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Visa: Stop SQUASHING The Little Guy -- Reverse Your 200% Rate Increase on Small-Ticket Merchants
  1. Signatures
    89 out of 100,000
    Petitioning
    1. Joseph Saunders, Chairman of the Board at Visa, Inc.
  2. Created By
    Alisa Morkides
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Small-ticket retailers -- those with an average transaction of $10 or less -- are being squashed by Visa's recent move to dramatically increase their credit card swipe fees, by taking advantage of a loophole in the recently enacted Durbin Amendment.

Before Durbin, a coffee shop might pay a 7-cent fee on a $2 cup of coffee and a 35-cent fee on a $20 group order. Durbin hoped to cap the latter fee at 23 cents, and leave the first unaffected: a ceiling, not a guideline. Instead, that $2 cup of coffee now comes with a 22-cent interchange fee, an increase of over 200 percent.

Visa's price increase-- immediately matched by MasterCard -- was a cynical move to regain lost profits, a move that squashes small businesses and reduces their competitiveness against national retailers who benefit from lower card processing fees.  It also harms the American consumer, as small merchants will be forced to raise prices, money that will go directly into the ample coffers of Visa, MasterCard and their giant banking partners (the same guys Americans bailed out in the financial crisis).

Visa and MasterCard control over 80% of the credit market, and they charge American merchants the highest interchange fees in the world.  If Visa is allowed to continue raising interchange prices with impunity, the Visa/MasterCard Duopoly will turn Main Street into Pottersville.

Please join me in telling Visa you're fed up.  Sign my petition calling on Visa CEO Joseph Saunders to swiftly reverse their decision to more than triple credit card swipe fees on small-ticket businesses.

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Reverse Your Decision To Raise Swipe Fees on Small Businesses

Greetings,

I'm writing to express my outrage over Visa's decision to raise credit card swipe fees up to 200% on small-ticket businesses, by taking advantage of a loophole in the recently enacted Durbin Amendment.

This price increase is unconscionable. Listen, I know that the Durbin Amendment cramped your style by forcing you to reduce swipe fees on big-ticket retailers. But why did you have to go and raise prices on the small-ticket guys -- the ones whose average sale is less than $10, the ones who can least afford it?

Is it because you can, because they don't have the clout in Washington that the big guys do?

You make a decent living -- I'm sure struggling retailers and fed-up consumers are gratified to hear that your income for the past fiscal year is up 20%, to $3.6 billion dollars -- do you have to squeeze the last nickel out of the little guy?

Your cynical move to regain lost profits not only harms small businesses -- it also hurts American consumers. You think folks were angry when Bank of America tried to charge a $5 fee on its bank card statements? Wait till they find out that a $5 monthly charge is a mere pittance compared to the higher prices they'll now be forced to pay for a cup of coffee, a burger, a bagel -- pretty much anything that costs less than ten bucks.

Please, don't turn Main Street into Pottersville. Reverse this latest price increase on small-ticket businesses who are (or so lawmakers profess) the backbone of the economy. Americans have already bailed out too many big financial institutions -- they don't need more price increases that just go to fatten your wallet.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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