Interchange fee” is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank”) pays a customer’s bank (the “issuing bank”) when merchants accept cards using card networks, such as Visa and MasterCard, for purchases. Although Visa and MasterCard determine Interchange rates, the fees are not retained […]
Interchange Fees
Interchange Fee Legislation – Who Will Pay the Price?
This spring, U.S. Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT) and Bill Shuster (R-PA), introduced HR 2382, the Credit Card Interchange Fees Act of 2009. Welch, the bill’s author, states that “credit card fees are killing small businesses.” The act, targeted to help small retailers, would limit the fees charged to merchants. It would also prohibit charging higher […]
Visa and MasterCard Make Their Money on PIN-based Debit Transactions
In previous posts I have talked about Visa and MasterCard turning to Debit and prepaid cards to re-coop money lost on defaulted credit cards. PIN-based debit transactions type of cards used to be the cheapest form of electronic payment a merchant could accept – that seems to be changing these days. It is estimated that PIN-based […]
Will Lack of Credit Options Lead to Rising Interchange Rates?
Interchange Rates and Merchant Accounts If we have learned anything over the last year, it is that no industry is immune from the financial crisis. Your first line of defense against the economy is your job. The second is your credit cards. Credit cards have forced a whole new financial difficulty on our country. In […]
Card Association Battles Around the Globe
It seems as though anytime a company gets large enough, there will always be people who feel it is unfair and begin to wage war on what they don’t know. I have talked about Visa and MasterCard having to pay large settlements to Discover after a long anti-trust battle. Although Visa lost that battle, the war on […]