Word: credited
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Banks began charging interchange fees in the 1960s to cover the cost of processing credit-card transactions. "But even as technology has dropped that cost dramatically, banks and credit-card companies have pushed swipe fees higher and higher, turning it into a cash cow," the report notes. "For many businesses, swipe fees are now their single highest non-labor operating cost...
...report is the merchants' latest push to pressure the Federal Government into passing legislation aimed at either lowering interchange fees or at least allowing merchants to negotiate the rate directly with banks and credit-card networks. (Read "The Real Problem with Credit Cards: The Cardholders...
...contends that consumers could actually be hurt by lower fees if banks decide to scrap rewards programs, raise interest rates on credit cards or reinstate annual credit-card fees to offset the lost interchange-fee revenues. (Read "Exposing the Credit-Card Fine Print...
...flip side, though, he says interchange legislation that lowers rates could mean credit cards will be accepted by more merchants and markets that in the past didn't sign up because of the higher interchange fees...
Merchant groups have been lobbying the Obama Administration on the issue for many months. Bills have been introduced in the House and Senate that, if passed, would allow merchants to negotiate their interchange fees directly with banks and credit-card networks. The Senate's version, introduced by Senator Richard Durbin, even calls for a panel of three electronic-payment-system judges to step in if merchants fail to reach a negotiated agreement...