Score one for retailers and possibly consumers.
After a long battle, the fees charged to retailers when you use your credit card to buy something have been lowered. Jim Cormier of the Retail Council of Canada in the Atlantic Region says it’s going to result in big savings for retailers across the country of 2 billion dollars over five years.
Cormier says it is unfair for the banks and credit card companies to be making record profits while retailers are going bust.
Whether those savings will be passed along to consumers will depend on the individual retailer. Cormier says because of competition, the retailers who don’t could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
Cormier says the credit card fees paid by retailers in the European Union are about one-fifth those paid by Canadian retailers.
