Free Republic

NACS is endorsing proposed legislation that addresses credit card interchange fees. U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Representative Chris Cannon (R-UT) are expected to introduce the Credit Card Fair Fee Act next week. "As entrepreneurs and businessmen, we want market-based solutions to our issues. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act is the free-market solution to the battle over interchange rates," Richard Oneslager, NACS chairman, told NACS Daily. NACS issued the following Action Alert to retail members on Thursday: The most important action you can take in the short term is urging your representatives in Congress to support...

Washington, D.C. - July 20, 2007 - Merchants welcomed lawmaker concern over credit card interchange practices at a hearing this week in the House Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Task Force. The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) chairman and senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation Mallory Duncan told the panel that the collective setting of interchange fees by Visa and MasterCard is a violation of federal antitrust laws. MPC advocates a payment system that is transparent and open to competition. Unlike other credit card fees that show up on monthly statements, the credit card interchange fee is hidden....

Did you ever wonder who pays for all the credit card junk mail that's been burying you lately? According to new advertisements appearing this week, all Americans do, thanks to credit card fees that you have probably never even heard of. The advertisements, placed by the Merchants Payments Coalition, a group of merchant trade associations seeking a more competitive and transparent credit card fee system, show how the big credit card companies use some of the billions they collect from the credit card "interchange" fee to pay for marketing campaigns, including a mountain of more than nine billion unsolicited credit...