Americans charged more than a Trillion dollars on Debit Cards last year. The volume of Debit Card transactions is now greater than Credit Card transactions and that trend continues to expand. Last year the Durbin Amendment was passed which limits the fees that can be charged for Debit Card transactions. Senator Dick Durbin authored the Amendment because the interchange fees were considered excessive compared to the actual cost of the Debit Card transaction. The Durbin Amendment went into effect on 10-1-2011.
This new amendment reduces the cost to process debit transactions. Many payment processing companies are passing on these savings to their merchants. If you have not been contacted by your merchant processor about the new savings from debit card processing rates, this maybe a good time to get a review.