Soon you may be paying more for your EFT processing.
Perhaps you already knowthat October 1, 2011 was the effective date for the Durbin amendment to takeeffect. This amendment is supposed toreduce your processing costs for debit cards. That was indeed the plan, however since the banks have begun chargingmore fees and stopped supporting rewards programs when customers use theirdebit cards, the customers have begun using more credit cards with a muchhigher fee for processing.Below is the simplestsummary of the "Durbin Amendment" that can be found on the internet.
Rule #1 – Debit interchange fees are capped at 21 cents per cardtransaction, plus five basis points upon ticket amount, plus one cent for cardissuers who have implemented fraud prevention procedures.
Rule #2 – Debit transactions must be able to be routed through twounaffiliated networks and merchants can designate preferred routing.
Previously implemented rules noted in the Amendment:
• Companies have the right to set a minimum amount ($10.00 or less)for which they will accept credit cards (not debit cards) as payment options.• Merchants have the option to offer discounts for cash payments, butcannot favor one card over another.
http://www.durbininterchangeamendment.org/
Regulation II - Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing [R-1404]
Comments
http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/foia/index.cfm?doc_id=R-1404&doc_ver=1&ShowAll=YesComments
Rules summary
http://www.chargelogic.com/blog/tag/durbin-amendment/