How do you choose a credit card? Do you care about keeping your personal financial information secure and so you choose a company that you trust? Do you choose your card based on your spending habits and where you can maximize the rewards points or cash back earned? Most people choose their credit card based on both factors – I know I do!
As a community banker and a consumer, I want to use a credit card knowing that the company processing every transaction has invested in keeping my personal financial information safe every time I use it. AND I choose a credit card based on the value I receive back on every purchase made. Unfortunately, there is a bill being promoted in Congress that could put these important factors at risk.
The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) which is being supported by U.S. Kansas Senator Roger Marshall and U.S. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, would impose a restrictive government mandate on credit card transactions by allowing merchants to choose more than one network for the processing of credit card transactions. Most likely, that merchant will choose the company that is the cheapest for them – and the cheapest may not be the best. It could potentially expose your personal financial information to a less secure network and eliminate the popular cash back and rewards programs enjoyed by credit card users.
If you like your cash back and rewards points and want your card processed on the network you choose for its safety and security, please join me in pushing back on this harmful mandate by clicking on the link below which will take you to a website called Free Market Kansans. It will send a message to Senator Marshall to stand down and allow the free market to work in the credit card space as it has done for many years!
Mark Schifferdecker is the president and CEO of GNBank in Girard and serves as the Chairman of the Kansas Bankers Association’s Board of Directors.