Kum & Go, L.C. has collected more than 40,000 signatures from customers wanting to  control and reduce credit and debit card swipe (or interchange) fees put on customer transactions.  The signatures were collected in one month from all Kum & Go stores as part of NACS’ Fight Swipe Fees petition drive.

“Kum & Go joined NACS and their campaign to Fight Swipe Fees to reduce costs to our customers,” said Kyle Krause, Kum & Go’s president and CEO. “Unfortunately the high costs of these credit card fees are passed onto the consumer. It is our corporate responsibility to try to reduce these fees and pass that savings onto our customers.”

Generally, credit card swipe fees range from 2-3% on consumer purchases. NACS research shows interchange fees in the U.S. are three to four times higher than most other countries. Many retailers cite credit card fees as their second largest store-level operating expense, behind only labor. These fees have a significant but little known impact on consumers. Swipe fees add roughly five cents to the cost of each gallon of gas customers purchase.

Nearly $2 of every $100 consumers spend using credit cards goes directly to Visa and MasterCard. Last year, American families paid an average of $427 in credit and debit swipe fees—a figure that has tripled since 2001. Americans paid over $48 billion in interchange fees in 2008, more than twice what was paid in credit card late fees and three times the amount of ATM fees.

NACS is a founding member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, which is fighting for a more competitive and transparent credit card fee system for consumers and merchants alike.