BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – When you shop at a local small business and use your credit card, your purchase could be costing them. Now, a Vermont leader is taking aim at extra fees.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Peter Welch confronted Visa and MasterCard leaders about their practice of “swipe fees”.
That’s a fee retailers pay when someone uses a credit card for a purchase.
According to Welch, those fees cause high costs for small businesses, totaling more than $100 billion last year alone.
“A concern that I think all of us have to have is the erosion of small businesses in our small communities. They are so essential to the well-being of where we live and how we live / The issue here is about the powerlessness of businesses. And there’s a difference between the bookstore, and Visa and Mastercard,” said Welch.
Welch touted the proposed Credit Card Competition Act which would create more competition in the credit card market and bring down prices for small businesses.
That bi-partisan bill would save consumers and businesses billions each year.