Local Circle K business leaders will host a conference call with Oklahoma reporters today to discuss a national campaign calling on Congress to end hidden credit card fees known as interchange or “swipe fees.”

Oklahoma City’s Circle K stores are joining nearly 3,000 stores in 34 states nationwide in a summer petition drive. They’re hoping customers will join in signing a petition asking Congress to rein in these unfair hidden fees that drive up costs for business and customers alike.

Circle K expects to deliver nearly three-quarters of a million signatures to Congress after the petition drive concludes on Labor Day, according to a company press release.

Swipe fees are the fees charged to businesses whenever one of their customers uses plastic to pay.  These fees cost Americans $48 billion a year – more than credit card annual fees, cash advance fees, over-the-limit fees, and late fees combined, the release said.

The rates are set in secret and mandated by the big banks with no chance for negotiation, and the amount the big banks have raked in on swipe fees has tripled since 2001, despite the steady decline in the cost of processing credit card transactions, according to store officials.

Lynda Gromek, Circle K’s Region Operations Director for the Southwest, and an Oklahoma City Circle K store manager will share their stories and talk about their participation in the petition drive.

They will be joined on the conference call by Lyle Beckwith of the National Association of Convenience Stores, and Doug Kantor of the Merchants Payments Coalition, a group of small business owners and retailers across the country who have launched a grassroots campaign to ask Congress to reform the abusive swipe fee system.

WHEN:           Wednesday, August 19th, at 1:15 PM Central

TO JOIN:        Dial-in number: 800-894-5910,  Conference ID: CIRCLE K
Last Updated ( Monday, 24 August 2009 )