Feb 7, 2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 7, 2007 — The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) urges Congress to act on public concerns that, "Credit card companies should be required to disclose to consumers the amount of interchange fees they charge." These findings were revealed in a new Harris Interactive® poll of more than 2,200 U.S. adults.


More than 90 percent of the Americans surveyed agree that, "Congress should require credit card companies to be more open about their policies and practices regarding interchange fees."

     
"The message is clear," said FMI President and CEO Tim Hammonds. "Consumers want full disclosure of these costly, hidden fees."

     
"This lack of disclosure prevents shoppers from being able to make rational choices about how they pay for their purchases." Hammonds said. "Americans don’t believe this is right and they want Congress to step in to stop it."

     
Interchange is the fee collected from merchants as a percentage of every credit or debit VISA or MasterCard transaction. In 2005, these fees totaled $30.7 billion dollars, up more than 17 percent from 2004 and up 85 percent from 2001.

The survey found the following:

  • 94 percent of the U.S. adults surveyed agree that credit card companies should be required to disclose to consumers the amount of interchange fees they charge.

  • 93 percent said that credit card companies should be required to inform consumers how interchange fees are set.

  • 91 percent said Congress should require credit card companies to be more open about their policies and practices regarding interchange fees.

The survey results can be found at www.fmi.org/gr/interchange.

About the Survey

This survey was conducted online in the United States by Harris Interactive using its QuickQuerySM online omnibus service on behalf of the Merchants Payment Coalition from January 16-18, 2007, among 2,214 adults (aged 18 and older). Figures for region, age within gender, education, household income and race/ethnicity were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
     
With a pure probability sample of 2,214, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results would have a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points. Sampling error for data based on sub-samples would be higher and may vary. However, that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.