Blog 4

My critique is over the cost of credit card swipe fees by the Star-Ledger editorial board linked with the Huffington Post. The author is commenting on the ever increasing credit card charges applied to credit card users. This article has an effect on any consumer who has credit cards. On average, an American has about 8 credit cards to their name. And the only people to be benefiting from this are the credit card issuers.
U.s. consumers and businesses pay higher charges than those in other developed nations, when it comes to purchasing with plastic according to a report by the Merchants Payment Coalition. The coalition, a group of retailers and other businesses wants Congress to crack down on what they claim are excessive charges. Excess and unnecessary charges are exactly what they are. Recently, Congress passed a bill about not increasing interest rates and credit card issues are retaliating against it and now are placing a charge on those consumers who actually pay their bill on time. The beauty part for the credit card issuer is that it scores twice-once in a transaction fee it gets from the merchant and again with an interest charge to the customer. In 2008, those charges produced $48 million for American banks, and avg. of $427 per household, the merchant coalition claims.
The Obama adminstration has criticized the banks for these high fees and lawmakers such as Senator Richard Durbin (R-Ill) have introduced legislation that would impose more restrictions on such fees. I agree that credit card issuers are the ones benefiting here and leaving consumers to hang dry. With all these fees coming form different directions it makes it difficult for one to try to even establish good credit. I feel its a constant game that I get tired of and I feel that most Americans get tired of to because it seems that we are on the losing team.