Retail Debit Fees May Be Capped

		<a href='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a9cd87eb&cb=172171982' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=1&cb=172171982&n=a9cd87eb' border='0' alt='' /></a>	May 26, 2012 Log in / Register
			Text Size

Trending: gay marriage barack obama ndaa robert scheer chris hedges

TED: 'A Money-Soaked Orgy of Self-Congratulatory Futurism'

Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’

Russia and Exxon Mobil Sign Arctic Oil Deal

I Can't Hear Myself Think

A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else

Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’

Why Bain Questions Matter
By Eugene Robinson

A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else
By David Sirota

OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die
By Ryan Knutson, PBS Frontline, and Liz Day, ProPublica

A Big Buyout at the Postal Service

TED: ‘A Money-Soaked Orgy of Self-Congratulatory Futurism’

Amazon Is Latest to Bail Out on ALEC

Russia and Exxon Mobil Sign Arctic Oil Deal

Male Pill May Be Within Reach

It’s Wait and See as Egypt Counts the Votes

Student Debt as a Human Rights Issue

Senate Aims to Advance Government Surveillance Rules

Romney Backs Off 4 Percent Unemployment Claim

North Carolina Pastor Advocates Putting Gays and Lesbians in Electrified Pen

I Can’t Hear Myself Think
By Dexter Palmer

Portraits of His People: A Tribute to Willie Middlebrook
By Paul Von Blum

Better Than We Found It
By Darrell Park

The Good-Natured Dictator
By Richard Schickel

The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking

Dig led by Mike Rose

Financial Meltdown 101

A Dig compiled by the editors of Truthdig

Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World’s Prosperity Depends on It

By Zachary Karabell
$14.30

Retail Debit Fees May Be Capped

Flickr / soathevy

Under an amendment passed by the Senate this week, debit card charges would be limited, though credit card charges would remain untouched.

The beleaguered banking industry suffered yet another blow Thursday evening after the Senate voted to impose price controls on debit transactions, a move that follows years of begging by retailers for governmental limits on the high charges demanded by banks every time a consumer swipes a debit card. The amendment is in a bill that still must win Senate approval.—JCL

The New York Times:

Retailers have begged Congress for years, in vain, to limit the fees they must pay to banks when customers swipe credit or debit cards. Bills never reached a vote. Amendments were left on the table. The Senate did not even grant the courtesy of a committee hearing.

That long record of futility ended in a landslide Thursday night. Sixty-four senators, including 17 Republicans, agreed to impose price controls on debit transactions over the furious objections of the beleaguered banking industry.

The amendment to the Senate’s sweeping financial legislation could save billions of dollars for family restaurants and dry cleaners, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com, and every other business whose customers increasingly pay with debit cards. It does not address credit card fees directly.

Consumers also could save money, particularly at businesses like grocery stores that compete on price. But some experts warned that lower profit margins could lead banks to curtail bank card reward programs.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

TAGS: banking industry banks capitalism charges credit card debit card plastic regulation senate

Related Entries

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Small Biz Lobby Suits Up Against Health Care

Next item: Schwarzenegger Plans to Slash Spending

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.

By melena, May 16, 2010 at 9:25 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

this is great news. I never understood why banks can offer rewards programs that are then paid by the merchants. If I want to give my customers a discount I decide how and when, not I have to earn less so the the bank can get all the good publicity and earnings.

Report this

By Granny, May 16, 2010 at 8:54 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The The New York Times suggests the banking industry is beleaguered.

Beleaguered: To harass; beset: as in, We are beleaguered by problems.

I think beleaguered should be replaced by Besieged: as in, We are surrounded by hostile forces.

But I wont be happy until I see besieged replaced by the adjective Conquered: as in, decisively defeated.

Report this

By RAE, May 15, 2010 at 10:02 am Link to this comment

#1. Who in hell needs “bank card reward programs?” This crap is for complete fools who are the only people stupid enough to think that the banks are running those programs for THE BENEFIT OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.

#2. No one will ever charge me a fee to pay for something. I will pay with “legal tender” - you know - that stuff the government prints, that we call cash… or just not pay. I’ll do without if my creditor-to-be won’t take cash.

#3. I should get a discount of at least 5% for paying cash… the retailer doesn’t have to pay anyone a fee for accepting cash… he/she just has to get off their lazy butts and take the damned stuff to the bank once in a while.

#4. (and final rant). The banking business is, on the whole, LEGALIZED THEFT. How many other franchises, other than perhaps McDonald’s and Burger King, have swallowed up valuable real estate like banks have (and at least you get something for your money at those centers of unhealthly eating)?

Look in the downtowns of every city… many of the MAJOR buildings are owned by BANKS. Like man, where did a business whose only contribution to the common good is shuffling paper around, get all the money to own/build all those billion dollar buildings? Right… THEY STEAL IT FROM “LITTLE PEOPLE” - dollar by dollar… for DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

I haven’t been inside a bank for 30 years and will never do so again. Only because I have to have somewhere to deposit pension cheques I use a Credit Union… but inch by inch, even they’re becoming indistinguishable from banks. Believe it or not my Credit Union is now going to charge me ONE DOLLAR ($1.00) per month for having an account there. Doesn’t seem to matter they aren’t paying me ONE PENNY interest on the several thousands of dollars on deposit. So they get to loan out my thousands at 8% AND charge me for loaning them the money to do it! It’s out and out THEFT.

The day they try to charge me for using any in/out transactions from my account or their “plastic” is the day I use cash exclusively… and mostly “under the table” - amazing the discounts you can get from some trades when you don’t need to bother with the “paperwork.”

Report this