Vermont governor urged to sign credit card bill by NRF
Vermont governor Jim Douglas was urged by the National Retail Federation to sign legislation that was passed last week. The legislation was to make it easier for c-stores and other merchants to give a discount to the customers that pay by cash, check or debit card, instead of the credit card.
Tuesday witnessed a voice vote, wherein the Senate collectively agreed to the amendments that were made in the house. The bill initially passed the Senate with a 30-0 majority on March 31, clearing the House 139-0 and is now at the hands of the governor for approval.
The NRF president testified that this bill has been approved by the card industry and the legislation will not have any negative impact on the issuance of credit card in Vermont, and will not come in the way of the state residents or visitors from making use of their cards while in Vermont.
If made into a law, this bill would facilitate the Vermont retailers to put into effect a minimum credit card purchase of up to $10, without any problem from Visa and MasterCard, which explicitly prohibit minimum purchase amounts. But, retailers are in favor of the minimum purchase amounts since the swipe fees can overtake the merchant’s profit on small transactions.
Card companies will also be denies from enforcing rules on merchant about pricing items or even blocking a merchant from giving out discounts for cash, checks, debit cards or ever credit cards with low swipe fees. Since swipe fees vary across all these different forms of transactions, retailers tend to favor the ones with the lower amount. Additionally, Visa and MasterCard cannot force a retailer to accept cards at all store locations, if the retailer does not want to accept them at certain locations.
Without doubt, the legislation was strongly supported by the NRF on behalf of retailers across the country, but the fight for the passage of this measure was headed by the Vermont Retail Association as well as the Vermont Grocers Association.
Part of the bill has been derived from the Credit Card Interchange Fees Act, federal legislation fees charged to merchants sponsored by the U.S. Representative Peter Welch, D-Vt., who is awaiting action in Washington.
The NRF president reiterated the need for the bill by explaining that Visa and MasterCard rules successfully compel merchants to push the charge on to customers by encouraging them to be incorporated in the marketed cost of products and making price reductions challenging.
