Merchants have been paying the price of consumer convenience, and the merchants are now entitled to benefit from the extra profit that this law provides.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) August 11, 2014
The use of debit cards has traditionally come at a high price to retail merchants. Retailers have paid upwards of $48 billion a year in “swipe fees”, with nearly $17 billion of that coming from debit card transactions. (1) Transactions processed by debit card had required retailers to pay fees which then resulted in large profits for banks, who would then utilize such profits to create incentives such as free rewards checking. However, the Durbin Amendment, enacted on October 1, 2011, lowered the fees paid by merchants for debit card transactions by nearly 50 percent. (2) But many card transactions processors have ignored provisions of the amendment by keeping the savings in fees as profit for themselves. One company that does honor the amendment’s provisions is Payscout, Inc. Payscout, a global merchant processing company that specializes in multi-currency processing and managed risk processing, has announced that merchant clients who process debit cards with Payscout will experience higher profits due to the savings in fees that the law now allows.
Previous to the Durbin Amendment, retail merchants paid an average of 44 cents to process every debit card transaction. Since the enactment of the amendment, these fees have been limited to 21 cents plus 0.05% of the transaction (an average of 2 cents). (2) With the money that is now being saved from lower fees, there has been much debate about which party in the transaction should keep the profits. Although the amendment originally intended that merchants would save money, some middlemen—such as card processing companies—do not pass on these savings to the merchants, but rather keep the profits for themselves.
“The Durbin Amendment was not created in order for processing companies to selfishly intercept transactions,” said Payscout CEO Cleveland Brown. “Merchants have been paying the price of consumer convenience, and the merchants are now entitled to benefit from the extra profit that this law provides.”
Although this process of deciding where the savings accrue is not closely monitored, Brown maintains that turning over profits to the merchants has a positive impact on the economy. Higher profits allow merchants to offer goods and services at lower prices to consumers, while still maintaining operations and continuing to expand in offerings.
Payscout’s clients range from small mom-and-pop retail stores to large Internet eCommerce websites. With the provisions of the Durbin Amendment, Payscout will effectively assist the secure, uninterrupted processing of their merchants’ transactions.
For more information about Payscout and its services, visit http://www.payscout.com.
About Payscout, Inc.:
Payscout is a new generation provider of merchant banking services, including global credit card transaction processing for retail clients, specializing in online/eCommerce retailers with a predominant proportion of card-not-present transactions. Payscout’s services are provided on a state-of-the-art, web-based user portal, incorporating expert interaction directly between their highly-trained staff and the customer business owner or senior management. With clients in every state, Payscout serves the credit card processing needs of thousands of businesses, from small mom-and-pop retail stores to large Internet eCommerce websites across a multitude of industries. Payscout’s global partnerships include VISA USA, Bank of America Merchant Services, VISA Europe, VISA Latin America, VISA Asia Pacific, MasterCard Worldwide, China Union Pay, Deutsche Bank, First Data and Payscout Brazil. For more information about Payscout, visit http://www.payscout.com.
1. Chen, Tim. “What the Durbin Amendment Means for You—US News.” US News RSS. N.p., 12 July 2011. Web. 26 June 2014.
2. Williams, Geoff. “Durbin Takes Effect Oct. 1. Should You Care?” Fox Business. N.p., 04 Oct. 2011. Web. 26 June 2014.