ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Senators on Capitol Hill are holding a hearing today to investigate the excessive swipe fees levied on retailers by Visa, Mastercard and the biggest banks. The credit card industry has been feeding misinformation to lawmakers and their staff. As a member of the convenience store industry, it’s imperative that you help set the record straight.

American businesses pay the highest swipe fees in the industrialized world, and they are c-stores’ second highest operating cost. In 2021, overall card fees paid by the convenience store industry were $13.5 billion, up 25.6% in 2021 versus 2020 ($10.7 billion), NACS SOI data indicate.

Because a large part of these fees is a percentage of the transaction amount, they go up with every cent of inflation and act as an inflation multiplier. We have seen a historic jump of more than 26% in our swipe fees in the past year, and Visa and Mastercard still went forward with swipe fee increases two weeks ago, ignoring the requests of a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Our businesses and our customers need relief.

You can help by asking Congress to #FightSwipeflation and hold Visa and Mastercard accountable for their price-fixing and anti-competitive behavior.