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Over a month ago, on June 5, 2008, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation aimed at helping merchants with the rising costs of interchange fees. His bill is S. 3086 Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008. But, did you know that another bill with the same title was introduced by House Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Chris Cannon (R-UT) on March 6th of this year as H.R. 5546? Why are both the House and the Senate pursuing these bills?

Without sounding too obvious, the current credit crunch many are facing particularly affects merchants who are dealing with the rising cost of goods and services. The latter includes interchange fees. The two bills in Congress address the need for merchants to be able to negotiate the interchange fees they pay to credit card companies. Some of the debate in Congress calls interchange fees “hidden fees” that must be brought out into public focus.

While Congress is in summer session, I want to begin a series that will:

1. Shed light on what interchange fees are,
2. Talk about the history of these fees, and
3. Follow these two bills through the legislative process.

Do you understand what interchange fees are and how they affect not only you as merchants but your customers as well? As I begin this series, I want to hear from you about interchange fees. What questions can I answer for you?

Drop us a line. We look forward to hearing from you.

With fraud on the rise, online merchants face increasing risks. In card-not-present transactions, there are two basic levels of credit card validation used to validate that credit cards presented for payment actually belong to the person initiating the transaction. Continue reading "Validating Credit Cards"