A story written in the Bradenton Herald talks about the effects of Interchange and how it affects retailers:  Here's a sampling:

Credit card fees decried |

Representatives of several retail organizations delivered a scathing report Monday about the state of credit card fees on businesses.

Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Retail Federation, said interchange or “swipe” fees that credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard charge on each transaction are making it harder and harder for small businesses to remain profitable.

In 2001, Visa and MasterCard collected about $16 billion in fees. Last year, the two companies combined collected roughly $48 billion, Duncan said.

“It (the fee) typically is around 2 percent,” Duncan said. “Now to put that number into perspective, for most merchants, if you look at their after-tax profits ... the net profit is only about 2 percent. So the fees are as much or more in some cases as most merchants’ net profits. And the fees have increased dramatically.”

Doug Kantor, counsel to the National Association of Convenience Stores, said the fees have become so burdensome that Marion, Walton, Osceola and Brevard counties in Florida have stopped accepting Visa for tax payments.

“Obviously, we’re in a day and age where these local businesses don’t have the option to say, ‘I won’t take Visa,’ or ‘I won’t take MasterCard.’ So many people now have those cards,” he said. “They simply can’t stay in business and do that in any realistic way. County tax collectors can because people have to pay their taxes.”

Continue Reading: http://www.bradenton.com/business/story/1496301.html

Visa, Interchange Fees, PIN Debit, National Retail Federation