Visa to cut consumer credit fees for U.S. small businesses by 10%

Visa Inc will reduce its consumer credit interchange fees for small businesses in the United States by 10%, effective next month, to help merchants recover quickly from the impact of the ongoing epidemic , Reuters reported .

Visa Inc, the world's largest payments processor, is reducing interchange fees — the fee merchants pay to issuing banks every time a consumer swipes a card — for 90% of U.S. businesses on online and in-person consumer credit transactions, according to documents it has reviewed .

The changes will apply to merchants with Visa consumer credit lines of up to $250,000, according to a source familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because the document is confidential.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Visa and Mastercard have seen more and more consumers turn to online payment methods , and more and more consumers are choosing to use cards to pay for clothes, food, groceries and even daily leisure consumption. The fees paid by merchants to card companies are also getting higher and higher, which invisibly increases the costs of merchants!

It is understood that the two payment processors had planned to increase payment fees for customers of US merchants when using cards online last year , and later postponed the plan to April 2022. It is understood that a spokesperson for Visa confirmed the authenticity of the document.

Regarding the high fees charged by Visa cards, Amazon issued a statement in November last year, stating that its platform would no longer accept payments from Visa UK-issued credit cards starting January 19, 2022. However, on the Monday before January 19 this year, Amazon stated that it would continue to accept Visa credit cards for consumption in the UK!

Despite the reversal, Amazon's move shows that even the largest retailers are struggling to keep up with soaring card fees. And today's reduction in transaction fees is good news for some smaller retailers!

It is understood that after the Amazon Visa dispute, a coalition of industry associations of some of the world's largest retailers called on US antitrust regulators to review the fees charged by credit card companies. But there is no clear result yet!

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