U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) addressed the Senate regarding the effects of high credit card swipe fees on small businesses and expressed support for the Credit Card Competition Act, which was re-introduced in Congress this week by Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS) and Senator Durbin. President Trump also endorsed the legislation earlier this week, calling swipe fees “out of control.”
During his speech, Senator Durbin shared accounts from two Illinois small business owners who are members of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). He said, “I’ll give you examples of some other businesses who wrote to me in relation to this issue. Credit processing fees are crushing businesses, taking up to 4% of credit card sales. Currently this individual who wrote to me said, ‘88% of my sales are by credit card. It has literally become the coin of the realm.’ This individual, Laura, says she owns a coffee shop. ‘My per-ticket amounts are low, roughly five bucks, yet each transaction can take up to 25% in swipe fees to the credit cards. We need competition in the credit card marketplace and options to choose from. Just like small businesses have to compete for customers, credit card companies should have to compete for our business.’ Laura has a coffee and tea business in Elmhurst, Illinois.”
Senator Durbin continued with another example: “Combined with another source of information from Sesser, Illinois, which is down state southern Illinois, Greg Kelly writes me, with ‘combined with basic processing fees and set monthly access fees, credit card fees can add up to nearly 5% of total transactions.’ Greg writes, ‘this is insane, this prevents hiring and hinders business growth as well as being able to compete. Credit card reform is needed now.’”
The NFIB is encouraging Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act. The proposed legislation would give small business owners more choices among credit card network options. According to NFIB data, 92 percent of its members believe that small business owners should be able to select among multiple credit card processing networks.
The NFIB has been advocating for America’s small and independent businesses for over 80 years at both federal and state levels.
