Monthly credit card fees
BEGINNING THIS MONTH—WHAT’S IN YOUR POCKET?
The reductions in credit card ‘swipe fees” is now into effect. As our members know, ACTA is part of the multi-association Small Business Matters Coalition, representing just over 98,000 businesses, which over the last couple of years, has vigorously pushed for regulatory reductions and controls of credit card fees.
These efforts have been met with some success. In November, 2014, the Government of Canada along with both MasterCard and Visa, agreed to reduce their fees to an “overall average” of 1.5%, along with committing to absolutely no increases in fees for a five year period. Our Coalition and ACTA, are of the view that these reductions are long overdue, but still not enough to provide meaningful relief for retailers, particularly small and medium size businesses. In other jurisdictions, such as Europe and Australia, fees are regulated and capped at 0.3% and 0.5% respectively.
In this election year, the Small Business Coalition will push this issue forward with all 3 political parties. But you will play a critical role in helping us to further reduce your fees. All Associations that are members of the Coalition will be asking their members to begin monitoring and reporting to their respective association, the actual percentage credit card fee reductions they are, or are not, seeing on their monthly statements.
ACTA has developed the below reporting template form to enable you to provide us with your monthly percentage reductions. We are not of course,asking for any sales or proprietary information. Even the percentage total you provide will be treated as confidential and only included as a total aggregate.
Taking a few minutes each month to fill in the blanks and return it to us, simply put, is an investment in your own bottom line. We need you to help us—to ultimately help you.
Credit card fees and the attendant issues that are part of the payments sector, continue to be a key priority for ACTA. Together, we will achieve a fair, transparent and accountable payments industry. |
