LAS VEGAS – NACS aired two new videos urging credit card interchange reform – one for convenience retailers and one developed for consumers – today at the NACS Show. 

In the videos, both retailers and consumers express frustration and anger over credit card interchange fees, which totaled over $48 billion in the United States in 2008. The videos also include footage from a September 30 press conference at the U.S. Capitol in which 7-Eleven representatives, franchisees and members of Congress expressed outrage over credit card interchange fees.

“It’s time to act; it’s time to stand up for small business and our customers,” says 7-Eleven CEO Joe DePinto, announcing that the company delivered a record 1.66 million customer signatures to Congress as a result of the company’s “Stop Unfair Credit Card Fees” credit card interchange petition drive.  

Customers agreed. “Those fees are probably coming back to me whether or not I use cash,” noted one customer, with another adding, “It bites us big time every time we go into a store.”

With a call to action, NACS President and CEO Hank Armour announces that NACS is introducing a new grassroots petition campaign. Also, Alimentation Couche-Tard CEO Alain Bouchard, who led the company’s own credit card interchange petition drive that collected 400,000-plus customer signatures at its Circle K stores, urges retailers to launch their own petition drive in their stores.

U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) thanks retailers for their efforts to bring the issue directly to Washington. “Thank you…for letting your customers know that we are not going to be ripped off any more,” she says. 

The retailer-focused video can be viewed at nacsonline.com. The consumer-focused video can be found at YouTube.com/NACSTV.