BOISE, ID – Idaho convenience store owners spoke for more than 24,000 Idahoans today when they urged Congress to enact reforms to put an end to hidden credit card swipe fees that credit card companies take from American families.

Following the event, more than 24,497 signatures collected statewide from convenience store consumers were accepted by Sen. Mike Crapo’s office.

“Idahoans made their voices heard loud and clear: It is time for elected officials to stand up to the credit card industry and large banks and reform credit card fees that today cost the average American household more than $400 a year,” said Patrick Lewis, partner of Twin Falls-based Oasis Stop ’N Go Convenience Stores. “More than 25,000 customers took time from their busy days to deliver this message, and it is time for Congress to listen.”

Credit and debit card swipe fees – called “interchange fees” by the big banks that set these rates – are a percentage of each transaction that Visa and MasterCard and their member banks collect from retailers every time a credit or debit card is used. These fees average about 2 percent in the United States, the highest rate in the industrialized world.

In 2008 alone, Americans paid over $48 billion in credit card swipe fees. These fees are non-negotiable and set in secret by the credit card companies and their member banks.

Consumers are clearly concerned about how credit and debit card swipe fees result in higher retail prices. Last year, 7-Eleven stores delivered 1.66 million customer signatures – including 1,090 from Idaho – from a petition campaign urging Congress to stop unfair credit card fees. It was the most signatures ever delivered to Congress on a policy issue in American history. Earlier this year, more than 10,000 convenience stores across America collected consumer signatures on petitions in their stores in a campaign coordinated by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). The 24,497 Idahoans who signed their names to the petitions delivered today were part of that nationwide campaign.

“From coast to coast, customers are fed up with the credit card companies and their outrageous fees,” said Charley Jones, president of Boise-based Stinker Stores Inc. “Millions of Americans have asked Congress to fix a clearly broken system and we are delighted to present some of those voices directly to Senator Crapo and the Idaho delegation so that they know how important this issue is to their constituents.”

According to NACS, there are 798 convenience stores in Idaho; of that total, 489 (61 percent) are owned and operated as one-store “mom-and-pop” businesses.

These small businesses – and now consumers – are asking Congress to help level the playing field for retailers by giving them a seat at the negotiating table with banks to determine the fees assessed for every sale made by credit card, and ultimately reduce the costs of everyday goods for consumers.

Economists also suggest that credit card swipe fee reform also presents an opportunity for badly need job creation.

The recent study, “The Costs of ‘Charging It’ in America” by Jiwon Velucci and Robert J. Shapiro, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce, found that if swipe fees were reduced to levels that reflected the actual costs of transaction processing, economic activity would increase enough to create 242,000 new jobs across the country.

“All we ask is that Congress simply enhance the competition by allowing retailers to negotiate with the dominant banks for the terms and rates of the fees,” said Suzanne Budge, executive director of the Idaho Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.