Truro and District Chamber of Commerce Policy Resolution

Debit and Credit Card Interchange Fees

Background

Any business owner realizes the importance of having all legal methods of payments available to their customers. Paying by debit and/or credit card has become the method of choice for many consumers, replacing regular cash and cheque transactions. The vast majority of business owners accept that paying a transaction fee when a customer uses a debit/credit card is a necessary cost of doing business.

In an attempt to draw in more customers, credit card companies are offering an increasing number of reward cards. These cards offer increased benefits to consumers while increasing the amount of transactions made via credit cards. However, while business owners are receiving no tangible benefits for accepting these reward cards as a method of payment, they are facing increased interchange fees from the credit card companies. This practice is completely unfair to the business owner. The credit card companies benefit from the increased use of their cards, consumers benefit from increased rewards, while the business owner has to bear the burden of an increased transaction fee with no benefit whatsoever.

Motion

Be it resolved that the Truro and District Chamber of Commerce will actively lobby against increased transaction fees for business owners related to point and rewards cards for consumers. This will be done in the form of written and verbal correspondence with debit/credit card companies, all levels of government, as well as joint efforts with other like-minded concerned business organizations.

Passed at the 2009 AGM. Expires in 2011 unless renewed