Some recession-ridden consumers and local governments – already facing severe budget constraints—are paying more for parking thanks to a move by the credit card and banking industry to increase its swipe fees on debit and credit cards used for parking, the Merchants Payments Coalition said today.
Instead of acknowledging the parking fee hikes as their own doing, Visa, MasterCard and the nation’s largest banks that issue cards have been falsely blaming the 2011 Durbin Amendment—a provision of the Dodd-Frank banking reform bill that actually reduced debit swipe fees.
Banks and credit card companies have been providing inaccurate information about the law, named after its sponsor U.S. Senator Dick Durbin.
“Banks and credit card companies blame debit reform for everything from obesity to bad weather. The bottom line is they will find any way they can to raise fees on consumers and Main Street businesses no matter what Congress or anyone else does,” said Doug Kantor, MPC counsel.
Senator Durbin issued a statement last week, criticizing the credit card industry for increasing the swipe fee on what is known as “small-ticket” items, like parking, in the first place:
“My amendment did not raise these fees, it put a ceiling on them…. The decision whether or not to increase transaction ‘swipe’ fees rests with Visa and MasterCard alone…. Blaming the Durbin Amendment for Visa’s and MasterCard’s decision to raise … fees is like blaming a traffic cop for a driver’s decision to speed and drive recklessly…. (This is) further evidence that
http://beforeitsnews.com/banksters/2012/11/banks-credit-cards-raise-fees-on-parking-then-shirk-the-blame-2432138.html
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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