Retailers Continue to See Swipe Fee Savings From Heartland

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Ten days after swipe fee reform went into effect, Heartland Payment Systems said its data shows merchants are realizing a savings. According to the company, Heartland passed along $5,532,318 in signature debit interchange reductions to its merchants across the United States from Oct. 1 to Oct. 11.

Specifically, restaurant merchants received $1,972,770 of this reduction. The company estimates its average merchant will save more than $1,000 in the first year alone.

Based on data collected over the 10-day span across Heartland's portfolio of 250,000 merchant locations, the company also found that 64 percent of its signature debit sales volume qualified as regulated; on average, there is a 20-cent per transaction savings for regulated as well as a 74 basis points savings for regulated.

The most recent numbers fall in line with what Heartland saw in the first three days of the fee cap going into effect. As CSNews Online reported last week, the company passed along $1,779,568 in savings to merchants from Oct. 1 through Oct. 3.

Swipe fee reform, which was mandated by the Durbin Amendment, capped debit card transaction fees at 21 cents. In addition, the Federal Reserve lets issuers tack on 5 basis points of each transaction, or almost 2 cents based on the average debit ticket of $38, and a conditional 1-cent adjustment for lenders that follow certain fraud-prevention standards. How the change will affect merchants and consumers has remained a question since the issue became the center of intense lobbying debates this past spring.