July 13, 2011
Guy West, chairman of the board and president of the Hispanic Institute, in an op-ed for the Buffalo News called debit swipe fee reform a “victory” for consumers and urged lawmakers to examine credit card interchange as well.
“But while this debit card fee cap is a victory for consumers, lawmakers shouldn’t stop here,” West wrote. “The same problem, after all, exists with credit cards, whose interchange fees cost retailers almost $50 billion a year… The financial burden of credit card fees on consumers, 78 percent of whom have at least one and the majority more than that, is growing heavier each day.”
He added that credit card interchange fees households pay on average have tripled over the past decade to $427.
“With more than 600 million credit cards in circulation in the United States today, it’s all the more imperative that the government reform these fees, too,” he continued.
He noted that fees affect “low-income consumers and Hispanic communities especially hard.”
“A study from my organization, the Hispanic Institute, found that these fees amounted to a transfer of $1 billion in wealth from low-income consumers to higher income consumers who were more likely to have cards with rewards programs,” he stated.
Click here to read West’s complete op-ed.
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