Texans Against Hidden Credit Card Fees is a new coalition comprised of a dozen statewide associations involved in a myriad of businesses.
They’ve come together to call for the state legislature to reign in the credit card industry’s fee structure and bring transparency to the industry they say is making billions off fees.
In a YouTube video to introduce the coalition, Dr. Emily Williams Knight of the Texas Restaurant Association spoke about how much credit card companies make off Texas, alone.
“Texans today pay over ten billion dollars every year in credit card processing fees,” Knight said. “These fees are not set in a competitive marketplace, and they are purposely hidden from consumers so that we won’t see or question the fees. There is no reason for Americans to pay the highest swipe fees in the industrialized world.”
Sandra Haverlah with the Texas Consumer Association, speaking in the same YouTube video for the coalition, said the average costs for families add up.
“The average family pays between eleven hundred and seventeen hundred dollars a year due to these hidden fees,” Haverlah said. “This hurts every Texan, but especially our low-and-middle-income families. Sadly, many of these families don’t even use credit cards. And yet they’re paying the fees because businesses build the cost into all the pricing.”
Attorney Kelsey Erickson Streufert with the Texas Restaurant Association commented on the vast number of fees consumers face every time they use plastic for a purchase.
“Visa and Mastercard control over 76% of the U.S. market,” Streufert said. “Then we have ten banks that control over 86% of the credit card issuing market. And because they control their entire market, they continue to raise their prices at an astounding pace and there’s really nothing anybody has been able to do about it thus far. American credit card processing fees have more than doubled over the past decade, and they’ve increased just 50% since 2020. So, we can draw a direct causation line between the market share these companies have and the ability they have to raise prices on every Texas business and every Texas consumer”
Texans Against Hidden Credit Card Fees is demanding Texas lawmakers require competition and transparency for the largest banks and credit card networks doing business in Texas.
For more information about Texans Against Hidden Credit Card Fees, visit: TXCreditCardTruth.com
Texans Against Hidden Credit Card Fees is comprised of these business and consumer associations:
- Texas Restaurant Association
- Texas Consumer Association
- Texas Retailers Association
- Texas Food and Fuel Association
- National Federation of Independent Business
- Texas Travel Alliance
- Texas Automobile Dealers Association
- Texas Hotel and Lodging Association
- Texas Package Store Association
- Theatre Owners of Mid-America
- Texas Live Events Coalition
- Texas Nursery and Landscape Coalition