Mike Foster, who owns a 7-Eleven in St. Louis, was among those who went to Washington, added a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
"If a customer comes in and buys a Post-Dispatch on a debit card, I'm better off letting him or her just steal it," Foster quipped to the newspaper, because the charges of up to 20 cents he pays on a debit-card purchase can exceed his profit on smaller items. He added that last year, debit-card fees cost him about $18,000, money that could have been profit or investment in his store.
Foster said he hopes Durbin's amendment survives the "sausage process" of lawmaking. "I like the safety, security and convenience of plastic. We'd just like to see some fairer, reasonable rates," he added.
"Small business owners...are suffering from out-of-control swipe fees charged by big banks and credit-card companies," Welch said. "Congress must stand up to the special interests swarming the Hill this week to kill the Durbin amendment. We must do the right thing by fighting for small businesses and the American consumer."
Swipe fees are the average 2% of the total transaction cost that credit-card companies and their member banks collect from U.S. retailers, local governments, charities, universities and more, every time they accept a credit or debit card as a form of payment. The U.S. currently pays the highest swipe fees in the worldwith rates that have tripled in less than a decade. Reform would help small businesses to grow, offer better pay to their employees, and pass savings on to their customers.
"I have owned my small business for almost four decades. Year after year, I have seen the effect of these fees firsthand. Last year Visa and MasterCard made more off of my store than I did. And I never once saw anyone from Visa or MasterCard mopping the floor, washing the windows, or taking inventory. No they just want to take money from my cash register," said Dennis Lane, national spokesperson for Reform Swipe Fees NOW! and a 7-Eleven franchise owner. "The facts are on our side against the massive lobbying campaigns by Visa and MasterCard. All Congress needs to do now is include the provision as part of financial reform, and small businesses and consumers will see relief."
Kyle Kempf of the National Small Business Association said, "The small-business members of NSBA are proponents of free enterprise, and the current interchange system defies the principles of a competitive market. For instance, it currently is 43 times more expensive for a small business to process a $100 debit-card transaction than a traditional paper check. The small-business members of the National Small Business Association urge Congress to retain the Durbin Amendment, in its entirety, in its financial regulatory reform package."
The Durbin amendment would ensure these fees are "reasonable and proportional" to the cost of processing the transaction. At the same time, the Durbin amendment protects more than 99% of credit unions and small banks across the country, supporters said.
The press conference on Thursday came just a day after Senator Durbin released a U.S. Treasury report indicating that American taxpayers pay more than $116 million a year, or more than $320,000 a day, in swipe fees for government credit-card and debit-card purchases.
Reform Swipe Fees NOW! is a project by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). The project unites U.S. business owners, small and large, in a campaign for fair credit-card swipe fees.
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