SO JUST HOW MUCH

2.00%

1.66%

1.50%

1.50%

1.35%

1.25%

1.20%

1.10%

.79%

.75%

.50%

.31%

.30%

U.S.

Mexico

Germany

Canada

Switzerland

Israel

Hungary

Spain

U.K.

Denmark

Australia

Finland

E.U.

OF A DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

THE U.S. PAYS MOREON CARD INTERCHANGE FEES THAN

ALMOST ANYWHEREELSE IN THE WORLD, MORE THANDOUBLE THE FEES PAID IN THE U.K.

NO WONDER MR. PIGLOOKS SO DARN SAD UP THERE.

So right now in the United States, a collection of over 5 million retailers are banding together to file a class-action anti-trust lawsuit against the nation’s major credit card companies and largest banks for strapping them with inordinately high fees when customers go plastic.

This case is a follow-up to the Durbin Amendment, part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection act passed in October 2011, which capped the amount a bank could charge merchants to process debit cards. This new lawsuit looks to shrink that cap to what retail-ers believe are more reasonable numbers.

What they’d like to see is a reduction from the current 2% maximum charge they pay to the rate Australia pays at .5%, which would bring the amount paid out to banks and card companies down by over $19 billion a year - a savings that they can pass along to consumers or free up for employee benefits. The effect on small business owners could be massive.

A CREDIT CARD INTERCHANGEFEE IS THE AMOUNT A BANK ORCREDIT CARD COMPANYCHARGES A MERCHANT FOR THEUSE OF A CUSTOMER’S CARD. INTHE UNITED STATESTHIS FEE IS EXTREMELY HIGH.

Collecting on the proposed new percentage cap, banks would have only raked in a quarter of the multi-billion dollar profits that they made in 2011. And as our use of credit and debit cards is ever increasing in a cashless world, those profits will only continue to grow unless something is done about it.

2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B2B

2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B

2B

2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B

2B

2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B

2B

2B 2B 2B 2B 2B 2B

2B

2B 2B 2B 2B

2B2B

2B

2B

2B2B 1996 SETTLEMENT 2012 LAWSUIT

The numbers are so remarkable that, if the lawsuit goes through as it stands, it would break a record for the larg-est anti-trust lawsuit in the history of the United States. The current record-holder is a similar 1996 decision that awarded retailers $3 billion in damages; this new law-suit seeks far more, to the tune of $96 billion. Even set-tling for a fraction of that, retailers will blow the old record out of the water and set a new standard against the unfair fees set by the banks and card companies.

WHAT DOES THISMEAN FOR THE BANKS AND CARDCOMPANIES? THE DIVIDENDS ARE

ENORMOUSON THESE INFLATED INTERCHANGEFEES. IF THE .5% CHANGE GETSPASSED, THE BANKS’S PROFITSWILL FALL DRASTICALLY.THE DIFFERENCE FROM THE CURRENT2% RATE IS, AS YOU CAN SEE, HUGE.

US BANCORP CITIBANK B.O.A. MORGAN CHASE$1.2B $3.0B $3.7B $5.8B

2B

2B

2B

412 44 5875 773

CUSTOMER RETAILER

ISSUER ACQUIRER

A.

B.

C.

NETWORK

D.E.

A. Customer makes $100 purchase

B. Retailer submits $100 transaction for approval

C. Card issuing bank approves, keeping interchange fee and leaving $98 dollars

D. Retailer’s bank takes further acquisition fee and passes remaining money along

E. Customer pays $100 and retailer must absorb more than $2 difference in cost

HOW IT ALL WORKS

FOR CREDITCARDASSIST.COM

2011 ACTUAL FEE PROFITS (2%) VS. PROPOSED REDUCEDRETURNS (.5%), A DIFFERENCE OF 19 BILLION