Swipe fees driving up school supply costs: ‘Undermines affordability’

NewsYou might have heard about swipe fees before, specifically with that recent Visa-Mastercard settlement. (Getty Images)Getty ImagesBy Claudia Dimuro | cdimuro@pennlive.comYou might have heard about “swipe fees,” or the charges businesses have to pay each time someone uses a credit card.These fees have garnered recent media attention due to how egregious they can get, and how much of a strain they put on retailers. Retailers tgat, as a result, pass off the higher prices to customers.A new report from advocacy group The Merchants Payment Coalition (MPC) has thrown this issue into high relief by claiming how swipe fees are expected to drive up the price of school and college supplies by about $3.4 billion this year. According to the report, swipe fees are, on average, about 2.36 percent of a transaction (although they can be as much as four percent). This makes them a retailers’ highest operating cost after labor and, like labor, swipe fees “have to be built into pricing.”“Swipe fees account for $2 of the $85 price of a typical school-recommended list of pencils, crayons, paper and similar supplies for a first-grader,” the report reads. “In high school, the fees can total $3.30 on a $140 graphing calculator required for an algebra class and $3.19 for a basic supply list. “They amount to $15.34 on a $650 laptop.”Such fees can add to the strain of already-rising costs: The National Retail Federation (NRF) notes that the average family expects to spend $863.86 on school supplies for children in elementary school through high school this year, up from the $858.07 seen last year. “With swipe fees rising year after year, this hidden tax undermines affordability and drains money from families that need it,” said MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor. “A family could buy superhero lunchboxes for two kids or a backpack for their college sophomore with the money credit card companies are swiping from them.”There has been pushback against swipe fees in an official capacity: Visa and Mastercard, for example, recently agreed to pay millions of merchants $38 million to settle a lawsuit related to swipe fees. MPC Notes that a bill addressing swipe fees — the Credit Card Competition Act — currently sits with Congress for consideration. ‘Buy now, pay later’ might be driving up costsGovernment intervention, not free markets, made your housing and healthcare unaffordable | OpinionPaying with certain credit cards might cost more thanks to settlementClaudia Dimuro is a trends reporter, runs the original "Paranormal PA" series which covers the state's weirder stuff, and hosts "Today in Pa.," a Keystone Award-winning podcast.