Congress Could Swipe Your Credit Reward Points

A PLOT TO kill credit card reward points has bipartisan buy-in, with lawmakers framing the effort as an attempt to curb stillstubborn inflation.

- Eric Boehm

Don't bank on it.

Sens. Dick Durbin (D-III.) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) are two of the leading sponsors of the Credit Card Competition Act, which would artificially cap so-called swipe fees charged by credit card companies such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.

Those fees, which range from about 1.2 percent to over 3 percent of the transaction, cover the credit providers' overhead costs, including fraud protection. They also fund the reward programs that many credit cards now offer as consumer incentives, where every dollar spent translates into points that can be redeemed for flights, free stuff, or cold hard cash.