Pass the Credit Card Competition Act!
WALL STREET GIANTS ARE RIPPING OFF SMALL BUSINESSES.
OUR COALITION OF workers, small businesses, AND CONSUMERS ARE FIGHTING BACK.
Swipe fees cost the average family more than $1,000 per year. It’s time for Congress to protect consumers, workers and small businesses from Wall Street giants price-gouging us.
In the U.S., 2-4% of every transaction goes to a private credit card network. These are massively high prices, amounting to $126 billion paid in credit card swipe fees a year, often the highest cost for any business after labor. Often costs are also passed onto consumers.
Why is the price so high? The answer is monopoly power. Right now, Visa and Mastercard, control 83% of the payment card network. Small businesses don’t have a choice.
We NEED YOUR HELP TO PASS THE CREDIT CARD COMPETITION ACT
The bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act would force big credit card companies to lower prices for grocers, convenience stores, restaurants, consumers, and other small businesses, which all overwhelmingly support the Credit Card Competition Act.
Your representative needs to hear from constituents who are done with being fleeced by Wall Street.
Send an email to the your represenative asking them to support the Credit Card Competition Act.
Small BUsiness TESTIMONIALS
NEW RESEARCH:
FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US
THE CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY & BIG BANKS ARE SPENDING MILLIONS TO PRICE-GOUGE SMALL BUSINESSES
A new report from Accountable.US found that credit card industry trade groups including the Electronic Payments Coalition, giant credit card companies, and Big Banks have spent a combined $51 million to lobby against the Credit Card Competition Act.
● In Q3 2023, the Electronic Payments Coalition spent $896,000
● Since Q3 2022, Visa has spent $13.2 million
● Since Q1 2022, Mastercard has spent over $7.2 million
● Since Q3 2022, the American Bankers Association has spent over $12 million
● Since Q3 2022, the Independent Community Bankers of America have spent over $6 million
● Since Q4 2022, Bank of America has spent over $2.5 million
● Since Q3 2022, Wells Fargo has spent over $4.1 million
● Since Q2 2022, JPMorgan Chase has spent nearly $1.6 million
● Since Q2 2023, Citigroup has spent over $2.4 million
$51 million spent to hurt small businesses
$51 million spent to hurt small businesses
MYTH VS. FACT: CORPORATIONS ARE LYING
FROM AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIBERTIES PROJECT
MYTH: Today’s Credit Card Networks Are Competitive, Convenient, and Efficient
FACT: Visa and Mastercard’s Duopoly Hurts Merchants and Burdens Small Businesses
Visa and Mastercard’s market power — 83% of the market — allows them to set market prices and force regular increases. Merchants have no way to negotiate rates, and no choice but to accept Visa and Mastercard networks and their cards.
As a result, credit card “swipe fees” have more than doubled over the past decade. In 2022 alone, merchants paid $126 billion in card processing fees, a 20% increase over the previous year.
MYTH: The CCCA Will Eliminate Credit Card Rewards Programs
FACT: Credit Card Rewards Will Continue, Even Though They Aren’t Good for Most People or the Economy
A study on the effects of the CCCA on credit card rewards programs determined the bill would reduce reward programs by less than one-tenth of a percent.
Visa and Mastercard operate in Europe, where swipe fees are capped at 0.30% — a tenth of what they often are in the U.S. — and still offer credit card rewards programs there, further undermining claims that lowering swipe fees here will decimate rewards programs.
CONSUMER IMPACTS:
In a letter from 15 consumer and competition advocates endorsing the legislation:
Today, because of the Mastercard-Visa duopoly, American consumers pay the highest credit card swipe fees in the industrialized world as merchants often pass along the high transaction costs to consumers by baking them into the prices of goods and services.
Most merchants dont get to set one price for people who pay with cash versus those who pay with credit cards. Vulnerable consumers—primarily the millions without credit cards or banking relationships, are thus disproportionately affected. They predominantly use cash and subsidize the card usage of higher-income folks by paying inflated prices for their groceries, gas, and other goods and services.
These credit card swipe fees amount to yet another regressive tax on low-income consumers.
The Coalition
