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June
16, 2006 & July 5, 2006
JULY
5 UPDATE: The hearing scheduled for June 28th was postponed
and a new hearing was scheduled for July 19th. Click
here for coverage of the July 19th hearing.
Senate
Judiciary Committee to Hold Hearing on Credit Card Interchange
Fees
The Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Chairman Arlen Specter
of Pennsylvania, will hold a hearing on credit card interchange
fees on Wednesday, June 28th. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30
a.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. At issue
is the percentage that Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover
and bank issuers charge their member merchants to process credit
card transactions.
A
group of merchant trade associations called the Merchants Payments
Coalition alleges that the fees are illegally high, while credit
card industry spokespeople allege that merchants want the perks
of accepting credit cards without paying reasonable fees for
the service.
Interchange
fees are the costs that a store, restaurant or other merchant
must pay on every credit card transaction processed. According
to the Merchants Payments Coalition, this fee averages 2%, meaning
that for every $100 you make at a merchant, the merchant is
actually taking in an average of $98 after the interchange fee
is deducted.
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