Retailers hurting from credit card perks

TORONTO, June 24 (UPI) -- Canadian retailers are complaining about higher costs associated with a surge of premium credit cards that offer users loyalty points and lower interest rates.

Such perks make the cards more expensive for the banks that issue them, and retailers are paying more to accept them, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday.

One company that owns Toronto's Bloor Street Diner has seen a 20 percent increase in Visa credit card fees to $120,000 for the year, the newspaper said. Company president Stephen Centner told the newspaper the company was in a Catch-22 situation.

"If I don't take Visa, what am I going to do?" he said.

He said the diner's rate was rising to 1.86 percent for each Visa transaction, up from 1.51 percent; and 1.56 percent of each MasterCard transaction, up from 1.5 percent.

The credit industry-tracking Nilson Report says Canadians held 71.6 million credit cards in 2007, up 9.2 percent from 2006. Credit card purchases rose more than 11 percent, while the value of goods and services bought jumped nearly 13 percent to $261.4 billion, the report said.