Heartland Passes Along $55M in Durbin Savings to C-stores

PRINCETON, N.J. -- One year after debit swipe fee reform went into effect, at least one payment processors' numbers show convenience stores and gas stations are seeing savings.

According to Heartland Payment Systems, the company has delivered more than $262 million in signature debit savings to its merchant customers throughout the United States with c-stores/gas stations receiving more than $55 million. In addition, restaurant merchants received more than $75 million lodging merchants received nearly $10 million and retail merchants received almost $30 million.

"Both business owners and consumers are feeling the relief of lower debit card swipe fees," said Bob Carr, Heartland’s chairman and CEO. "Our merchant customers are putting their 'Durbin Dollars' to work in a variety of ways, such as opening new locations, purchasing new equipment, fixtures and delivery cars, offsetting rising fuel and food costs and more. Consumers are also benefitting from our merchants not raising prices, and from non-Heartland merchants such as Home Depot, which lowered prices as a result of overall lower operating costs thanks in part to the regulation."

Swipe fee reform came with the passage of the Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. It caps debit card interchange rates for issuing banks with more than $10 billion in assets at 21 cents per transaction, plus one cent for issuers with an effective fraud prevention system, and 0.05 percent of the volume of transaction, as CSNews Online previously reported.

While actual figures are determined by the volume and dollar amount of debit transactions, among other factors, on average, Heartland's merchants are saving approximately $1,000 annually per location, the company added.