Interchange fees said to affect cost of using credit cards

09.28.09
By Nicholas Storie

Consumers tend to follow interest rates on their credit cards, but one major company is working to remind them that other factors also contribute to how much they end up paying for items they charge.

For several months now, the 7-Eleven convenience store chain has been collecting petition signatures urging Congress to take action on limiting interchange fees. The company recently announced that it had collected 1.6 million signatures over the summer.

"Customers share our frustration over the hidden fees that American retailers and, ultimately, consumers are forced to pay. They, too, want Congress to take action to regulate these unfair fees, which are the highest in the industrialized world," said 7-Eleven CEO Joe DePinto.

The company estimates that businesses and in turn, their customers, paid $48 billion in interchange fees last year. Far more attention has been paid in recent months to the amount consumers pay for interest and late fees directly on their own accounts.

The company is trying to have limits placed on these fees because along with forcing merchants to pass the cost onto consumers, it also maintains that the fees for some smaller transactions are higher than the actual profit involved.

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Like interest and other items, interchange fees also affect how much credit cards cost consumers.