The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is asking consumers to consider using cash or Interac instead of credit cards due to increasing credit card merchant fees. The organization is equipping its 108,000 member-businesses with signs to be placed at cash registers and tables across the country that promote the benefits of those other forms of payment.

 

Manitoba Director Janine Carmichael says at issue is the rising costs of accepting credit cards. She notes each time a consumer's credit card is swiped, the merchant pays between 1.5 to 3 per cent of the sale to the credit card company, while an Interac debit transaction costs less than 12 cents. The Competition Bureau recently found Canada’s credit card costs were among the highest in the world. Carmichael notes business owners can only absorb these costs for so long before they have to pass them on to consumers.

Carmichael says there is a significant impact on businesses, particularly with new higher cost premium credit cards like Visa Infinite or MasterCard World Elite. She adds consumers certainly enjoy getting the extra points and other perks associated with those cards, but the reality is the credit card companies are not covering the costs and it's falling onto our local business owners.

 


She stresses the CFIB is not asking consumers to stop using their credit cards, rather they want to inform them about the impact the payment method has on their favourite local business.