More consumers than ever are paying with physical or digital credit cards, where megabanks have nearly monopolized the industry. NFIB Principal of Federal Government Relations, Andrea McGee, wrote an op-ed for Small Business Xchange about the importance of adding competition into the credit card marketplace and to prevent increases in credit card swipe fees. 

While charging merchants somewhere between 2%-4% of the transaction amount, credit card companies like VISA and Mastercard, who control 80% of the market, have consistently hiked swipe fees on businesses using their services, totaling a record $187.2 billion last year.  

Swipe fees have climbed 70% since the pandemic due to lack of competition, and they disproportionately affect small businesses. Because merchants and banks are both using VISA and Mastercard’s network for credit card processing, VISA and Mastercard can dictate the rates that banks charge the merchant and the rates that merchants pay banks for using bank-issued cards.  

The Credit Card Competition Act is a bipartisan bill that has been deliberated in Congress for the past three years that would help small businesses. It would require the nation’s largest financial institutions to enable credit cards to be processed over at least one competing network in addition to VISA and Mastercard. There are several well-established networks that provide cheaper, more secure services that would save merchants and consumers nearly $17 billion a year, savings that would greatly boost the growth and success of small businesses.  

Read the full op-ed for a comprehensive look at how credit cards impact our country’s small businesses and what Congress can do to reform this system.  

Take Action: Let Congress know credit card competition helps small business owners.