Fighting for fairness

From food safety to interchange fees, CFIG is constantly advocating for our members’ best interests especially when it comes to their bottom lines.

Take the recent announcement that Visa Canada will reduce the fees to standard grocery stores on standard cards, as well as its Infinite card.

Starting in October, fees on Visa’s standard card will drop to 1.23% from 1.33%. The fee on Infinite cards will be 1.42%, down from 1.52%.

This was great news and one CFIG member happily let me know that it would result in savings to her store of over $40,000.

Savings that multiplied in grocery across the country, can be used to reinvest in stores, hire new staff and support their communities.

Just a few years ago, interchange fees were around 3% for supermarkets, meaning that for every $100 a customer paid using a credit card, the store had to pay an fee of three dollars.

As the Competition Bureau of Canada pointed out just a few short years ago, the issue of credit card swipe fees paid by merchants, which are invisible to the consumer, amounted to between $5 and $7 billion dollars annually.

The Bureau also pointed out that such fees obviously have a disproportionately deeper impact on small and medium size businesses.

CFIG and the Coalition continue to push for lower credit card fees as well as level the playing field for our members across Canada.