Congress Should Leave Your Credit Card Alone

Some of the country’s biggest retail companies are pressuring Congress to regulate credit cards in a way that would benefit them and hurt consumers. Revenues at five of the biggest retail companies reached a combined total of $1.3 trillion in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proposals they are pushing would benefit big retailers like Walmart and Amazon and hurt consumers. When similar restrictions were put on debit cards a decade ago through the Durbin Amendment as part of Dodd-Frank, millions of low-income and minority Americans lost out big time.

According to a Boston University study, those debit rules cost low-income consumers about $160 per year. A similar study from the University of Pennsylvania found that the availability of free checking accounts fell from 60% to 20%. Finally, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that 77% of retailers failed to reduce prices after the changes were enacted and 21% actually INCREASED prices.

Similar regulations applied to credit cards would mean consumers lose access to free credit cards and billions of dollars in rewards programs. America would become more like Australia, where there are virtually no free credit cards. Millions of low-income and minority Americans would lose access to credit cards.

Tell your representatives not to regulate swipe fees and hurt marginalized consumers!