mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
I encourage everyone to read up on this subject as it could greatly affect many of us for a variety of reasons.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1838/text?s=1&r=3
Here are some Excerpts from a CBS article:
The bill in question is called the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 and the idea behind the legislation is to reduce the so-called "swipe fees" retailers pay every time a customer uses a credit card, which is usually about 2% of the purchase. The bill would allow more companies to process transactions, which should drive the cost down.
The problem, according to Kelly, is that those fees also fund the rewards programs.
"It's like taking our points and putting that into the hands of these huge retailers and it's not going to turn out well for consumers," he said.
Bill Rennie of the Massachusetts Retailers Association sees it differently, saying that smaller retailers are struggling under the weight of those fees.
"For retailers, after labor, credit card fees are probably your second highest cost," he said. "So we all love our rewards points, whether it's miles or cash back, or whatever. But we have to recognize there a cost to providing that, and it's a significant cost."
Rennie also said that retail pricing is incredibly competitive, and the elimination of those fees would leave room for retailers to reduce their prices.
The travelers we spoke with said eliminating rewards programs would have real consequences for their families.
This really is a complex subject and deserves some discussion. I can see where this can be really concerning to many, to include me.
Saying that the Retailers could save enough money so they could lower pricing IMHO is a false statement. Well maybe not false, because they certainly could lower pricing. But would they is the question?
We have recent history to lean on for this. During the Pandemic we had our costs of food, gas and so much more skyrocket. Now that inflations is down in the neighborhood of what we are use to, are we seeing these commodity prices come down too? I'm not where I live.
I just felt this would be a good discussion to have and help us all learn from each other.
@lux.ra_14 wrote:The chances of this becoming law are slender at best. Most DC journalists don't cover stuff that hasn't even had a committee hearing yet. The CBS story was deficient in not setting any context.
Meanwhile, Congress is having a hard time figuring out how to keep the lights on before the government shuts down at the end of the month. That's much more of an immediate possibility.
BTW, the link you provided just shows a bunch of stuff being referred to committees. As noted above, that's the first baby step for a bill to become a law. It's no guarantee of anything.
Yep it is a discussion. If you have other links you'd like us to consider, please feel free to post them.
