Retailers win $7.25B in settlement over credit card fees

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-1 ... -suit.html

Good win for the retailers! I'd still like to see cash discounts.

"July 14--Visa, MasterCard and 13 of the country's biggest banks have agreed to pay $7.25 billion to settle accusations by retailers that they engaged in price-fixing on credit card transaction fees.

The settlement, on behalf of about 7 million retailers, could be the largest antitrust class-action settlement in U.S. history and is expected to alter the price structure around the plastic cards that are a central feature of U.S. commerce."

For once I agree with you... Nice to see the retailers stick it to the banks...again. It WOULD be nice to see the savings reflected at the cash-register.

Its hard to tell from the article if this is a permanent solution though, or just a one time payback to retailers. I don't believe in monopoly power, if there is no free market competition in the credit card transaction business, then the gov't and courts do need to step in and regulate fair fees. Just like with Electric utilities.

Fees from credit cards are horrible and they a much higher if you are a small business as typically you must run over $10000.00 a month through before you start seeing the fees go down.

Every type of card you pay different fees on cash back and company cards are the highest and don't even get me started with American Express.

Another thing you might not know is that if a retailer can not get your card to swipe and they have to enter the number manually there is a higher fee for that because it is at higher risk for fruad.

This is just a prediction but my guess in the future you will see more retailers charging extra to customers paying with credit. Many companies in the service industry already do or they build it into their pricing.

Remember for the little guy cash is always best.

Forgot to add one misconception many of my customers have is that I do not pay fees on debit cards. This is false while the percentage of the purchase that gets paid is lower the retailer still pays and we pay a flat transaction fee on all transactions.

Some of the people I buy from still offer a discount for cash, even if Visa and Mastercard don't like it.

One of the local retailers I used preferred a certain transaction style, I forgot if it was debit or credit. I used to give them what they asked for, but now I use cash except at the gas pump or hotels.

It is BS that the retailers are financing this credit card Rewards BS mentality, and ultimately higher prices.

Concur. I never took credit cards, checks or cash only. I can see why that would not work in your business.

On the flip side, I know some people with high dollar retail stores that put all their company expenses through their credit card and had enough volume to fly all over the world on the accumulated points.

mountaindollar wrote: Fees from credit cards are horrible and they a much higher if you are a small business as typically you must run over $10000.00 a month through before you start seeing the fees go down.

Every type of card you pay different fees on cash back and company cards are the highest and don't even get me started with American Express.

Another thing you might not know is that if a retailer can not get your card to swipe and they have to enter the number manually there is a higher fee for that because it is at higher risk for fruad.

This is just a prediction but my guess in the future you will see more retailers charging extra to customers paying with credit. Many companies in the service industry already do or they build it into their pricing.

Remember for the little guy cash is always best.