Ruling To Determine Future of Credit Card Swipe Fees in Canada + MORE Jul 23rd

A decision on the Competition Bureau’s case against the Canadian arms of credit card giants Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. is due Tuesday, and it could mean changes at the till for Canadians.

One of my favourite banking institutions in Canada is President’s Choice Financial. PC Financial offers a low cost for most of your banking needs, and earn points just for doing the regular things that make up your life.
In fact, I use PC Financial for the no-fee bank account, but also as a way to earn PC points on things that I purchase every day.
How Can You Earn PC Points
PC points are earned with the help of a credit card or a debit card. That’s one of the great things about this program. If you aren’t comfortable with the idea of using a credit card to earn points (PC Financial issues a MasterCard), you can use your bank card instead. That way, you can still earn points when swiping your plastic, but you don’t have to worry about using credit or paying interest.
The PC points program is fairly straightforward:

Earn 10 PC points for each dollar you spend everywhere you shop with the PC Financial MasterCard.
Earn 5 PC points for each dollar spent when you use your bank card at participating stores…

The federal Competition Tribunal is set to issue a decision Tuesday on whether rules imposed on merchants by the credit card giants are too restrictive.

The federal Competition Tribunal is expected to rule Tuesday on whether merchants should be allowed to either reject or charge shoppers more for premium credit cards. Under current rules, merchants who accept Visa and/or MasterCard have to accept all cards by the issuer regardless what it costs them. Consumers love their points and cash-back cards but few realize that premium cards cost merchants up to 2.65% of the transaction cost, compared to 1.54% for regular credit cards.
Do you think merchants should have to accept premium credit cards and their associated interchange fees?
Generation Y is investing at an earlier age than their parents did, starting at age 20 in fact, according to a new poll for TD. Most have their parents to thank. The top reason cited for investing early was family encouragement. So just how much are Millennials investing? About one-fifth, or 18%, of their income, the bank said. “Young investors have the benefit of a longer time horizon and that means they can use their age to their advantage,” said TD’s Cynthia Caskey…

A ruling by the Federal Competition Tribunal this Tuesday will decide whether merchants have the right refuse acceptance of some premium credit card types or impose fees on consumers who pay with them.
The ruling targets the practices of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa, who impose these fees on merchants when processing credit card payments made with high reward or point-earning credit cards. While the fees are put in place to cover the cost of paying those rewards out to the consumer, they also force retailers to incur an additional cost when accepting these methods of payment, known as “swipe charges”. Not only are these charges especially daunting for small businesses, they have also forced some merchants to increase the costs of their goods and services – ultimately hitting consumers in the pocketbook.
A Long Standing Issue
The complaint was first registered with the Tribunal in 2012 by Canada’s Commissioner of Competition, but this has long been a sore spot between retailers and the credit card companies…