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Parkmobile USA, a company that accepts mobile payments for parking charges, is facing a backlash after blaming its fee increase on a recent cap to debit card interchange rates.
October 31 -
A study released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Board showed that interchange fees are lower, but the savings were not passed on to consumers.
May 1 -
Community banks on average seem to be losing less revenue from a lower interchange cap that first forecast. Observers caution that those banks can't get too comfortable since market forces have yet to change the landscape.
January 31
WASHINGTON – Parkmobile USA has joined the ranks of its own critics, backtracking from a recent company statement tying fee increases to the controversial Durbin amendment.
The firm specializing in mobile payments for municipalities and other parking providers
Following the criticism, the company issued a mea culpa on Thursday, telling customers in an email that its prior explanation for the fee hike had been "overly simplistic."
The interchange cap has been a sore subject between banks and merchants since it was enacted in the Dodd-Frank Act, with the two sides fighting over how it will affect consumers. Parkmobile's stated reasoning behind its fee hike – which was announced in conjunction with a new online wallet option for customers to help them save on parking transaction costs –
Even the author of the interchange provision, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., blasted the company, charging that Visa and MasterCard are in fact responsible for such transaction fee hikes, and that a firm with a D.C. municipal contract should not weigh in about federal legislation.
But in its email Thursday, Parkmobile expressed regret for its earlier statement.
"Last week in a press release and email announcement introducing the Parkmobile Wallet, a simpler, lower cost way to pay for parking in the District of Columbia, the company made an overly simplistic statement about the underlying cause of increasing card transaction fees," Laurens Eckelboom, executive vice president for marketing and channels at Parkmobile, said in the email. "In an attempt to explain why costs have increased the company left the potentially confusing impression that federal legislation is to blame. The company apologizes for any confusion caused by this statement."