Tag Archives: interchange fees

Interchange Settlement Given Preliminary OK

On Friday, the Judge presiding over the controversial Interchange Settlement case in Brooklyn, N.Y. gave preliminary approval to the settlement of credit card interchange litigation announced July 13. The Official Merchant Services Blog recently explained why the controversial Interchange settlement was being considered for preliminary approval, despite the backlash from merchants and large corporations. We also began talking about the possibility of ‘The Big Cash Comeback’ when the settlement was first announced, and later we discussed the opposition to the settlement.

U.S. District Judge John Gleeson indicated in late October that his cursory review showed that the settlement probably met the legal requirements for preliminary approval. He scheduled a hearing for Nov. 9 to get input from lawyers for the merchant plaintiffs and network and bank defendants. The judge said final approval requires a higher standard, and lawyers don’t expect final sign-off anytime before 2013. Opponents argued that the plan didn’t even meet the lower threshold for a preliminary approval.

The National Retail Federation, the leading retail-industry trade group and an outspoken foe of the agreement, quickly issued a statement saying it would “explore all legal options.” But the Electronic Payments Coalition, a lobbying group of card networks and banks, said it viewed Gleeson’s ruling “as further indication that this historic settlement is a fair and balanced resolution to the epic swipe-fee battle.”

The NRF’s Mallory Duncan said in a statement  that “retailers, their customers and competition would suffer irreparable harm if this one-sided deal is allowed to move forward. We will consult with our attorneys and act as soon as possible to correct this injustice.” The NRF is not a plaintiff in this case, and made no mention of which legal remedies it would pursue.

MasterCard Inc. general counsel Noah Hanft said in a statement that the settlement “was reached with the assistance of the court and was supported by the merchant class representing millions of large and small retailers, and prominent trade groups across the country.” MasterCard also said it remains confident that “the court will grant final approval in the coming months.”

Visa Inc. said “this settlement is a fair and reasonable compromise for all parties. It is the result of two years of negotiation between retailers, their legal counsel, the networks, financial institutions and two highly regarded mediators under the supervision of the court.”

Merchants and some trade associations sued Visa, MasterCard, and about a dozen banks in 2005 alleging credit card interchange is unfair under federal antitrust laws. With a trial set for September 2012, the parties reached a settlement that calls for the defendants to pay more than $6 billion in damages and temporarily lower credit interchange to the tune of $1.2 billion. The networks also are to grant relief from some of their rules, including an easing of restrictions on surcharging, and let merchants negotiate in groups in the interchange-setting process. In return, the merchants are to agree not to sue the networks over interchange and rules in the future.

Opponents said the plan would protect what they view as anti-competitive interchange practices from further challenges by merchants, even from merchants that don’t yet exist. Opponents also questioned the value of the new surcharging freedoms, noting that 10 states prohibit the practice. This settlement attempts to force a one-size-fits-all solution onto a wildly diverse group of merchants, which may be extremely unsuccessful.

While we have discussed this settlement from different aspects previously, noting the advantages it would seem to give the Issuing Banks over merchants, the settlement seems to be proceeding along without any further adjustment or negotiation. Although it is not finalized yet, the dissenter’s cries seem to be going unheard, as they believe that the settlement protects the status quo more than anything, and will not change the way the networks set interchange. Host Merchant Services will keep you informed of all the latest news involving this legal battle between the merchants and the card-issuing giants.

HMS Small Ticket Program

Today’s edition of the Official Merchant Services Blog will discuss the best way for merchants to save money on fees when accepting credit or debit cards for smaller transactions. Host Merchant Services is committed to bringing its clients the lowest fees in the industry. Our Small Ticket Program is a feature that helps us do just that for those merchants who process transactions at $15 or less.

Many merchants have seen debit savings thanks to the Durbin Amendment, which caps the Interchange Fees that Visa and MasterCard charge for debit cards at $0.24 and 5 basis points. Smaller merchants do not see the savings when running transactions under $15, since the 24-cent per item fee and the 5 basis points amount to 2.1% of the total ticket, before any additional fees are incorporated.

The Small Ticket Program however, allows qualifying merchants to pay a per item fee of only 5 cents, while paying an interchange rate of 1.6% for Visa. MasterCard has set its small ticket rate at 4 cents and 1.55%. This program saves merchants money on lower transaction amounts, since the per item fee is less of a burden on them in terms of overall effective rate.

The Interchange category for small tickets is available for merchants who are on Interchange Plus pricing, and who qualify under the Visa business types listed below.  Merchants enrolled in flat rate pricing or any type of three-tiered pricing will not be able to utilize these savings, which is just another way Interchange Plus pricing is truly the best out there.

While some processing companies hide added percentage points in the difference that exists between small ticket and large ticket processing, Host Merchant Services gives the savings directly to you. Our Small Ticket Program offers a better Interchange category and a lower per item fee, saving you more money in processing fees for all purchases $15 or less.

Visa opened up the types of businesses that qualify for Small Ticket Processing in November, 2010. Now each of these industries qualify:

  • Local Commuter Transport
  • Limos & Taxis
  • Bus Lines
  • Bridge & Road Fees/Tolls
  • Grocery Stores/Supermarkets
  • Convenience Stores
  • Service Stations
  • Fast Food Restaurant
  • Drug Stores
  • Book Stores
  • News Dealers, Newsstands
  • Dry Cleaners
  • Quick Copy, Reproduction & Blueprint
  • Parking Lots & Garages
  • Car Washes
  • Motion Picture Theater
  • Video Tape Rental Stores
  • Post Stamps/Government Only

 

If you qualify under any one of these categories, contact Host Merchant Services for your small ticket savings right away. Host Merchant Services promises: we deliver personal service and clarity and as always, we want to keep merchants informed of any potential savings.

NRF Opposes Interchange Settlement

It’s been a little while since the Official Merchant Services Blog touched on the increasingly sensitive topic of the Credit Card Interchange Settlement. We first talked about the possibility of ‘The Big Cash Comeback’ when the settlement was first announced, and later we discussed the opposition to the settlement.

Seven years after the first lawsuits were actually filed against the bank card networks and some leading banks, a tentative settlement was reached on July 13 of this year.  The agreement has had many mixed reviews, and some big name retailers have come out against it, including most recently the National Retailers Foundation, the nations largest retail trade association.  The NRF’s members operate 3.6 million stores nationwide, however the organization itself is not involved in the lawsuit, which includes individual and class merchants as well as trade-group plaintiffs.

Under the proposal, the main defendants, Visa and MasterCard will pay $6.6 billion in damages and temporarily reduce interchange rates to save merchants another $1.2 billion. Merchants also will get greater freedom to surcharge card transactions and could form bargaining groups to negotiate interchange with the networks. In return, the networks will be freed from future legal challenges from merchants regarding interchange rates and merchant rules, even from merchants that didn’t participate in the current lawsuit.

I think the key points here are the temporary reduction of interchange rates as well as the fact that all merchants give up their rights to sue Visa and MasterCard upon accepting the settlement.  Merchants will most certainly be satisfied by the reduction of interchange rates, but the drop will only be temporary.  After a few months Visa and MasterCard will raise them again, and continue to collect outlandish fees for credit card transactions.  Also, not every merchant is involved in this suit. I don’t think it’s a good deal for merchants to give up any of their rights, particularly the rights to any future litigation.

The National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO) released a statement on Monday, announcing their dismissal of the settlement, “We joined this lawsuit in search of real reform to a broken system, one that is shielded from normal competitive forces. This proposed settlement does not achieve this goal. It lacks meaningful fixes to a system that allowed Visa and MasterCard to set artificially high swipe fees and provided retailers and consumers with no choice except to pay.”

This statement echo’s the cries of dissenters, who say the settlement protects the status quo more than anything, and will not change the way the networks set interchange.

In conclusion, the settlement still faces harsh criticism, and Visa and MasterCard have not had much to say to those who oppose it.  Only time will tell if the plaintiffs decide to accept the deal, or push back for a settlement more in their favor.  Host Merchant Services will keep you informed of all the latest news involving this legal battle between the merchants and the card-issuing giants.

Durbin Aftermath: Banks Go Ninja Style

The Official Merchant Services Blog continues its far reaching and ongoing coverage of the Durbin Amendment and the aftermath of what this legislation brings. Just a quick recap of what the Durbin Amendment did: On October 1, the legislation put in place a cap on interchange fees from debit card usage. Prior to the legislation taking affect, the fee merchants were charged on the average transaction was around 44 cents. The cap put in place by this finance reform legislation put the ceiling for the fee at 21 cents, with provisions in place that allowed most banks to reach a maximum of 24 cents for the transaction. This cut into the profits that banks were essentially “banking on.”

Host Merchant Services provided an extensive and thorough analysis of the Durbin Amendment before it took affect. And our analysis predicted the same reaction from the banking industry that many other media sources predicted –– Banks would not want to lose those profits. Billions of dollars were at stake. The banking industry’s reaction is pretty straightforward: The burden of the fees would be shifted to other parts of the services they offer. The costs and fees would go from the merchants, to the consumer.

Bank of America Takes the Heat

There was a very public media backlash over “Round 1” of this plan, as people slammed the banks for their plans to add monthly fees to debit card usage. The most notable reaction was against Bank of America, who announced they were going to charge customers a $5 monthly fee to use debit cards. This announcement polarized the Occupy Wall Street movement giving them a target for their ire and then was slammed in a wide variety of media outlets (including one Fox News Anchor who cut her debit card up on the air).

This very public display prompted all the banks considering this kind of fee to back off of the idea. With Bank of America itself being the last to relent.

The Burden of Billions

But that didn’t solve the problem. The big banks still have billions of dollars in losses from the hard cap on interchange fees that they need to make up for. And so the current plan is to spread them out through their other services. The customers are still going to shoulder the burden of these billions of dollars. It’s just now the burden is going to be much harder to spot. Which makes for less media coverage and more customer acceptance –– it’s just not as easy to slam banks for doing things like raising the cost of replacing a lost debit card or charging a fee for opening a basic checking account. The debit card usage fee was a sexy, easy to highlight news byte that could be latched onto. A news anchor could make their point with a pair of scissors. But what now? The billions of dollars are still there to be dropped onto bank customers. But now it’s tiny bits here for one service, tiny bits there for another service. It just can’t be wrapped up into one easy to characterize news angle.

Sneaking Fees Onto Consumers By Stealth

ABC News does its best to try, however, offering this article to explain that banks are now going ninja style with their plan of action. Sneaky fees hidden and peppered about their services. All combining to help make up the ground they were going to lose. But most of them deposited around their whole suite of services that it is much harder to latch on like a pit bull and berate them for doing this.  The ABC Article states: “After an uproar of protests, the largest banks have said they are not going to charge customers for debit card purchases, but hidden overdraft, ATM and other fees are likely to rise, say consumer advocates.”

The New York Times also mentions that banks are trying to avoid the noise with this plan B of theirs: “Even as Bank of America and other major lenders back away from charging customers to use their debit cards, many banks have been quietly imposing other new fees. Need to replace a lost debit card? Bank of America now charges $5 — or $20 for rush delivery. Deposit money with a mobile phone? At U.S. Bancorp, it is now 50 cents a check. Want cash wired to your account? Starting in December, that will cost $15 for each incoming domestic payment at TD Bank. Facing a reaction from an angry public and heightened scrutiny from regulators, banks are turning to all sorts of fees that fly under the radar. Everything, it seems, has a price.”

A moneymorning.com article which recapped the New York Times article cites the Durbin Amendment as a direct catalyst for this strategy: “Banks blame increased regulations that limit fees and other charges for wiping out an estimated $12 billion in yearly income. Now it costs banks between $200 and $300 a year to maintain a retail checking account, but they only take in about $85 to $115 in fees per account per year. “

Durbin Not The Cause?

The ABC News Article offers a counter to Durbin being the easy scapegoat: “[Ed] Mierzwinski [consumer program director  of U.S. Public Interest Research Group] said he believes banks are offering more a la carte services from what used to be one package offered to consumers. He said the trend is similar to what telephone companies have done over the years. ‘They’re un-bundling what used to be part of service and charging you more for it,’ he said. ‘Everybody blames Durbin. That’s hooey.’ “

Much of this was already predicted. Analysts that saw what Durbin was going to do knew the banks would have to scramble to recoup their perceived losses. Billions of dollars that they counted on couldn’t just disappear from their business plans and projections. That they would work added fees and rising costs of their other services was pretty much a no-brainer. These other areas of their service were not mentioned or affected by the finance reform legislation. Leaving banks open to make these kinds of adjustments. Occupy Wall Street is far more focused on house foreclosure practices than they are on the fee a bank charges you for using another bank’s card at their ATM.

The Bottom Line

And the bottom line is, the Dodd-Frank Act and its Durbin Amendment simply didn’t take enough of the variables into account to deal with this reaction. Even after all of this was predicted by the people on both sides of the debate. Yes, these changes are more stealthy than the straight up, in-your-face debit card usage fee. But no, they’re not that surprising. Just like a ninja in a boat full of pirates, these changes are standing on the deck as quiet as can be. But are very easy to see.

The Allure of Credit Cards for Holiday Shopping

With the Holiday Shopping Season fast approaching –– Black Friday is 11 days away, Cyber Monday is 14 days away –– the payment processing industry is still getting the last pieces in place for a brisk rush in the use of credit and debit cards. The Official Merchant Services Blog continues its series focusing on the impact the holiday shopping season is going to have on both the e-commerce industry and merchant services in general.

The battlefield is set between Debit cards and Credit cards. Debit cards received a huge boon from the federal government in the form of a cap on interchange fees that went live on October 1, 2011 in the form of the Durbin Amendment. This cap restricts the interchange fees that can be applied to Signature debit card transactions. The cap restricts the charge to between 21 and 24 cents per transaction. This is a huge cut from the previous average of 44 cents per transaction, and presents debit card transactions as an attractive option for merchants to start accepting right as we slip into the big holiday shopping rush.

That has left Credit card issuers scrambling for a response, trying to stay competitive and keep consumers answering “Credit” at the checkout line.

This Reuters article suggests one of the big campaigns that credit card issuers are going to push this year is a significant raise in rewards programs for their customers, tempting them to choose credit as their swipe of choice to get access to those sweet sweet rewards. A focus on cash back and travel rewards push the right buttons for consumers while holiday shopping.

A Look At The Numbers

Here’s a small chart detailing the dichotomy between debit card usage and credit card usage from consumers in 2010:

Merchant Services graphic for debit card versus credit card usage

The chart breaks down the chosen method of payment among a survey of credit card owners from 2010. Key numbers to note are the Travel category –– which is dominated by credit card use. It is unlikely that the Durbin Amendment and its changes are going to really affect that sector. But looking at the category listed as “Personal Items” –– which would tend to be the category for holiday gift purchases –– you’ll see a much tougher competition between the two transaction choices. This is where the Durbin Amendment changes to debit card swipe fees are going to have a large impact. And this is where the juicier cash back rewards have credit card issuers hoping they can keep things competitives.

According to the Reuters article: “For example, both Chase (CCF.A) and Citibank C.UL have cards that are offering new applicants $200 in cash back after they spend $500 on their cards.”

You Have to Dig to Find the Best Deals

Some of the best deals are not always displayed in easy to find places. The Reuters article cites a Citibank deal. On the Citi website it advertises the deal as $150 cash back on your first $500 of purchases. But then if you dig deeper by google searching “Citi Dividend $200” you find the better deal directly.

Making it Work For You

The really effective strategy to maximize these deals is to combine them with other deals you will be hit with during the holiday shopping season. The Reuters article notes: “Some cards (such as the Upromise card) have their own shopping portals that combine their rebates with rebates from merchants. In other cases, you can use your rewards points directly for holiday shopping; American Express (AXP.N) awards can be paid directly to Amazon for purchases, for example.”

This type of deal stacking gives consumers a lot of shopping incentive to choose credit as their swipe choice.