The CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses) has just released a comprehensive list of the cost levels of nearly every credit card in the wallets of Canadian consumers and businesses, leading a new charge in their battle against the high credit card fees that Canadian small businesses have to pay when consumers use credit cards to pay for their purchases.
The problem has been exacerbated by banks "pumping out" premium credit cards to consumers, says Dan Kelly, CFIB's sr. vice-president of legislative affairs. While regular cards may cost small business under 1.75 per cent of the sale in total fees while some premium cards cost over 2.7 per cent.
"...consumers holding a President's Choice MasterCard, for example," Kelly says, "may think they are using a low cost, budget card, but in fact may be forcing merchants to pay 2.5 per cent of their entire purchase in fees to accept the card. This is over 40 per cent more in total fees than a consumer using a regular MasterCard."Small merchants are asking all Canadians to examine the card in their wallets against the list CFIB has issued to check if their card is imposing high costs on local entrepreneurs.
To help small businesses get the word out to their customers, the CFIB has a downloadable card you can print out and place by your cash register, asking customers to consider paying by cash or Interac instead of by credit card.
Read the CFIB news releaseRelated Reading
- Steps to Prevent Credit Card Fraud
- Credit Card Fraud Behavior Tip Offs
- 6 Steps to Effective Small Business Credit Card Management (About.com Small Business Information)
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