ALEXANDRIA, Va.  – NACS is once again urging retailers to communicate their outrage over outrageous credit card fees by displaying specially designed pumptoppers in their promotional signage plans from August 1 to September 6, when Congress is in recess and will be in their home districts.

The graphics for the pumptoppers may be downloaded free of charge at www.nacsonline.com/pumptoppers.

Retailers across the country already have told NACS they are participating in the program, which also has gained the attention of the Electronics Payment Coalition (EPC), a lobbying group representing the credit card companies. On July 31, the EPC issued a press release, rife with errors, urging retailers to not display pumptoppers.

“The fact that Visa and MasterCard don’t want retailers to display these pumptoppers is the best reason to put them up!” said NACS Senior Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith.

“Obviously, the credit card companies are concerned about the traction that the Credit Card Fair Fee Act has gained in Congress,” said Beckwith. “We appreciate that the Electronic Payments Coalition is publicizing our pumptopper program, and giving more visibility to the issue. After all, we want consumers to do exactly what one of our pumptoppers asks of consumers, ‘Tell Congress you want to know how much this fill-up is costing you in credit card fees.’ Quite frankly, consumers would be outraged if they knew.”

In 2007, retailers paid the credit card companies more than two-thirds of every dollar they collected ($7.6 billion in credit card fees versus $3.4 billion in industry profits). With today’s gas prices, retailers are paying upwards of 10 cents a gallon in credit card fees, yet EPC notes that retailers only pay “a penny or so per dollar.”

“We also applaud EPC for using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration to communicate the cost breakdown of a gallon of gas,” said Beckwith. “NACS has used these same numbers for years – and we continue to embrace these numbers in outreach materials like the pump price sticker NACS developed in February (PDF),” said Beckwith. “Unfortunately, while EPC rightfully calls EIA ‘a credible source’ for data, EPC then misrepresents this data and actually communicates wrong numbers in its ads,” added Beckwith.

Credit card interchange fees are a fixed fee and 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 1.8 percent in the United States, which has the highest interchange rate of any industrialized country. The U.S. interchange rate is approximately three times the rate in Europe and four times the rate in Australia.

The pumptoppers that NACS has developed have two messages: “Tell Congress you want to know how much this fill-up cost you in credit card fees” and “That pain you are experiencing in part is caused by secret credit card fees.” Both ads encourage motorists to go to the Web site www.unfaircreditcardfees.com to send a message to their elected leaders. The artwork is available in a variety of sizes and can be downloaded at www.nacsonline.com/pumptoppers. For retailers who are unable to print the pumptoppers themselves, NACS has arranged a significant discount for retailers who want to order them from signage company GSP at www.popmanager.com/ccfees.html.

“The Credit Card Fair Fee Act, a bipartisan effort, would provide an opportunity for merchants to negotiate reasonable terms with the credit card companies and their member banks,” said Beckwith. “It is essential that Congress takes action on this legislation. We urge retailers and consumers to carry this message forward while Congress is in recess.”

Retailers who are using the pumptoppers are asked to share photos and stories with NACS about their success. Send them to Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of communications, at jlenard@nacsonline.com.