress to do something about these unjustified hidden fees,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said in a statement. “In the middle of one of the worst recessions seen in decades, consumers can’t continue to pay artificially inflated prices just so the credit card industry can skim profits off the top. It’s time for these fees to be brought under control.”

H.R. 2695, introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), targets the so-called “interchange” fees merchants are charged by lending companies when consumers buy goods with credit cards. The measure, referred to as the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, would allow for merchants to collectively negotiate with banks over the cost of certain credit card fees.

According to NRF, interchange collections totaled $48 billion in 2008, up from $16.6 billion when NRF started tracking the fees in 2001. The higher prices that result from the fees cost the average household an estimated $427 last year, up from $159 in 2001. <HOME>

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NRF Supports Bill Targeting Credit Card Processing Fees

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What a self serving group, especially Mallory Duncan! These are the same people who hand out cards to anyone asking for one, regardless of their ability to pay, refuse to protect privacy information and when there is a 'breach" in their security, dump the cost to reissue cards on companies like Visa and Mastercard. Now, they have their cronnie, Conyer, trying to force card companies to let them off the hook for promoting the reason the cost and fees have increased in the first place. AND, they make it sound like it is the card companies fault when they are the ones at fault. AND, Conyers isn't smart enought to see through it. No, he probably does know it but has another incentive for doing it. Oh well, par for the course. Joe, San Francisco, CA Posted: 8/1/2009 12:36:45 PM