Gas station owners say they have had it with credit card fees. The more gas prices increase, and the larger the purchase, the greater the fee the retailer pays to the credit card companies. Gas stations say the fees are eating them alive.
The fee is called an "interchange fee."
The Associated Press explains:
The percentage is fixed — usually at just under 2 percent — but the dollar amount of the fee rises with the price of the goods or services.
As gas tops $4 a gallon, that pushes fees toward 10 cents a gallon. Now stations, which typically mark up gasoline by 11 to 12 cents a gallon, are seeing profits shrink or even reverse.
The National Retail Federation is turning to Congress for relief.
The AP story adds:
The National Retail Federation says gas prices point to the unfairness of the system: Gas stations are paying more in interchange fees because the price of gas has gone up, while the cost of processing credit or debit cards remains the same.
"We have always contended that it doesn't cost Visa and MasterCard any more to process a $1,000 transaction than it does a $100 transaction," said J. Craig Shearman, vice president of government affairs at the retail federation.
The credit card companies say fees are just part of the cost of doing business.
Lots of interesting angles here on how the nation's financial...
