California Assemblyman and candidate for Attorney General Pedro Nava has announced that the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee, which he chairs, will hold at least one hearing in January 2010 to investigate credit card interchange rates.
"With the price of gas at more than $3 a gallon, credit card companies and their banks that sponsor gasoline credit cards are collecting as much as 8 cents per gallon for interchange fees. We need to examine our options to lower these fees and pass the savings on to California's struggling consumers," Nava said in an announcement of the hearing.
Nava said he also plans to sponsor an assembly resolution before the end of the year expressing support for the federal legislation that would address card interchange at the federal level.
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"According to UnfairCreditCardFees.com, hidden credit card interchange fees inflate the cost of nearly everything consumers buy, even when you pay cash. Two dollars of every $100 the consumer spends using credit cards goes directly to the credit card industry. Americans paid over $48 billion in interchange fees in 2008, more than twice what was paid in credit card late fees and three times ATM fees," said Nava.
UnfairCardFees.com is the home Web site of the Merchant's Payments Coalition, an association of retailers organized around the interchange issue. Neva's hearing announcement also contained a quote from Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Association.
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