DAYTON, OH - Building upon the 3.7 million-plus signatures already collected by 7-Eleven franchisees and NACS members, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC (SSA) announced on Thursday an additional 1.68 million customer signatures as part of a petition drive to reform credit and debit card swipe fees.

"Once again, hundreds of thousands of consumers are speaking up and asking Congress to take action to rein in the out-of-control fees that hurt the entire economy," said Tony Kenney, president of SSA, which operates Speedway and SuperAmerica convenience stores throughout nine states in the Midwest. "All eyes are on Congress right now, and we??re urging them to come through for both consumers and merchants who have made their voices heard about swipe fee reform."

Now that financial reform legislation has cleared the Senate with a strong bipartisan provision to reform credit and debit card fees, convenience stores and other merchant groups supporting the petition drive are turning their attention to the House and asking members of Congress to finish the job and stand up for Main Street businesses and their customers.

"This is an issue that impacts all Americans," said Kenney, adding, "It is high time for Washington to pass this legislation."

With the additional 1.68 million petitions collected at Speedway and SuperAmerica stores, the total number of signatures delivered to Congress is now 5.4 million ?" the largest number of consumer signatures ever collected for a public policy issue. Kenney said that the signatures are being delivered directly to the district offices of members of Congress as they prepare to conference and vote on the final financial reform bill.

"These fees are costing Americans billions of dollars each year," said Kenney. Swipe fee reform is the type of stimulus that we need, and we??re counting on Congress to make it happen."

"With this third set of petitions, consumers and merchants are standing up to the big banks and credit card companies and making sure that our voices are heard," said Lyle Beckwith, NACS senior vice president of government relations. However, he noted that the financial services community is engaged in a "desperate" and "well-funded" attempt to strip the swipe fee amendment from the final financial reform bill with threats and mistruths, even though the amendment exempts all but 86 of the nation??s largest banks and three credit unions.

"These signatures should show Congress how much people care about this issue," said Charlie Runyon, SSA??s region director for Canton (Ohio), West Virginia and Kentucky. He noted that customers paying at the pump with plastic were among those eager to sign the petitions. "Not only were they aware" of the problem of swipe fees, "they were eager to sign up for swipe fee reform," Runyon said. The strong support was largely because of the connection that customers feel with SSA??s stores, he added. "They think of our stores as their stores," Runyon said. "And when their store asks them to do something, they act." Participation at all of the company??s 1,600 stores was strong, with one store collecting 5,000 customer signatures, he noted.

"The Senate has gotten us very close to a victory for our consumers and our stores," Runyon said. "Now we need Congress to finish the job by keeping swipe fee reform intact in the final financial reform bill. It??s time for Congress to listen to millions of their constituents and get the job done."