A retired Andover, Kan. woman is questioning why U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) would “team up with Dick Durbin” to sponsor a measure that she said could threaten the cash-back incentives provided by her credit cards.
The so-called “Credit Card Competition Act of 2023” (S.1838), sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Marshall, would lower “interchange fees” paid by retailers to credit card companies, which, in turn, use the fees to fund customer service programs for their customers.
“As with normal people, I look forward to receiving cash back through SAM’s rewards and my regular credit card. That would be eliminated,” Lois Spillman, 61, a retired chemical engineer, told Kansas Business Daily. “Several of my family members take advantage of the programs for all their monthly purchases and expenses.”
“I am not sure why Senator Marshall would support and even co-sponsor such a bill, as he’s been a pretty constant conservative vote,” said Spillman. “I have absolutely NO idea why Senator Marshall would team up with Dick Durbin.”
Ted Rossman, an analyst for Bankrate.com, told CNET that he thinks the legislation “would pad retailers’ bottom lines and take rewards away from consumers.”
In 2010, as part of the "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” Congress passed an amendment, sponsored by Durbin, that capped interchange fees on debit card transactions.
Rossman said a 2015 survey of retailers completed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that “just 1% of retailers lowered prices” following the passage of the 2010 “Durbin Amendment.”
Brian Kelly, founder of “The Points Guy” website that provides news on credit card loyalty programs, wrote that the bill would “kill the funding for credit card rewards programs and allow retailers to pocket the savings from lower interchange fees (also known as swipe fees).”
“With lower fees collected, consumers would lose out on rewards, purchase protection and fraud protection while retailers add to their bottom line,” Kelly wrote.
S.1838 was introduced on June 7 and is currently being considered by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
In addition to Durbin and Marshall, the bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Peter Welch (D-VT) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).