The "Stop Sticking It To Us" Coalition, representing over 200,000 Canadian businesses, small, mid and large, is gathering in Ottawa this week to combat overcharging by VISA and MasterCard. Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, Retail Council of Canada President, Diane J. Brisebois said, "The credit card companies are pushing to take over debit transactions and hike credit card service charges. That's bad for merchants, and bad for consumers. At a time when governments are asking Canadians to stimulate the economy by spending on goods and services, credit card companies skimming more off the top is not helping our economic recovery."
The U.S.-based credit card companies have been pushing worldwide to take over the debit card business and increase service charges on credit card transactions. In the United States, for example, Visa and MasterCard now control over 75% of the debit card market. U.S. merchants and customers pay heavily for the card company's dominance of that market. A large retailer with stores in the U.S. reports it pays 70 cents on an average U.S. transaction. In contrast, the smallest retailer in RCC's Canadian program pays 7 cents – a differential of 900%.
In the past year, skyrocketing credit card fees and VISA/MasterCard domination of the debit card business have emerged as major issues in the United States, Australia and the U.K.
"Now the struggle is coming to Canada," said Brisebois. Parliamentary hearings on the issue are being conducted by both the House Committee on Industry and the Senate Banking Committee. "We're encouraged that both government and opposition committee members are willing to look into this," added Brisebois. "We are optimistic that the parliamentary examinations will turn into government action to protect consumers and merchants from ballooning credit card company fees and charges. Protecting our Made-in-Canada, not-for-profit debit card system is a key objective for our over 200,000 members and for consumers who don't want to pay more simply to access their own money."
About the Stop Sticking It To Us Coalition
The StopStickingItToUs Coalition is a group of Canadian associations, led by Retail Council of Canada and backed by over 200,000 businesses from coast-to-coast, that is standing up to the Big Credit Card Companies to put a stop to skyrocketing fees.
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