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The Merchants Payments Coalition today announced the launch of a grass-roots print, radio, TV and online advertising campaign designed to convince consumers to urge members of Congress to support interchange-rate reform legislation. The campaign includes newspaper ads running in the districts of eight members of the House Financial Services Committee, which is examining credit card legislation this week. The coalition contends interchange last year cost consumers $48 billion in hidden costs. Merchant banks pay card issuers interchange and pass the expense on to their retailer clients as part of the discount rate. Merchants incorporate their costs into the prices of their products or services. "The credit card industry does not like consumers to know how much they are collecting in interchange," Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel at the National Retail Federation, said today during a telephone press conference announcing the campaign. The coalition's goal is to get legislative action on interchange-rate regulation this year through any means possible, he said. One route would be to tack a proposal to regulate or cap interchange rates onto existing bills that would force changes in credit card industry practices (CardLine, 3/27). Another could involve reintroducing bills from last year that focused specifically on interchange-rate regulation, such as those sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., (CardLine, 3/7/08) and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., (CardLine, 6/17/08). So far, the coalition says it has spent funds in the "six figures" on the new campaign. The ads drive consumers to the coalition's Web site, www.unfaircreditcardfees.com.
