How the Banks Are Tackling Football Fans This Season

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The following press release was issued by Merchants Payments Coalition:

Your bank scores big and you lose every time you use a debit or credit card to buy a ticket to a pro football game.

The average price of a ticket to a National Football League game has risen more than $20 over the last 10 years, according to the statistics compiler Statista, to almost $86.

The New York Giants are the priciest average ticket at $123 and the Jacksonville Jaguars are a bargain at $58.

At least part of that jump had nothing to do with players’ salaries or with breaking records: It was an obscure and bloated fee banks charge when fans swipe a debit or credit card to buy tickets.

That “swipe fee” can be as much as 4 percent of the ticket price, or almost $3.50 out of the seller’s pocket on an $86 ticket. That’s around a 10,000-percent profit since it costs the banks just a few pennies to process a card transaction.

And it’s not just football tickets, of course. Even if you don’t use a card, outrageously high swipe fees mean higher prices for all goods and services, which especially hurts the poor.

For many merchants the fees have swollen to the second-highest operating cost after labor. Retailers, with their skimpy profit margins, have no choice but to raise prices.

Swipe fees in the U.S. are the highest in the world because Visa and MasterCard dominate the market and price-fix the fees their member banks charge.

Studies show that even modest reform of debit-card swipe fees saved consumers $6 billion in the first year alone and supported 17,500 jobs. We need to finish reforming debit and then start on credit cards.

Until then, banks will continue fixing the game and making football tickets, as well as everything else, more expensive.

The Merchants Payments Coalition (http://www.unfaircreditcardfees.com/) is a group of retailers, restaurants, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, fuel stations, on-line merchants and other businesses fighting against unfair credit card fees and for a more competitive and transparent system that works for consumers and merchants. The coalition’s member associations collectively represent about 2.7 million stores with approximately 50 million employees.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151014005363/en/

Merchants Payments Coalition
Michael Flagg, 202-253-4164
[email protected]

Source: Merchants Payments Coalition

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• Analysts split on Apple after foldable iPhone Duo debut
• SFL - Charter Extension for 6 x 15,400 TEU vessels adding $750 Million Backlog
• Vail Resorts Provides Update Following Close of Nominations Window, Reiterates Active Search Underway in its Ongoing Commitment to Board Refreshment