interchange fee

Visa Europe is planning to cap its weighted average intra-regional MIF for immediate debit transactions at 20 basis points (0.2%) for four years. The company says the same cap will be applicable to domestic immediate debit rates that defaulted to the intra-regional MIF rate before 10 March 2009 and continue to do so, and to domestic immediate debit rates set directly by Visa Europe.

The number of retail cashless payments grew by over 160% between 2000 and 2008, to 87 billion transactions. Of these, 90% were in western Europe, 10% were in central and eastern Europe and two-thirds were in the eurozone.

Merchants, just like consumers, are displeased with the fees they have to pay to credit card companies. Retailers are pressing Congress to limit these fees. But banks and credit card companies are dead set against any such move.
The drop in revenue is bad enough for small strip malls, for example like the Hope's One Stop convenience store run by Carolyn Mooney and her son, but if the customer pays with plastic it hurts even more. That's because merchants pay a set fee plus a percentage on each sale.