Time for Congress to Put an End to Visa-MasterCard Price-Fixing

While business owners are struggling to keep operating costs and prices down, credit card companies and big banks charge them swipe fees that are extremely high and unreasonable if we consider how little it actually costs the banks to process credit card transactions.

Bill Leichsenring, the owner of two restaurants in Iowa, describes how much credit card fees hurt his businesses and calls on Congress to act and bring transparency and competitive pricing to the swipe fee system.

“We need transparency and competition. We need the ability to negotiate to reduce our operating costs so we can hold down prices.

I believe in free markets and don’t usually advocate government interference. But in cases like this, where the market is clearly broken, Congress needs to step in.

Members of Congress should determine why U.S. card swipe fees are so much higher — including the ratio of what is charged businesses vs. actual costs — and set about demanding competitive market pricing for swipe fees instead of the price-fixing we have today.”

Read Leichsenring’s article here.