As the co-owner of a family-owned business, I understand the importance of a supportive community, which is why I’m so troubled by these increasing credit card swipe fees that I have watched affect the Louisiana communities in which my business operates.

Swipe fees have skyrocketed over the past decade. In 2021 alone, they cost $138 billion, more than doubling since 2010 and making the U.S. home to the highest swipe fee rates in the industrialized world. It’s no wonder swipe fees make up my second-highest overhead expense. As a result, businesses like mine are forced to raise the prices of their goods to cover the cost of these fees at the expense of the consumer.

In my 17 years working in the convenience store industry, I have seen first-hand the impact of swipe fees on business owners and their employees. For me, same-store swipe fees are up 20%, and the economic depreciation from this hike has been substantial. These fees are equivalent to 32 hours of labor per day per store, a 3-hour increase from last year. Effectively, we could be employing 5 members of our community – at each store – for the amount we pay in swipe fees.

Having no choice but to pass these extra expenses on to consumers, retailers have had to raise the prices of everything from gas to toiletries. For example, fuel retailers like Y-Not Stop pay about 10 cents a gallon in swipe fees, which subsequently adds a dollar to every 10-gallon fill-up for consumers. With inflation up 8.2%, the impact of these fees is profound, costing the average American family $900 extra a year.

With Visa and Mastercard controlling 80% of the credit card market share, the odds can feel like they are stacked against small businesses. These two credit card giants can set swipe fees unchallenged and continue to raise them at their own will. Most recently, despite receiving federal pushback, Visa and Mastercard completed a $1.2 billion increase in credit card swipe fees in April.

Completely shutting competition out of the payments marketplace is not only hurting our wallets, it’s threatening our security. According to the Federal Reserve, Visa and Mastercard’s networks have five times the fraud of independent networks, helping make the United States home to the highest rate of credit card fraud in the world. Yet retailers are on the hook for covering the cost of fraud for certain credit card transactions.

Visa and Mastercard have shown time and time again that they have zero interest in changing their ways. And why would they? On an earnings call earlier this year, Visa CFO Visant Prabhu even admitted that they “are a beneficiary of inflation” and that “driving up ticket size, clearly, it’s beneficial to us.”

That’s why, if we want to get serious about tackling swipe fees, the Credit Card Competition Act, introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), is our best course of action. The bill will allow at least two processing networks to be made available for merchants. This simple change could make a substantial impact by reducing swipe fees by $11 billion or more annually.

As we close to the end of the year, I am hopeful that Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) will prioritize passing e this critical legislation. This bill will give Louisiana’s businesses the boost we need in 2023.

Annie Gauthier is CFO and Co-CEO at Louisiana-based St. Romain Oil Company.