March 22, 2010
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News: Iowa's Convenience Store Chain Joins NACS
The third largest privately owned and operated Iowa based convenience store and gas station has joined the swipe fight. Kum & Go, L.C. joined the National Association of Convenience and Petroleum Retailers (NACS) in the fight against excessive debit and credit card interchange fees. Interchange fees are fees that banks and credit card companies charge retailers for each electronic payment transaction. Kum & Go, the winner of the 2008 Iowa Secretary of Agriculture's Ethanol Marketing Award, collected over 40,000 signatures protesting the high credit card interchange fees asking lawmakers to take action that would lower fees and give retailers a louder voice in fee negotiation. It took the convenience store chain only one month to collect the signatures.
Kyle J. Krause, Kum & Go's President and CEO, said the company joined the NACS Fight Swipe Fees petition drive because he believes it is the organization's "personal responsibility" to help reel in unreasonably high credit card interchange fees which are often passed on to the customer. It is estimated that in 2009, retailers paid over $45 billion in transaction fees. Unknown to most consumers, these fess are typically passed on to them through higher prices. According to Krause, these debit and credit card payment transaction fees increase the average cost per gallon of gas by 5 cents which cost the average American family approximately $427 a year. Interchange fees are the second highest line item cost for most retailers and more than double what consumers pay in late fees.
Interchange fees usually range between 1.5 percent to 3 percent of the total credit card transaction including any cash back amount to the consumer. According to the NACS, interchange fees in the U.S. are more than triple those of most other countries. That means big business to Kum & Go who is the third largest privately owned convenience store and gas station chain in the U.S.