Updated: Opposition calls on Harper Tories to curb cost of credit cards to small business
By The Canadian Press - Monday, January 21, 2013 - 0 Comments
OTTAWA – The federal Opposition on Monday called on the Harper government to stop…
OTTAWA – The federal Opposition on Monday called on the Harper government to stop credit card companies from charging businesses higher fees for using premium cards.
The call came as a federal competition tribunal prepared to rule on whether Visa and MasterCard are engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.
Small business groups hope the tribunal will recommend that Ottawa forbid the major credit card companies from forcing retailers to accept cards that carry higher payment processing fees.
The high cost of processing credit card payments is hurting businesses, said Glenn Thibeault, the NDP consumer protection critic.
“Ultimately this results in reduced profit margins for merchants and higher retail costs for consumers,” he said in a statement.
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The Bull Meter: Jack Layton on Canadian credit card fees
By Erica Alini - Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 2:31 PM - 14 Comments
Where is the NDP getting its data?
"Under Stephen Harper, Canadians pay some of the highest credit card fees in the world."- Jack Layton
March 29, 2011Bull Meter score:
When we called the NDP media headquarters to ask about where the data to substantiate Layton’s statement came from, they directed us to a press release from the Competition Bureau. In it, the Bureau wrote: “Canada has among the highest credit card fees in the world,” but it was talking about acceptance fees, i.e. the amount that merchants are charged when processing credit card transactions. Layton’s speech, on the other hand, was all about Canadian households struggling to repay credit card debt, so logic would dictate he was talking about fees charged to consumers, not retailers.
We asked the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the Canadian Bankers Association, and Credit Canada whether these kinds of fees are really some of the steepest in the world. Their response? They don’t know. They said that they are not aware of any research that indicates how much those fees amount to on average, or that compares Canadian fees to those of other countries. So where did the NDP find their evidence (we asked again)? We’re still waiting to know, and it looks like we’re not going to get an answer.
Heard something that doesn’t sound quite right? Send quotes from the campaign trail to macbullmeter@gmail.com and we’ll tell you just how much bull they contain.
